An "Original Realization"

It was a quiet evening by the water.  The evening Sun was a bright orange as it settled on the horizon.  "B" smiled and said that she was glad to have me as a friend.  "I feel so much peace when I am around you."  "I feel as though I can talk to you about anything and that you will neither judge me nor chide me into feeling that I need to go in a particular direction."  "M" joined us presently and wanted to talk about something that I had said in a previous encounter.

"L",  "I have been in serious meditation about something you said a few weeks ago.  I have found it a bit troubling, in that I don't quite understand what you mean when you say "it" needs to be an 'original realization without reference to what has been'."  "It seems to me that we are all on a path and that a path must have a starting point." "That starting point is prompted by the influences of others and their path."  "So how is it that something happens independently of our chosen path." "I don't see how anything is completely 'original' and without the influence of what we have followed or been taught." "We have to have a direction and perhaps even a goal."

This is one of the most important and difficult elements to grasp.  There is nothing in this World even this Universe which can truly teach you about the self.  Its like the hand trying to grasp its self.  It cannot be done in the "conceptual world".  The minute you "think" you have arrived you have not. One cannot "know".  This is why it must be approached through negation.  Peeling away layers of the known reveals the unknown, but it cannot be held onto or defined.  The moment you give explanation (word) you have fallen back into illusion.  This is why everything I say or write is necessarily illusion.  It can point to a moment of truth, but it can never be that truth. The truth of the moment is always original and realized through the negation of the self. The self being involved in the activity of knowing or living in the past.  Look at at your own conditioned consciousness, it is constantly projecting the past or known as if it were the moment.

Original realization, is the light of the moment.  It opens the door to a new way of living.  It makes possible a new level of intelligence which creates an awareness of unconditional and limitless understanding and compassion.  It is a way of looking at and understanding the self in ways never thought possible.  When you see the self as it actually is in the moment then that understanding becomes the understanding of all people and all life, both sentient and non-sentient. Then something within you becomes one with all that is.  As your life has been touched so you are able to touch others anonymously without self knowing.  Nothing needs to be done.  One just does what one normally does, only the new and never before comes out of you without reference to anything or anybody.

Original realization is not a static accomplishment of any religious practice.  It comes uninvited when the mind is quiet, not seeking.  You cannot make it happen.  It is the simplicity of the unconditioned that is manifested in the absolute moment when there is no self to analyze, judge or compare.  One realizes a moment to moment intelligence that cannot be fathomed.

Living Without Stress

We were discussing the various ways in which the mind creates stress and can stress ever be overcome.
"M" said, "I just can't seem to overcome this feeling of hopelessness".  "In some sense I know that I am the cause of it, but in another sense it seems that my circumstances contribute to it and are largely a cause of it."  "I do still experience happiness from time to time, but still I am haunted by the feeling that things could be better."  "Sometimes I feel I am in a rut and it depresses me to no end."

Isn't it important first of all to be able to look at a situation with a clear mind?  This is one of the hardest things to do because we are caught up in the emotion of  self created doubt and fear.  We are a product of self induced illusion.  We are always looking for the ideal, the way things should be, instead of facing the reality of what is.  Once we cease this activity of constantly trying to live up to a defined image, then something may happen which allows us to see very clearly the cause of our misery.  Mostly we want to find some sort of escape from reality or what we perceive as reality.  We may see a psychologist, take drugs, drink alcohol, have sex, eat chocolate, or any number of other activities that may be utilized to escape.  None of these things are inherently bad or evil.  But the fact that we use them as a mechanism to cope with our feelings of discontent and fear leads to aberrant behavior or behavior modification.  Behavior modification is simply a modification of ones psychological and emotional programming.   It does nothing to get to the core of the problem.

You are a product of your environment both physically and psychologically.  You have been programmed (or brainwashed) to think the way you do by what you experience and believe.  Your beliefs are you they are not separate from you.  You look at the world though those beliefs, they "color" everything that you are exposed to.  When you look you do not see reality, you see your interpretation of reality with all its prejudice, narrow mindness, and utter lack of compassion.  Look at the world through your misery, you created it, it is not separate from you.  You are the misery that you see.  When you realize this in the absolute moment, not as a conceptual thought, but as a face to face fact that cannot be disputed, then perhaps something will happen that will change you forever.  But you will never realize until you are able to let go of all the psychological garbage that you have accumulated.  All your petty beliefs which have so far done nothing but add to your confusion, conflict and fear.

We are talking about freedom, not freedom from something, but freedom that is the outcome of the negation of what should be and the acceptance of what is.  The truth of the moment cannot be realized directly, it is when all has been negated including and most especially the self that thinks it knows.  You have heard me speak of the undefined, this is what we are referring to.  It is a state of awareness that transcends your conditioned mind.  It is finding peace in the midst of the chaos of belief and projection of that belief.