The Undivided Pseutra

Where ‘this’ and ‘that’ cease to be opposites,

there lies the pivot of the Way

~Chaung Tzu (tr. Mair)

it’s not so much the world is an illusion

but how that illusion is relentlessly tricking one—

the illusion is division

but the trick convinces one

to put things back together

when of course they aren’t apart—

and by endlessly trying to put together

things which aren’t apart,

one loses focus on the truth:

one is that which is not apart—

the world appears to be

constantly tearing apart

but everyone is attempting to put it

back together in the best way they see fit—

the human illusion has

seven billion points of view—

you are this

and the other is that

but the other is this to itself

and you are that to it—

the mind divides;

this is the function of mind—

one takes a side;

this is identification with mind—

war!

this is one lost in mind—

war is fought in the home,

on the streets,

at work,

and maybe more importantly,

within oneself,

every single second of the day—

one takes sides;

this is identifying with mind—

one sees one side as god;

this is fundamentalism—

one may completely raze any opposing side;

this is evil—

an ego is like an edifice

built from all the sides one takes—

psychology tries to right the sides;

truth reveals the sides aren’t really there—

so absolute truth is unknown

and all one knows of absolute truth is being—

in other words,

is there an unknown?
yes, i am that.

S6 — Calvin on an Island

Island people have a saying: “Nowhere is an island.” Visitors are puzzled when they hear this spoken. After all, they’ve spent much time and money just to reach this paradise in the middle of an ocean.

Calvin was such a one. He went without for fifty weeks just to have his two upon that isle. So when he breathlessly disembarked only to be greeted by an islander conveying this saying, he strongly begged to differ.

The islander just smiled and said, “It makes no difference,” and danced lightly off to greet another. A recent transplant to the island seeing Calvin’s being at variance stopped to offer a more comprehensive reception: “No matter how you slice it, there never is division.”

S5 — Isle of Eyes: A Myth of the Scientific

In the eye of a hurricane, there’s an eye of a needle. In the eye of a needle, there’s an eye of an eye. The island people call this eye a third eye and take their own eyes out whenever it goes seeing. For what it sees is visible to no one.

There was a visitor who called himself an optical magician, prescribing telescopes to those he diagnosed as near-sighted, and microscopes to those he saw as far-sighted. But the island folk, as far as he could see, were neither.

He plucked his own eyes out in a pique of speculation but it left him only sightless. The island people divined no notion why he’d make a scene like that. And so they led him in a starry-eyed procession to a long reflective beach and cast him out to sea.

S4 — Breaking Up Is Hard Nondoing Too

It was early in the process of discovery

I knew the two of us would lose each other.

Paradox is not unknown in love.

At first our paths continued, one upon the other,

but soon we found ourselves in the yellow wood.

It didn’t happen overnight and all our efforts

to maintain separating ways together met

with personal effects like alcohol on my behalf

and a drier kind of melancholy in yours.

You finally had the nerve to call it quits

but even that was met with one more year of trying.

It’s over now; surrendering to that which is

can really be a bitch. But that’s the price.

You said that day you liked the middle class

and I was always making light of it.

That’s forever been the case with me.

It’s just my form of self-assessment.

Even though I’m living now without

the greater luxuries I once afforded,

I’m not exactly third-world poor—

thank my daughter and her Major.

This is the present empire after all.

So I know these fears about security,

but I’ve seen you lately follow them

and then convince yourself you hadn’t.

That’s the way of people though, divided.

The path I’ve taken teaches seeing this,

to recognize such separation for what it is,

to know the false as false. That leaves pure being,

not being this or that. And being tells one all that is—

and That which absolutely isn’t takes one back.

Song-stream 3 — Incident on Sky Mountain

There’s a mountain lofty enough

it takes two days to make the peak.

It rises in the heart of a desert

where nomads pray to any passing mirage.

They’re satisfied to dine on scorpions

while downing barrel cactus juice.

They hallucinate of cubicles

floating in a glass of cabbages and ginger

looking at the rain streak the skylight

hoping they’ve secured the windows

in their newly-leased Honda Civics.

One of them flies out the door to check

but strikes the mountain there instead.

Soon she’s in a globe of berries.

The air is fragrant with exacting freshness.

She sees above the ripples of heat;

there’s not an office in her eye.

Half-way up she finds a halfway house.

It’s an edifice she’s yet to dream.

She’s genially greeted at the door

and welcomed with the latest reality

of living rooms and large flat screens

with twenty-four hour interruptions.

Exhausted with the climb, she wants to stay.

Twenty years later, she’s out to catch a breather

and meets a mad man coming down the mountain.

Maybe it’s a mad woman. He raves or she raves,

“You’ve stopped believing in a personal god,

but you’re still believing in the personal!”

and then turns to return to the sky.

Song-stream 2 — Compassionist Manifesto

Mind apparently divides 

that nonduality 

and wonders why its world is one 

of separation, violence, want, and war.

Even when this unity appears

in shapes love takes—

like justice, hope, equality—

the mind will take control

with judgment and conviction

and an execution of its end

justifying any of its means.

And so it goes…

There’s no arguing

the utmost advocates of civil rights

within the infamous twentieth century:

Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

Nonviolence was their word,

but more importantly the sacrifice of ego

—this identity with mind—

to universal consciousness;

call it Krishna, call it Christ.

You know it when you feel it,

some holistic intuition

that division is completely inauthentic,

that existence is lovingly impersonal,

that love is unconditional

and the personal is conditioned by division

and that’s the way it is.

And even this spontaneous understanding

is usurped by mind

and formed into religion

and fashioned into dogma, rules, belief

and fought in endless wars where

holy ends are justified

by all apocalyptic means.

Stop! There is no end—

there’s only means,

there’s always only here and now

and every action is reflection

of the clarity within.

Our only call is clear our self—

an empty sky
breezes through and does the rest.

Song-stream 1 — Braids of Glass

Consciousness is the sea

and eyes are like the rays of light

looking deep into itself.

Nothing in this universe is like

this universe of yours—

even this blade of grass is different

than this blade of grass you grasp;

only the name remains the same.

Beneath the summer sky, some huckleberry boy is

gliding high above his freshly-cut idyllic turf

as sonic booms of nineteen-fifties’ fear are coloring

his clarity with contrails of his elder’s ghastly white beliefs.

Nothing that we know is ever knowable

but only viruses received from dreams

infected with ancestral viruses.

The mind divides

this universal consciousness to pieces

claiming only one particular to be itself.

Sword-play of war is what must happen next—

until one finally sees that one is absolutely not

this sharp reflection in the mirror.

It’s as if that pure awareness subjectivity of crystalline glass

intends to know itself, and within that big intent, the whole intent

objectifies itself in galaxies of this molecular imagination

evolving in time and space by calling keenly to itself to see—

it always is and is

never not the mirror.

Now knows itself and a blade of grass

isn’t really a blade of grass—

a blade of grass is only

a blade of grass.

new & recycled prophecies 3 — the non-manifesto

there's nothing more

predictable than

attributing one's

division to

another—

the only difference between

the one percent and

the ninety-nine percent

is the greater means to do

what the one-hundred percent

always does—

there’s only a single

divided universe

and it’s the one

called mine—

non-division is

the work and the way of

the zero percent—

non-do it now!

The Zhuangzi (Chaung Tzu) Translation Awards

This is the summer of Zhuangzi. Or Chaung Tzu, in the older Wade-Giles way. Knowing well the idiosyncrasies of translations, I’ve looked at almost all the ones available. It's interesting that the three I chose were not on my radar when I began looking. Also, considering the Zhuangzi itself in regard to wrong and right, this and that, and just seeing, I’m only listing the translations I chose to play with. (Click on the book's image below to see it in Amazon.)

1. And the winner is Victor Mair. His Wandering on the Way has many things going for it. First, Mair is not only a sinologist, but the Chuang Tzu is his favorite Chinese book. So his work is obviously a labor of love. Next, it is the complete Chaung Tzu, and not just the seven Inner Chapters, the ones actually attributed to the actual person, Chuang Tzu, although even that is debatable. Also, as a physical production, the pages are thick and creamy, the print is agreeably readable, the layout is clean and sharp, and the cover is artistic. Furthermore, for what it is, it is relatively inexpensive new, and a bargain can be had used  (my copy is a very-good used Bantam first edition paperback and cost me $5.14 including shipping; it’s also available new for $20.00, discounted to $18.00 at Amazon, plus shipping). There are no footnotes and the annotation is sparse. Mair’s intent is to present the Chuang Tzu as a literary work of wisdom first and foremost and not a philosophical treatise dressed up in a disguise of stories. His translation appears as true to the text as possible while attempting to make it necessarily clear in English. This is a copy to read and savor. And there is a practical glossary of names, places, and terms at the end of the book.

2. The runner-up is Brook Ziporyn and his Zhuangzi: the Essential Writings. Actually, for the purposes of Kindle, it would be the winner, since the Mair is currently not available in that format. This smooth and readable translation is more on the philosophical end of the spectrum, so it’s heavily footnoted. And that can be a good thing. I especially appreciate his concern with the Chinese terms, often referring the reader to the glossary at the back of the book. It’s not the complete Zhuangzi, but it’s not just the Inner Chapters either. There’s a significant selection from the Outer and Miscellaneous Chapters. Maybe most significantly for some is the inclusion of Chinese commentaries as a separate section at the end of the book, including Guo Xiang, who is basically the editor of the Zhuangzi. As a physical production, it’s along the lines of a paperback textbook. My copy is a very-good used paperback which was $10.99, including shipping. It’s available new for $18.00 in paperback discounted to $16.20 on Amazon, including shipping. For Kindle, it’s available at $9.99.

3. Showing at third place is the controversial A. C. Graham and his Chuang Tzu: The Inner Chapters. It appears he remains true to the text to a fault. Still, in comparing translations, that can be a helpful trait; it sets a base line for the others. Also, he has decided to edit the book, moving sections around, to meet his own scholastic findings. If I were using this as a stand-alone book, that could be problematic. But my use of Graham is more of a reference work than a reading copy. I find his annotations useful. But his arguments for the way of the text are fascinating and convincing. My copy is not the best. It’s the 1987 Harper Collins Mandala edition. The print is incredibly small and the annotation printing is incredibly, even smaller. But it cost only $4.09 including shipping. New, it’s $19.00 discounted at Amazon to $18.05 plus shipping. Again, as a reference work, it does the trick.

So, these are the three translations I am using in reading the Zhuangzi this summer. In total, they cost me $20.22 (it helped that I'd received a gift certificate for Father's Day). They span the gamut from pure enjoyment to deeper study, from the latest academic findings to ancient Chinese commentary, and are useful in triangulating the way.

new & recycled prophecies 2 — substantiation

one who seeks the proof of truth

needs first to seek the proof of one

who seeks the proof—

if you think you were born,

you’ll think you will die—

but you were only told you were born

and no one has told you they died—

when an appearance disappears—

that in which the appearance appears

does not disappear

(originally appeared within the pseutra of revelations)

new & recycled prophecies 1 — mirror of awareness

if not for all reflections

in the mirror,

i wouldn’t know

i was the mirror—

i am the mirror—

i am intent

to know i am the mirror—

i am reflection

that intent conceives

to know i am the mirror—

i am the mirror—

it takes an evolutionary universe
in space-time consciousness

to watchfully reflect

that absolute
awareness

ps5 - mindless

redundancy

float like a butterfly, sting like zhuangzi

being grateful for impracticality

concern with status and inclination for argument reveals one’s inauthenticity

the great usefulness of uselessness

conception

may the light of that wholly intent unfold this revelation

awarify, awarify, awarify

evolution is just another word for awakening

within the mirror's shimmering intent to know itself, it appears to break itself

one can say—awareness of being is the evolutionary human attainment—and—awareness of awareness is being’s evolutionary unfolding—but i won’t

antithesis

theories are useful in deconstructing paradigms—until they form a more perfect paradigm

all misunderstandings are ultimately confusions of definition

all ways are means of deconstruction unless they're turned into a pretty new construction

assert negation including negation of negation

enigmatic

try to tell me something that i can't know

save me from those who want to save me including especially me

the mind tries to remember what emptiness always knows

a paradox doesn’t go over one’s head—it goes through it

dreaming

it's all projection—thirteen ways of looking at a white bird

an alternate state of consciousness is merely a clouded state of consciousness

most projection is a tangled web of misdirection

just clean the lens and project responsibly

irrevocably

one can say there's no one and no one may believe it and thus become one

sooner or later, you have to answer the inner child's endless whys with an "i don't know"

just leave it to be

in the empty kitchen pseutra

tao of absolute—te of intent—ching of being

our coyote—who art the trick—person be they name

fear appears when the unborn is persuaded it’s born and destined to die

even the former vice-president of the united states stands naked and trembles like a newborn

only fear needs to fight fear—compassion sees through it

the infinite is not a barrier but a means of communication

without compassion, paradox is just a joke

it isn’t so because you say it’s so—it’s so and you can’t say it’s so

the unwearable triteness of words

the way is not a fork—and nothing's the matter

space-time is the kitchen—consciousness is the food—absolute intent is the cook

no identity—no merit—no name

in the end, it's both a moot and mute point

for the absolute intent of self-awareness, ten thousand celestial magicians!

trickster’s sonnet (coyote only tricks)

coyote only tricks itself

matter is a nuclear mirage

pull a rabbit from this headlessness!

being lies behind cloud nine

in moonlight, coyote howls its who

no mind, there’s no horatio

curiouser kills the curiouser

being doesn’t need an einstein

coyote dawns it’s not coyote

forgetting is the morning mantra

what a concept: not a concept

consciousness is that divine

coyote rests on this thirteenth line

isologue 1 – the big awareness dream machine

you can't improve the world through politics—the world is politics

if you can't laugh, cry—either way, it’s a fresh breath

just a self-usurping mechanism in the big awareness dream machine—the judge knot

not standing in the happenstance—the impossibility of personal being

concepts that negate concepts are unbelievable—no knowledge is the point of all knowledge

nothing is material but being—truth is easiest to be but impossible to know

you know what you like but you are what you love—self-awareness is just a matter of time

god is a concept by which we measure concepts—god is a concept by which concepts measure concepts

every event is spontaneous and all events are predestined—no event exists

seeing thought as thought is the final revolution—up against the gateless gate

in time awareness of being becomes awareness of awareness in no time—thou art tao

the emperor has no close—inquire within

ps4 - wormwhole

lost in space-time

self-inquiry is the wormhole of awareness

deconstruct ‘yourself’ before you’re lost in its rubble

imagination doesn’t harm 'you'—imagination creates 'you'—being lost in imagination is what hurts

time games

a person is the past—always striving to reach the present—sometime in the future

a person could simply reach the present—by dropping the past—but then there’s no more person

the original fraud of any person is—there appears to be no present—but the gift of the present is—there is no person

opening ceremony

knock three times—first is mechanical happenstance of thought—second is loving coincidence of intent—third is foundational significance of being

i want to tell you there's no you

but who can tell you there's no you

if there's no one there to be a who

nd

insisting on a particular definition is the definition of a person

there’s neither right definition nor wrong definition, neither high definition nor low definition—there’s only no definition

…and even no definition isn't definite

artificial turf

those who cannot recognize the false are condemned to believe they’re it

identification with thought is the original imbalance—anything considered from that position is unbalanced—such is the world’s viewpoint

all the world’s knowledge is a darkened distorted contorted backwards reflection of original wisdom—more at eleven

liku

we are all bubbles being burst

own it and then lose it

leaves of becoming

song of absolute i

we're lost in the beginning of the ending

this wave of fourteen billion years is crashing

in all the tumult you’ve forgotten who you are

you are the only who you always are—

lately i can’t scare myself to death

even nothing isn’t really nothing

what there is—is all within this eye

i am the i that i is being i—

how do you react to things you do which you aren’t doing?

how do you forget i’m who you know i am is doing?

why does the cherry blossom—who am i?

i sing in seeing i am that i am is i

end game

you will never find what you’re looking for outside—until you see there’s nothing outside yourself

when you see there’s nothing outside yourself—you see there’s nobody outside yourself—and compassion happens for every one of them

the greatest tool in seeing through the person is just paying attention to what you take personally

the illusion doesn’t see—what-is sees through the illusion

.

ps3 - manifest destiny

separating from separation

the misconception that i am a separate entity—within this holistic universe—directly leads to the disorders of division and free will

seeing that i am not of this material universe—but i am the consciousness which this universe is within—directly leads to nondual awareness

separating from the material—leads to a temporary disease of division before—dissolving within the immaterial

primary nondual trinity

free will is a quaint misnomer—for that erratic motion between—the push of social conditioning—and the pull of self-awareness

there’s no volition—but there is Intent—which is the evolutionary pull of true Self upon the illusory conceptual self

the 'material' universe of consciousness is—simply a process—by which the light of awareness—becomes aware of itself—through its own Intent

Awareness, Consciousness, Intent—the nondual trinity

processing

the universe is like—the self-created dream-state brain of—Absolute I—whose only function is—self-awareness of Absolute I

and body-mind is like—a most intricate node of That brain—whose only function via its divisional computing is—self-awareness of Absolute I

if one views the world personally one sees—an ignorant violent pointless place—but absolutely one sees—binary computations of self-awareness

intending

there’s an evolutionary process—moved forward by the pull of Intent—and you can’t do—or not do—anything about it—enjoy!

the process is as simple as I being aware of I—the mechanics appear to be as complex as the universe of space-time and beyond all philosophy

what mind views as—spacetime and its in-dwelling universe is—the instantaneous mind-blowing incomprehensible happening of—I knowing I is

finishing

discovering what one isn’t—is the only thing a person can do—and even that is activated by Intent

there's nothing wrong about this maya, samsara, hell—it's just the finishing process of self-awareness—absolute I doesn’t take it personally

among thoughts of doing whatever—there is an intent—some call it love or bliss—i intend to follow it—but there’s a thought of doing whatever

as long as i think i’m a person—i will take things personally—which makes me think i’m a person

one either succumbs to the persuasion of belief—or surrenders to the creativity of love—there’s no actual volition ever involved

the real Secret is to know what you do not know—and not to know what you think you know

when you know you don't know anything—there’s nothing left to know

seeing

the holistic universe is the process of AWARENESS (parent) becoming aware of BEING (child) by its own INTENT (spirit) now

I

to

I Am

to

I Am That I Am

to

I Am That I Am That I

or

I

one never sees the seeing for one is the seeing—see?

ps2 – naked universe

naked truth

at first, one wants to tell everyone—then, one notices no one wants to hear it—last, one realizes there’s nothing to say anyways

naked awareness—clothed in the sheer concept of being—filigreed with inflexible thoughts of sparkling identity

dark truth

when the body runs at peak performance, there is no body

the greatest power in the universe is self-awareness

indescribably pointless—light of universal dna—sees the dark truth

no dissolution, no desolation, no disregard

dark spirit

everybody wants to keep on living and nobody knows exactly why

death assumes the universe goes on without you—it doesn’t

before there was a river—there is that valley spirit

i was so enlightened then—i’m darker than that now

unthinkable spirit

thinking you know is further from the truth

and the ordinary is just another trap

some words are worn too easily

i'm thoroughly unthinkable

unthinkable existence

ordinary is the new extraordinary

the miraculous rises and sets every more than nanosecond—just watch but don’t believe it

the greatest show on earth is the show

grounded wonderful witnessing of constant arising developing unfolding in newfound and never seen patterns in patterns of constant arising

desert existence

it’s not comfort as much as its multifarious ways to enjoy existence—it’s not security as much as its beguiling offer to preserve existence

existence loves existence—not that there’s anything wrong with that

for the mind of existence has divided existence—and existence identifies with a dismembered member of its disremembered undivided self

there is no cactus—there’s only cacti

desert universe

scientists work in the big bang and think it’s matter—religionists work in the big bang and think it matters—the big bang plays in me, no matter

phenomenal powers in the universe reveal mutability of form in space-time—the power of self-awareness reveals immutability beyond space-time

Nisargadatta's "very complicated riddle"

In this spiritual hierarchy, from the grossest to the, subtlest, you are the subtlest. How can this be realized? The very base is that you don't know you are, and suddenly the feeling of "I Amness" appears. The moment it appears you see space, mental space; that subtle, skylike space, stabilize you there. You are that. When you are able to stabilize in that state, you are the space only.

When this space-like identity "I Am" disappears, the space also will disappear, there is no space.

When that space-like "I Am" goes into oblivion, that is the eternal state, nirguna, no form, no beingness. Actually, what did happen there? This message "I Am" was no message. Dealing with this aspect, I cannot talk much because there is no scope to put it into words.

***

It is a very complicated riddle. You have to discard whatever you know, whatever you have read, and have a firm conviction about That about which nobody knows anything. You can't get any information about That, and about That you must have firm conviction. How difficult it is.

Most people reach that state which is, but nobody reaches that state which is not. It is very rarely that one can reach that state. It transcends all knowledge.

Most essential is that knowledge "I Am." Claim it, appropriate it as you own. If that is not there, nothing is. Knowledge of all the stages will be obtained only with the aid of this knowledge "I Am."

From the Absolute no-knowing state, spontaneously, this consciousness "I Am" has appeared -there is no reason, no cause. Spontaneously it has come, with the waking state, deep sleep, the five elemental play, three Gunas, and Prakriti and Purusha. Then it embraces the body as its self and therefore identifies as a male or a female. This "I Amness" has its own love to be: it wants to remain, to perpetuate itself, but it is not eternal.

This passing show may be likened to the following situation: suppose I was well all along, then suddenly I was sick and the doctor gave me medicine. After three days my fever was gone. So this stage of fever for three days is the "I Am" consciousness. Exactly like that -a passing show, a time-bound state. This principle loves to be, and one must not belittle it - it is a very Godly principle. This "I Amness" contains the entire cosmos.

It is said that all this is unreal. When is it certified as unreal? Only when one understands this temporary phase. And in the process of understanding one is in the Absolute and from there recognizes this as a temporary, unreal state.

~from Prior to Consciousness

profisee 51 – three wise monkeyshines

thoughts arise

like fireflies on a warm july night—

just watch them!

no need to catch them in a jar

and call them mine—

the subtle concept

that i exist

becomes inflexible belief

this form is me

and i will die—

all wisdoms of no thought

branch off into systems of thought

but the wisdom remains

unthought

\

the pseutra suites 1 - being

rest

don't dwell in the empty hole of personal deconstruction—rest in the energetic fullness of impersonal being

i am

there's one knowledge: i am. call it being, presence, consciousness, spirit, big bang, christ, krishna, or god the child; all appears in it

i-am is the music of what i am—the absolute, subjective, god the parent—made manifest and amplified by its generated instrument of body-mind

the error—original sin, maya, samsara—is in identification of i-am with the body-mind and its futile seizure of command from the absolute

the error is not identification with body-mind alone, which is practically unavoidable, but in its entification and assumption of volition

the false

seeing the false as false is not the false seeing itself as false—one seeing is being while the other is just despair

the false seeing itself as false fears itself—but seeing the false as false sees itself as fearless

nondoing

nondoing indicates no separate doer and not no doing—doing is universal

universal doing when filtered by the false ‘individual’ is divided doing—samsara, maya, hell

a common misunderstanding of nondoing often leads to an ‘individual’ doing as it desires thinking there’s no responsibility for its doing

as long as one thinks it’s an individual, one thinks it’s the doer, no matter how much one may think otherwise

busy

the constant need to always be just busy doing something other than this feeling it's excruciatingly impossible to be an individual—a me

boring—as to bore a hole within the concept of a person leaving an anxiety of nothing to hold onto in its place

or rest in the apperception of totality and know there never is a me

focus

re-integrate universally and focus one-pointedly

.

the pseutra of revelations

accepting body-mind as one’s foundational identity is accepting separation, division, suffering and war as one’s natural environment

every person is a fictitious entity inherently recognizing its inauthenticity and trying everything in its power to rectify the situation

free will is just conditioning we get to make us think we're unconditioned

one who seeks the proof of truth needs first to seek the proof of one who seeks the proof

without personal consciousness there's nothing—but we're not persons but impersonal Consciousness—which at total rest is Absolute Awareness

the usurpation of the absolute subjective and the division of consciousness

the tyranny of intellect and the insurrection of intuition

if you think you were born, you’ll think you will die—but you were only told you were born and no one has told you they died

in deep sleep there's an absence of the sense of presence—in pure awareness there's an absence of presence itself

science chasing its tail—searching for how consciousness appears in a world which appears in consciousness

first i am conscious the mountain exists and then it doesn’t—ultimately the mountain exists as an appearance in consciousness that i am

when an appearance disappears—that in which the appearance appears—does not disappear

consciousness is clear existential clouding of pure subjective awareness in which all objectification, identification, and revelation appear

pure subjectivity must objectify itself before it can know itself—but gets lost in the object until it hears itself calling

a process contains three simple steps—but each step is a process which contains three simple steps and so on—some get lost in the and-so-on

objectification, identification, and revelation is an integral process

closing—turning—opening

anyone identified with the unnaturally stopped will oppose a turning and naturally call opening a form of nihilism

the process inevitably happens

the best you can do—intellectually—is simply see—there’s nothing you can do

all is done by that which does so let it do

.

B2 - Nisargadatta Maharaj is my guru

Nisargadatta Maharaj is my guru. I never met the man.

Some will think that’s absurd. They may be correct—I’m not speaking for them or others.

Thirty years ago, a psychological therapist summed up my personal conditioning this way: your mother taught you to be absolutely afraid of the world and your father completely failed to introduce you to the world.

I was obsessed in knowing the world. I didn’t trust the world to teach me about itself.

So I read books. I became obsessed with certain viewpoints until ultimately I discovered their weakness. I moved on to another book. Another viewpoint.

The first time I read Nisargadatta’s I Am That, I was enthralled, but I stopped midway at some point—I was appalled at something I had read. But his words kept haunting me. Six months later, I had forgotten why I had been horrified, reread the chapter in question, and couldn’t find anything repulsive—only wisdom. So, in my second attempt, I finished reading the book.

For a third act, I read Ramesh Balsekar’s Pointers from Nisargadatta, the Jean Dunn translations, and the Robert Powell translations. Meanwhile I was rereading I Am That and tweeting phrases under my @Nisargadatta_M avatar—which continues to this day. To paraphrase one of my earlier teachers: something is happening but I don’t know what it is. Exactly! There is no viewpoint.

I still read books for recreation as well. It was in such a manner I began reading Gurdjieff’s Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson. It wasn’t pleasurable, so I stopped. Of course, that’s Gurdjieff’s point. So I’m not speaking for him or others.

One thing I did appreciate from the first page of Gurdjieff’s three-volume Coyote tale is the first page, Friendly Advice, in which he advises one should read his “written expositions thrice.” The first is in a mechanized way. The second is as one person to another. And the third is to “fathom the gist.” I did read his Friendly Advice three times.

Nisargadatta says to his listeners, and therefore to the reader, that he, Nisargadatta Maharaj, is Consciousness speaking to Consciousness.

.

Blurgh One

It’s been five years on Twitter this month. Enough! Time to blog again. Blurgh?

Words. You can’t live with them and you can’t stop eating them.

And everyone loves their pet theories. Then they put them to sleep.

See! All is viewed through this lens of consciousness. The universe appears in this consciousness. This consciousness is god. I love it madly. 

Who loves it?

But science says this consciousness is a phenomenon of the brain, a product of the material world. See?

Wait, who says this? 

Ha! Consciousness says this. Who else?

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profisee 50 - lost in the dichotomy paradox

pure subjectivity must objectify itself

before it can know itself—

but gets lost in the object

until it hears itself calling—

like zeno's dichotomy paradox—

the intellect always solves

only half of what you really are—

intuition must dissolve you

with the other half…

.

identity, enlightenment, and non-doing pseutra

consciousness is the unmanifested absolute manifested—awareness becoming aware of its awareness

the body-mind is an instrument created by consciousness from consciousness for the functioning of consciousness—awareness aware of awareness

it is an aspect of the functioning of consciousness to misidentify itself with the body-mind, dividing itself from itself and so see itself

enlightenment is the spontaneous functioning of consciousness dis-identifying itself from the body-mind—awareness is aware of its awareness

consciousness misidentifying & disidentifying with body-mind is a spontaneous functioning of consciousness and there’s nothing ‘you’ can do

‘you’ have 2 options for doing—follow your bliss or think your way thru—surrender or fight—love or conditioning—either way you’re being done

profisee 49 - unsaying consciousness

there’s a me here that could say—

you don’t have consciousness

but consciousness has you—

but we are consciousness—

so there’s only i

profisee 48 - four scientific unknowns

what science doesn’t know:

what came before the big bang—

missing 95% mass of the universe—

grand unified theory—

how and whys of consciousness—

six more imajins [from zuni to matsushima]

6

on the road to zuni,

i see a white buffalo—

it’s rising in the sea of tranquility

chanting—

you are the moon

you are the moon

you are the moon

7

anasazi ruins fill

a cavernous canyon wall—

thru the desert floor flows

a lively current—

a raven soars on

satori

with its silent unknown call

8

in the hollow of a maple tree

a screech owl sits silently—

it blends with the bark perfectly—

seven birders look thru scopes

just to see it be

9

down from south rim i stop—

the desert silence is absolute—

as if the sage had soaked

the world away—

and only i were left

to be that emptiness

10

a dock on a midnight lake—

this scintillating stillness—

the moon beholds

the eye of the universe—

and we two vanish

into quicksilver depths

11

invoking matsushima bay—

an opalescent peacock is slipping by

a phosphorescent dragon—

two forms passing in the emptiness—

ah beauty! ah truth!

five imajins

1

driftwood flowers blossom

in a sea of buddha nature—

on the beach, natives search

for grains of sand…

2

in the desert

there's this single candle—

all around is nothing

but creosote and sage—

it is burning incessantly

but it burns without a flame

3

there's a house that sits on a bluff

above the sea—

its windows look out upon

a precipice of sky—

when its doors fly open

no one is at home

4

out of nowhere came

the mountain—

it fills the sky with a vacancy

of rock and clarity—

even the undertaker laughs

at such transparent

presence

5

coyote is crossing

the interstate—

it’s headed for the other side

below sky city—

an attentive focus narrowly avoids

a black infiniti

profisee 47 - as universe so you

the light of consciousness

freezes into the material

and then in a process known

as evolution

melts

as above so below

the light of consciousness

freezes into the ego

and then in a process known

as self-inquiry

melts

as ice is never not water

the light of consciousness

is always

the light of consciousness

profisee 46 - that fifteen-second spot

the desire

to know what one is—

the intelligence

to know what one isn't—

the maturity

to know one is unknowable—

the simplicity

to just be

that

profisee 45 - a/0

to respond to division

with division

always equals

more division

but to respond to division

with nothing

is the end of that story

Merrimack River Nows — selected - Jan 2014

Jan 1

ice sheets in continental collision—silver shards thrust-faulting into fantastic arctic mountain ranges—a geologic era now taking seconds

Jan 6

fog, like a conceptual identity, lifts, and the silver waterway is there, as it always is, open, spontaneous, and never the same river twice

Jan 14

rain falls, fog forms, and the river appears to disappear on the way out to sea—sometimes i get a great notion to jump in the current and be

Jan 15

scintillating ice stars in a sky of river

Jan 17

sparkling high water has made this low-lying reach a no man’s land—the yawp of geese, laughter of ducks, rushes of being

Jan 22

a tugboat fragments polar vortex ice—an eagle’s wings divine the mystic currents

Jan 24

stopping by the roadside on an open bluff above a frozen river in zero degree wind chill sunshine, i grasp the raw stillness—changing a tire

Jan 26
in the wind-swept mirror of perfect ice—eastern white pines

Jan 27

reflections on thin ice—shadows and light—an engine of wind—sounds like shattering glass—the scrape of a leaf—absolutely no one is here now

Jan 29

ice floes leaving the mouth of the river like words defining infinity

Jan 31

black and white notions relentlessly swarming in confusion—feeding the seagulls

profisee 44 - the great wave off the absolute

human civilization is

just this slight crazy detour

in the universal evolution

of light returning to light—

there's no fixing a detour;

there's just getting back on the way—

before the great wave returns to the sea,

it curves, breaks,

and crashes in upon itself—

in this way of the great wave,

the wave comes to know it’s a wave,

the false knows it’s the false,

and only the truth of the sea is

.

Merrimack River Nows — selected - Dec 2013

Dec 1
hawk eye looks within the high slack tide mirroring a wild december sky and cries ten thousand miles of recognition

Dec 3
trawlers docked at the newburyport waterfront and a clear river running high tide blue back to its open mouth and the maw of the sea

Dec 6
king high tide swelling at the seam of low climactic shores

Dec 7
river keep on flowing, winter sun keep on lowering

Dec 10
first, three white swans appear on the river. then a light snow begins to fall

Dec 13
afternoon sun flashing on the first ice of the winter, vast slabs flowing downriver in the aftermath of deep tidal fracturing

Dec 19
an airboat maneuvers through an archipelago of ice floes—buffleheads dive beneath a photovoltaic array of suns—the winter solstice looms

Dec 20
ice floes riding tide upriver—loons diving toward reflections—eagle chasing eagle

Dec 24
above the lonesome christmas eve impassive river—three birds of prey

Dec 25
delicate blossoming ice like wild mercurial chrysanthemums

Dec 31
the graceful sail of another eagle, another year

sunderance philharmonic pseutra

the wise one points back to the earth while the idiot howls at the moon—

any holistic directions for personal benefit maintains the person which is inherently divided—

true spiritual instruction arrives from being and is directed to being without any personal benefit whatsoever—

unconditional love is the fool that doesn't know how to divide—

we create each character in this dream and when one fails to act its part, we hold it responsible for not playing the role we created for it—

it’s remarkable how one may understand the non-volitional role each has in this dream, yet still rant against another’s actions—

when the false is deeply fathomed as false, all action initiated from the false is drained of its font of energy—

as if one could divide the undivided into sides and take one—

the mind is a dividing machine incapable of conceiving the nondual—

turn the mind machine off and rest in the pure electricity of being—

only pure being is informed in the buzz of truth by the potentiality of its source—

a great paradox—the false doer often takes the shape of not-doing—denying the spontaneous moving of the heart by logical control of the mind—

a great confusion—emotions are often confused as heart—but emotions are the filtering of heart by thought—so colored light does have energy—

a great practice—if one wishes to see the trickiest false as false, feel and see emotions—this is where the fact of being meets the lie of the person—

a great resolution—shift the intent of the mind’s control from the heart to the mind—see the false as false—the heart, unfiltered, is moving—

  

it’s not so much the relative is an illusion, but that it’s an impossible position, the holistic seen divided, and thus inevitably violent—

to take one’s stand in the relative is an act of war—not that there's anything wrong with that, but be absolutely clear about the stance—

i am that—standing as awareness—in the world but not of the world

profisee 43 - thirteen ways of looking at the way

in awareness and

the garden of consciousness—

a phenomenon always involves

an aspect of phenomena

usurping noumenon—

you are the writing on the wall

you are response to your own call—

everything that happens to you

is just a sign there is no you—

most never listen to the said

but interpret it instead—

consciousness is all she wrote—

fear and loathing in nirvana—

thinking fails to see

what intuition always knows—

there is one and there is all

which are always never two

but there's not a single other—

this aspect of the happening

moving as the moved—

fog like conceptual identity

lifts and the silver waterway is there

as it always is spontaneous open

and never the same river twice—

bask in your own light—

love is the mover

and love is the moved

profisee 42 - the truth in a notshell

the answer to the question is

no question—

being is the only fact

but not the truth—

truth is spaceless and timeless

although one can know the false as false—

one can never know the truth

but only be it

profisee 41 - scare tactics

pray for that frightened child

in futile search of a safe answer—

you can never love another

because love knows there is no other—

sometimes i get a great notion

to jump in the current and be—

to go inside and view the show

from the outside...

fair and balanced one way pseutra

detail from the blue god - salma arastu

from the illusion of two, the only door to absolute zero is the one—

despite scientific claims, one is never truly objective; one is always completely subjective—

objectivity is a conceptual process dividing one into object and objective-subject—

objective subjectivity is an impossible condition leading to a divisional world of want and desire, suffering and violence—

true subjectivity is resting in consciousness; aka i-am, being, unconditional love, the one—

true knowledge, meditation, love and devotion: all variations of pure awareness in one—

the objective-subject is deafeningly removed from reality but reality envelops the silent one

profisee 40 - the way of venus

you can't wake up

for all the words in china—

nothing is substantial

but everything has a point—

if the truth doesn't kill you

then the paradox will—

there are zero degrees of separation

between you and the absolute

profisee 39 - an opening

the days i have

nothing to say are

my most telling ones—

the person is like

a cocoon that never was

and i am the butterfly

which never wasn’t

new year now here nowhere mythopoeic pseutra

the mind-self creates a world-mind according to its own evolutionary rationale, but i’m not this world-mind, despite its sensational attempt to divide & conquer—

the beginning of one’s self-recovery program requires all the energy one is, unclouded by the usual poisons; it’s nothing pious or ethical—

and in the beginning, mistaken identity will return in moments of crisis such as physical trauma or emotional grief, or just general forgetfulness. be patient; nothing lasts—

just as there are material poisons to avoid that sap one's energy, there are conceptual ones as well—religion, politics, ethics, culture, chitchat, or any argumentative condition—

basically, avoid (or, if unavoidable, see through) all poisons (clouds) and embrace (know that you are) one's intelligent aware energetic (the loving sun of satcitananda, so to speak) self—

as the light of awareness seemingly descends

toward the molecular world of the divided material

and then ascends in response to its own loving call

in an evolutionary movement of energy being aware

culminating in the mind’s own sudden understanding

it is now, never not and has forever always been that

timeless light of pure affectionate awareness

(and the universe nothing but a smoldering illusion),

this residue of individual smoke and dream still remaining

is now embodied by my one eternal self of light

mindfully, with full attention, in affectionate awareness,

calling all within that most divided delusional material dream

back to the truth, this undivided light of unconditional self