The Originality of the Moment

What does it mean to 'be' in the moment? When in the moment is there an individuality that is aware? Thought is movement through time/space. It is manifested through the ego/self, that which represents the duality of the consciousness of thought. It is the separation of the me and the not me. When one is in the moment there is no movement. It is a state which is the negation of self and its projection. The outcome of which is the cessation of the movement of thought. When thought ceases the activity of projecting though the self, then one is in the moment. One is no longer utilizing the accumulated to interpret, categorize and conclude about that which one is experiencing. One can only realize the truth of moment when this activity of projecting is arrested.


One is constantly engaged in the activity of referencing the old in order to understand the new. That old understanding (which is the conditioned self) prevents one from remaining in the moment. We are looking through words and definition. So we only realize a modification of the old which is the continuity of what has been. Psychologically we a seeking security in knowing, which means that what we are experiencing must be defined, it must become word/concept. A concept is not reality, true reality has no definition because it is the new that has never happened before from moment to moment. Thought is always engaged in what was, because it is the result of what was. It cannot understand 'what is' which is the moment. It can only define within the enclosure of its limitations, which is its accumulated content.

When one is in the moment (not referencing the past), then there is no movement away from truth. Truth is found in the origin of each moment, before thought has the opportunity to define. What thought defines is a reflection of the known which is the projection of self.
The absolute moment is the unknown and its realization is realization of the true self. That which is without definition, that which cannot be grasped by the conceptual motivations of one who is seeking.

Each moment is the new and never before. But one will not be able to realize the peace that is the truth of each moment if one is attached and identified with what was (past memory). One must have the realization that any movement away from the originality of the moment is an escape from what is. It is the denial of truth and the substitution of self which is the beginning of conflict and violence. When one is timelessly aware of the moment, then there is freedom that is absent the known which is the self.

The Pretense of Accumulation

When one is identified with a belief, religious or otherwise, one lives a life of pretense. One accumulates experience in order to survive. One utilizes that accumulation to interact with the material world. Its functionality is recognized and utilized as a tool for continued existence. But accumulation as an ideal is the illusion of self created projection. The projection of that which divides. That which is alienation and conflict. A clear realization of this fact is essential if one is to realize peace of mind that is not the result of the formulated and contrived. What we 'know' is not the reality of truth, it is the created illusion of the self absorbed.

Self pretense is the result of a mind that is projecting the accumulated. The accumulated is that which is organized and categorized according to one's system of belief and cognitive capacity.
Thought is seeking the ideal, that ideal represents the security of the activity of knowing, and the known. But thought itself is pretentiousness. Thought escapes into the image of self. It creates a kind of imaginary self and seeks to realize that self through the ideal of its accumulation. It requires a mind that is intensely aware to realize the subtlety of this movement. Mind is constantly occupied with its content which is manifested in the ego/self. This separated individuality is the origin of all pretense which is the state of a mind that is in conflict with the reality of the moment.

One essentially lives a life that is seeking to realize what it is not. One lives in the denial of reality of the moment. One immolates truth by escaping the moment through the projection of self. 'What is' is discarded for 'what should be'. One may think that this is not the case and may analyze oneself and arrive at the conclusion that this is not always so. It is because one is unaware of deepest layers of self that one cannot realize the subtlety of a mind that is caught in time/space. One has to 'peel' away the layers of one's conditioned consciousness in order to realize the true self.

One may realize through the meditation of timeless awareness, that one exist in the darkness of that which is the separated. It is the pretense of accumulated self. Seeing this directly through the experiencing of 'what is', that is absent the censorship of self, is the beginning of insight into the nature of true self. One may then realize freedom that is not a result, but a state of existence.

The Reconciliation of Conditioned Thought

Is it possible for one to be totally free of conditioned thought? Can thought ever be unconditioned? One must have a clear understanding of what thought actually is in order to have understanding that is itself not part of the process. If one is caught in time/thought then one will not be able to comprehend. One thinks in terms of that which has occurred, a point of reference. One uses logical inference to arrive at a conclusion. That conclusion is a product of ones conditioned thinking. It is the projection of self, which is not actual reality, the reality of the moment. If one is aware of one's conditioning, then it is possible to be 'experiencing' without referencing. One is aware of the movement of thought and through that awareness one negates the self which is seeking reconciliation of the unknown with the known.

This is the meditation of selflessness, which is without reference to that which is the self. The one who is seeking through the conditioned mind dissipates. This was Buddha's initial realization, and liberation from time/thought. Freedom that is not the freedom of result. Freedom that has no definition and cannot become the known.

Thought cannot become unconditioned because it owes its existence to that which is accumulation. One needs this conditioning in order to live, it is a basic survival mechanism.
But it carries over into the psychological and becomes the self serving modem of conflict and violence. The Accumulated self is the conduit for all that is prejudicial and all that exploits.

When one gets caught up in 'religious' pursuits in an attempt to find peace and tranquility of mind, one is just replacing one type of conditioning with another. One never experiences true freedom and liberation. Thought is ever engaged in the activity of modification and reconciliation. The totally new is avoided by thought because it would mean the moment to moment cessation of that which is self, self which is the creation of time/thought. Self only exist as that which was, as definition. The 'Self' is thoughts way of maintaining the illusion of permanency.
One modifies and reconciles that which does not conform. This is how thought maintains its hold on the illusion of self. Ones new religion is just a modification of what went on before. One can observe in one's self that there is still the hold of old traditions mixed with the influence of the new. One is trying to reconcile in order to give legitimacy to the new. One may engage in a substitution of tradition in order to make the new more palatable but it is in reality just replacing one type of conditioning with another. One can experience freedom through awareness of the process of reconciliation. Mind/thought/self is constantly engaged in the pursuit of security through identity and attachment with an ideal. That ideal is always a projection of the conditioned self.

Reconciliation is an escape from the reality of what is. It is the placation of the known with that which one perceives to be the new, the product of a mind that is seeking. The mind must have a profound realization of the relationship between the process of 'knowing' and the self which is the projection of the 'known'.

The Dissipation of Projected Reality

What do we mean by projected reality? What is actual reality and are we capable of understanding that reality? As humans we are the pinnacle of that which thinks, of that which is capable of rendering an existence entirely in our minds. The human mind is the greatest survival mechanism in the known universe. It seems that we are capable of overcoming almost any detriment to our continued existence. Yet we are a most destructive force, to ourselves and to all we encounter. Our mind is both the creator and the destroyer of life. We live a life within our mind (the ideal) and seek to create that life, that ideal, externally. We view the universe and existence through our ideals. We seldom see and accept life simply for what it is.

One can debate 'reality' in ad infinitum and never arrive at a consensus. But a definition of reality is of its self only conceptual conjecture. The movement of thought is caught in time, in definition in word, it is the remembrance of experience and the application of that experience. The result of this movement is thoughts concept of reality. A reality that is caught within the limitation of thought/time. One can assert that because thought is limited true reality can never be known. This assertion may be the key to an insight. "The known is limited", therefore what is known is entirely the result of one's conceptual understanding. Understanding that is interpretive and the result of one's individual conditioning. All thought is conditioned by individual experience and capacity. As one is engaged in the acquisition of knowledge that knowledge is censored by the conditioned self. One rejects, accepts or modifies that knowledge to conform to one's concept of self and of one's concept of reality.

One's conceptual reality is orientation through definition. The known is definition, definitive reality, that which is thought, as movement through time. If one has full realization of this movement then it is possible for one to observe this movement independent of self. That is, one is aware of the movement of the definitive self as a separated entity. If one is actually aware of this entity in the moment and not as concept, then it is possible to be experiencing without the censorship of that entity. The negation of that entity, the ego/self, is the dissipation of that which it projects. The self is seeking conformity to the known, what it knows and is comfortable with. It is projecting its own reality into each and every circumstance. But that reality is always in conflict to one degree or another with 'what is'. One seeks to change or avoid 'what is' so as to escape from this conflict. Through direct 'experiencing' one may realize that all conflict is actually self created and exist only within the context of the known.

The known is one's conditioned reality, it is the representation of all that we think we are, one's identification and attachment. Projected reality is the self that is seeking continuity and relevancy in the moment. One must have the realization that this projection is a movement in time away from the actual reality of the moment. The real is the unconditioned, to observe without an entity that is observing is to realize the truth of the moment. It is the absence of opinion and conclusion and the acceptance of what is. The outcome is intelligence of action that is not a result or a reaction. It is full realization of projected reality as the projection of all that is the self.

Search and the Activity of Seeking

Why do we seek? Can a mind that is in conflict and confusion find that which is not? We seek because we want to find that which will give us peace in this life and beyond. We want to find security in 'knowing'. But does 'knowing' ever bring understanding that is the 'final solution'? The known is conflict and confusion, because it is simply the extension and projection of self, which understands only according to the limitations of thought.

Mind seeks because it is trapped in a never ending circle of fear. The fear of not knowing. That fear, is the ending of self. Mind must constantly be occupied, otherwise there is the void, the precipice of the unknown. Mind seeks permanence through continuity. Thought travels within the void and seeks to escape from that which is the reality of the moment. In the absolute moment when that which is the self has realization of truth then one may find that which is not a continuity or conformity. One is aware of a movement that is the dissipation of 'selfness'. One senses existence that is absent a Principal or the one who is sensation. There is no connectivity with an ideal. One sees through the superficial to the deepest layers of mind and existence. It is clarity that has left the image of self and as such realizes the truth in every relationship and every encounter.

One replaces the activity of seeking with the action of understanding. One discerns the truth of the moment in every teaching and in every relationship, whether it be a sage or a child, one sees truth in all that is. Only one who is 'complete freedom' can live in the moment and realize the true self. The outcome of this realization is a totally new way of living. One realizes peace that was always there, one is no longer confused and in conflict. One ceases the activity of seeking because one realizes that there is nothing to be found. One listens to all, and accepts all with an understanding that is not of self motivation or conditioned response.

The truth is found through the negation of the false, but can only be realized when one has negated the authority of self. One has full realization of the conditioned self and the duality of thought which projects that which it seeks. When one is timelessly aware of the movement of thought within the context of the thinker, the one who censors, then there is dissipation of duality and the cognitive understanding of 'oneness' that is not conceptual conjecture.

Reactionary self-modification

What does it mean to react? Is there action that is not a result? Mind is embroiled in the desire to find peace and harmony, something that will give one a sense of security. One may search endlessly and travel the world trying to find wisdom that will provide the answer. We believe that we must first find that external something that has made the journey and will be able to guide us. Someone or something that will show or speak something that clears the 'way' or creates the 'path'. Because we live on the surface we look on the surface. We accept and believe in the superficial, that which seems to provide a level of comfort and does not disturb us to deeply.

We fall into the self created guru-trap, because we want desperately to find. When one finds a 'teacher' or a 'systematic ideal' (religion) then one becomes infatuated with personality and or precepts. One tries to find an internal state of well being of peace through external activity. One may be given a laundry list of right conduct and told in order to find or obtain you must live accordingly and practice certain austerities. But what is the actual effect of such activity? Does one truly find that which is beyond self, that which is not grounded in the conflict of self interest? Whatever activity one is engaged in only further strengthens the illusion of the ideal self. When one realizes that action that is born out of self only furthers self, then it is possible to find that which is not contrived.

One may be told that it is desirable to become a vegetarian (as example) because it is wrong to kill animals (sentient beings). One may be able to grasp the significance of the act, that killing is wrong and may result in bad karma. So one may become a vegetarian as a reaction to something that one perceives to be unpleasant or not in line with one's new found consciousness.
But one must realize that self is born of reaction. Reaction means action that is born of another action, which is in turn born of another action. Reaction is always a result, it is never that which is new and original, and therefore not a product of the accumulated self. If one realizes that which is beyond the simple fact of 'becoming' vegetarian, that being a vegetarian has of its self little in the way of significance, then it may be possible for one to realize truth that is at the core of one's being.

Then vegetarian is not a status symbol or a religious precept, but the simple outward manifestation of deep self realization. One cannot find or become illuminated by outward acts of austerity that one has been 'told' are necessary. It is the foolishness of so called enlightened personalities who are trying to sell one a bill of goods. When one has true realization of self then many activities fall away of there own accord. These outward manifestations are not a 'practice' they are the intelligence of action that is in the moment. One is not defined by precepts which are a dead thing of the reaction of past. One is, 'living in the moment freedom' that cannot be conceptually defined.

One is a light unto one's self. To find the truth that is within one's self is the beginning of intelligence that is freedom. One may realize the source of all fear and violence, of that which is the center of all that is destructive. One can only have this realization when one is no longer reacting, but is instead in the absolute moment with that which reveals the duality of self. This revelation is that which is beyond knowing, beyond self.