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#3738 - Monday, December 7,
2009 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
"The difference between fiction and
reality? Fiction has to make sense.”
Tom Clancy
posted to Wisdom-l by Mark Scorelle
This week we offer yet another brilliant
dialogue with Greg Goode at The Open Awareness Study Group. The OAS Group is an online
Yahoo Group specifically designed to allow for intimate
interaction in real time with quality non dual spiritual
teachers. The group has grown expotentially since
StillnessSpeaks took it over. This will be the last time we
announce the group, as there must be a limit to attendees to
ensure a quality in the dialogues.
To join this group on the
web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OAStudyGroup/
Standing Under "You"
Question: What is the best way to come to the Understanding of this Impersonal Understanding?
Greg Goode responds:
There is no single best way - what you might consider to be the "best" depends on so many things, including your purpose as you understand it at the present moment. And that may very well depend on the spiritual teachings that have been meaningful up to this point.
But from the perspective of the direct path, the impersonal understanding is not something that you manage to have. It's not like a net of comprehension that you cast about reality. It's the other way around. The impersonal understanding is what is now "standing under" that which seems like you.
This impersonal understanding is the background knowingness to which things appear. It is already you, and can't for a moment be departed from or lost. This can be checked easily. It seems like you are able to be noticed. Sometimes I'd venture to say that you aren't in great evidence, such as when other things are in effect, such as a beautiful sunset, etc. you and your thoughts and feelings come and go. But that to which these comings and goings appear doesn't come and go. It is the beingness of you, even in the momentary absence of your identity as a body and mind. In the momentary "presence" of you as a body and mind, this beingness is also there, unmoved, and totally unconditionally loving.
This love, this beingness is already you. You can't "see" it - it is seeing you right this minute. Seeing you and being you....
Love,
Greg
-------------------
Hi Greg,
I can conceptually deconstruct the belief of a "me"
that is separate from life, from this, from all that is. I can at
times simply rest as awareness. And yet there still arises this
powerful feeling of a me. Any resting as awareness or
intellectual understanding is swallowed up by this feeling and I
am back to a me that suffers with this or that. It seems the
intellect can unravel the belief in a me, but what vehicle can I
use to unravel the feeling of a me... which seems to stand on its
own regardless of reason.
Thanks for your answer!
Dede
Hi Dede,
I see what you mean. There are times that you rest as
awareness, and
other times this resting seems totally disturbed by a feeling of
a
separate me, and it seems like you were knocked off your stand
as
awareness.
You also mention intellectual understanding and reason as
tools.
These are very good tools. But if you are resting on the
strength of
the tool of the intellect, then it's no wonder that this rest can
be
interrupted!
But the good news is that you are not the intellect, and you are
not
the user of the intellect. The intellect is not your nature
or tool.
What you are is the brilliant clarity of awareness. As
awareness, you
are that to which the intellect appears.
You are that to which the deconstruction appears. You are
that to
which the feeling of the me appears. That's right!
The feeling of a
me, now matter how intense, is just an appearance. It is
usually a
thought-form, a judgment based on certain feelings,
expectations,
memories, values, hopes, desires, fears, bodily sensations,
contractions and other arisings.
While all these things arise, abide and subside, YOU are there as
the
witnessing awareness to which they appear. YOU are there
when they
are there. And you are there when they are not there, which
is most
of the time. For example in most of the experiences of the
day, that
"me" is probably not the appearance taking up center
stage. And
during certain experiences such as love, beauty, peace,
that
particular appearance of "me" is not present at all.
Now, the idea of this investigation is not to have really
pleasant
experiences to that the appearance of "me" no longer
arises. For that
very expectation is part of the same bundle that the appearance
of
"me" is composed of.
Rather, the idea of this investigation is to see that the
appearance
of "me" is not the true YOU. YOU are that clear
space within which
the "me" arises. When this is seen, then the
"me" has as much to do
with the true YOU as a flash of color of sound. Just
another arising
in awareness. You, as awareness, are benevolently
indifferent and
equally loving towards all arisings. Even a supposed
arising of a
preference to stop certain arisings is itself just another
arising in
this same clear space. YOU are equally embracing of all.
When this is seen, the particular arisings that seemed to compete
for
prominence lose their power. They no longer seem definitive
of who
you are. They no longer claim front and center stage.
Because you
know that you aren't defined by any particular arising or set
of
arisings. You can't be any object in particular, since you
are there
even if no objects are there (as in deep sleep or between
thoughts).
You are the loving spaciousness within which they appear.
So next time that "me" arises that seemed to outsmart
intellectual
understanding, see that YOU stand as the background to all
arisings,
lovingly allowing them to come, stay a while, and go....
You abide,
retaining the sweetness of your embrace, throughout....
Love,
--Greg