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#2386 -
Featured are excerpts
from a new book: Oneness: The Destination You Never Left,
by John Greven. Only 90 pages in length!
John's website is http://www.onenessjustthat.com/
A nice option in
books for someone who wants a brief, simple, clear treatise
on radical nonduality.
What does not change is
real. What changes is only appearance.
You may have been
searching for self-realization, enlightenment, the Buddha Mind,
God, or some other goal implying the same thing. You may have
been searching for many years; or you may just be getting started
on a search. Whether you have been traveling a path for a while,
or just taking the first step, makes no difference. This book
invites you to take a look at the space that has been overlooked,
to see what is obvious, and to bring that search to an end…
right now.
Is that reference
point of “you” valid? It certainly seems so, but by
what gage is that reality judged? Isn’t the validity of the
idea of a person validated by the same mind that assumes it to be
valid? Think about it - the mind contains the thought “I Am”
- the mind then confirms that the thought is a real thing. But,
without the thought, would you still be?
What is Tao? In Tao-te
ching, by Lao-tzu, Tao becomes the source from which all
appearance derives, the un-produced producer of all that is, and
the guarantor of its stability and regularity. The Tao that
can be known is not the true Tao.
The Tao, as described
above, is what you truly are. The message is that if it is known,
then that is not it. The reason for this becomes clear when you
come to understand a rather simple concept. What you are is
not a thing or object that the mind can grasp. This is
a major point that will become clear as the understanding of what
is being pointed to ripens.
If we choose our
thoughts and are in control of what is thought, why do we choose
to suffer their effects? Why would the idea of controlling the
mind even exist if we were the thinker? And even more
graphically, if a portion of the brain were removed or damaged,
then the person that you believe you are and the thoughts that
you believe you think would radically change. Is all of this
mental activity just a machine at work? Is anyone in control? No!
Any assumption based on a false premise
simply cannot be true. It is like asking, what is the
source of the man in the moon? The question dissolves when there
is the realization that the assumption that there is a man in the
moon, is a false premise.
To this point we have talked extensively about what
you are not. The mind is left hanging, so to speak, and is in
search of something to grasp. “If I am none of these things
what am I?” It, the mind, continues to look inside of
thought for what you are. It will fail. So, let us
turn our attention to something that is real, something that you
can’t deny, and something that is outside of the limited
mind.
Only the thought of
presence/awareness can be brought into the mind for
consideration. While you are thinking about presence/awareness
you are present and aware. You can’t objectify what you are.
Everything is just
appearance, including the movements that appear to be your life
and you. The you, whom we have talked about in this book, is not
real other than as an appearance or temporary manifestation. The
person you take yourself to be has never been, except as a
thought. When the “I” thought is seen for what it is,
the mind spontaneously drops the false concept and then who will
something have happened to?
The mind believes that it has to choose this way or
that. But there is only one river. The mind sees life full of
choices, or forks in the river of life, the appearances of forks
is an illusion.
There is a saying, “taste one drop of the ocean
and you know what the whole ocean tastes like.” Know that
source that is you, and you know the whole source of all that is,
because it is you. Separateness is in the mind only.
So what does the ocean taste like? It tastes like
boundless peace that cannot be touched - for there is nothing to
touch it. Peace that cannot be disturbed because it is the only
reality. Peace that is beyond knowing. It tastes like love so
whole and complete that there is not a need for anything else -
while it allows for all that is.
It tastes like home.
Creation, the
universe, is because the sense of being arose in
the One. You are, for the very same reason. In this book we have
talked about beingness - being what you are. There comes a time
when even that pointer, that concept, can be dropped.
For more information,
including how to order the book, visit http://www.onenessjustthat.com/