What’s there to do?
What more questions do you want to ask?
Throw all the useless answers away,
Let go of all techniques,
(all are the ego’s tools)
THIS IS IT!
THIS IS IT!
Jiddu Krishnamurti: True Meditation
Meditation is never the control of the body. There is no actual division between the organism and the mind. The brain, the nervous system and the thing we call the mind are one, indivisible. It is the natural act of meditation that brings about the harmonious movement of the whole. To divide the body from the mind and to control the body with intellectual decisions is to bring about contradiction, from which arise various forms of struggle, conflict and resistance.
Every decision to control only breeds resistance, even the determination to be aware. Meditation is the understanding of the division brought about by decision. Freedom is not the act of decision but the act of perception. The seeing is the doing. It is not a determination to see and then to act. After all, will is desire with all it’s contradictions. When one desire assumes authority over another, that desire becomes will. In this there is inevitable division. And meditation is the understanding of desire, not the overcoming of one desire by another. Desire is the movement of sensation, which becomes pleasure and fear. This is sustained by the constant dwelling of thought upon one or the other.
And meditation is the understanding of desire, not the overcoming of one desire by another.
Meditation really is a complete emptying of the mind. Then there is only functioning of the body; there is only the activity of the organism and nothing else; then thought functions without identification as the me and the non-me. Thought is mechanical, as is the organism.
Meditation really is a complete emptying of the mind. Then there is only functioning of the body
What creates conflict is thought identifying itself with one of its parts which becomes the me, the self and the various divisions in that self. There is no need for the self at any time. There is nothing but the body, and freedom of the mind can only happen when thought is not breeding the me.
What creates conflict is thought identifying itself with one of its parts which becomes the me…
There is no self to understand but only the thought which creates the self. When there is only the organism without the self , perception, both visual and non-visual can never be distorted. There is only seeing ‘what is’ and that very perception goes beyond what is. The emptying of the mind is not an activity of thought or an intellectual process. The continuous seeing of what is without any kind of distortion naturally empties the mind of all thought and yet that very mind can use thought when it is necessary. Thought is mechanical and meditation is not.
There is only seeing ‘what is’ and that very perception goes beyond what is.
Excerpt taken from J. Krishnamurti, ‘The Beginnings of Learning’
My awakening experience whilst reading Krishnamurti:
Missing the mark
Try to grasp it
– you’ve already missed the mark!
Tibetan Buddhism: Free and Easy by Gendun Rinpoche
This is a beautiful and profound ‘vajra poem’. It was given spontaneously by Gendun Rinpoche, a late Tibetan Buddhist rinpoche (‘precious teacher’), during a talk to his disciples. A book of his teachings called Heart Advice from a Mahamudra Master is highly recommended and teaches all the essentials of Tibetan Buddhism from someone who has a genuine experience of the truth that lies behind the words. Sometimes expositions of Tibetan Buddhism become overly structured and conceptual, but Gendun Rinpoche has a way of not only teaching the concepts, but also of indicating that which is beyond concepts and is also immediate and vital.
Happiness can not be found
through great effort and willpower,
but is already present,
in open relaxation and letting go.
Don’t strain yourself,
there is nothing to do or undo.
Whatever momentarily arises
in the body-mind
has no real importance at all,
has little reality whatsoever.
Why identify with,
and become attached to it,
passing judgement upon it and ourselves?
Far better to simply
let the entire game happen on its own,
springing up and falling back like waves
without changing or manipulating anything
and notice how everything vanishes and reappears, magically,
again and again, time without end.
Only our searching for happiness
prevents us from seeing it.
It’s like a vivid rainbow which you pursue
without ever catching,
or a dog chasing its own tail.
Although peace and happiness
do not exist as an actual thing or place,
it is always available
and accompanies you every instant.
Don’t believe in the reality of good and bad experiences;
they are like today’s ephemeral weather,
like rainbows in the sky.
Wanting to grasp the ungraspable,
you exhaust yourself in vain.
As soon as you open and relax
this tight fist of grasping,
infinite space is there –
open, inviting and comfortable.
Make use of this spaciousness,
this freedom and natural ease.
Don’t search any further
looking for the great awakened elephant,
who is already resting quietly at home
in front of your own hearth.
Nothing to do or undo,
nothing to force,
nothing to want,
and nothing missing –
Emaho! Marvellous!
Everything happens by itself.
She constantly reveals Herself
Effortlessly,
life moves:
Sometimes still,
Sometimes striking,
She constantly reveals herself to us.
New Online (Skype) Meetings: Non-Duality & Spirituality Meetings, London, UK
Since starting to hold regular non-duality and spirituality meetings in London, it has been truly wonderful to meet many of you in person and share this message with you. I’d like to take this opportunity to express my thanks and gratitude for your presence and support.
It’s also been fascinating for me to see how this simple yet dynamic teaching has the potential to alleviate suffering and liberate those who come in to contact with it, and often in a relatively short space of time.
I’ve also been amazed at how many people are thirsting for this message and are really serious about finding true answers, true resolution, not just on the level of concepts and mere explanations, but on a much deeper ‘experiential’ level.
However there are some people who find it difficult to attend the twice monthly meetings in person at the Druids Head, London, so I have now scheduled online meetings via Skype. These will be in addition to the regular meetings in person in Kingston, London. Details of how to join us can be found here or here. Dates of forthcoming meetings can be found here.
I hope this allows more people to be able to hear these wonderful teachings.
For further information on other ways you can meet with me click here.
So perhaps I will see you soon, in person or via Skype.
Wishing you peace, happiness and wisdom
Tom
The Beauty of Life
The beauty of life,
already present,
already here,
effortlessly
alive.
Making an effort
simply reveals
you have not seen
that which already is.
Watch Free Non-duality Livestream – Tom Das and Conscious 2
Watch my Livestream with Conscious 2 here, originally filmed on 18th February 2016:
Love, happiness and non-duality
When the ego is seen through, all there is is what is. This is actually love, this is the real love.
Q. What is the relationship between love and non-duality?
A. Non-duality, as you call it, when it is fully seen, has nothing to do with trying to become more loving. But when the intrinsic-Freedom-that-already-exists is recognised, there is a tendency to become more loving, more open. Not that that actually matters. Openness and love are just what tend to happen when the illusion of a separate doer-entity is seen to be illusory. They are side effects.
Q. If in seeing this Freedom one tends to become more loving, then why do you say non-duality has nothing to do with being more loving?
A. This is about what is true, not what you want to be true. You may want to be more loving, more ethical or more whatever, but so-called ‘non-duality’ is about seeing what already is, right now. It is the ego or person that wants to become more loving, more ethical, more radiant, more popular, and so on. So the desire to be more loving is actually a subtle form of ego. ‘Non-duality’, or whatever you want to call it, is not about a continuation of the ego, but seeing that this ego is a fiction, that the sense of doership is an imagined belief without any evidence to underpin it.
It is the ego or person that wants to become more loving, more ethical, more radiant, more popular, and so on.
Who cares about love? Who cares about being ethical? It’s the ego of course. The ego cares, the doer-entity cares and it is the ego that wants to improve itself and therefore perpetuate itself. Ask yourself, ‘what is this entity that cares about being loving, being ethical?’. If you really are interested and you look, then it can become obvious that there is no ego there, it was all just a belief all along, a false belief. The story of doership is false.
Then all there is is what’s happening. Nobody doing anything, just what’s happening. I call this Freedom, but it doesn’t really have a name. It is simply what’s happening. It is simply the way things actually are, not they way you want things to be based on your projection which is in turn based on beliefs and concepts. It is the simplicity of life stripped clean of false notions and narratives, in which false notions are seen through as they arise.
I call this Freedom, but it doesn’t really have a name. It is simply what’s happening.
In Freedom, you don’t care about love, or any other projected ideal. You don’t try to be more ethical. Maybe you are more loving, maybe you are not. That’s why this automatically tends towards love – because there is no motive, because the ego is not at play. It may go against intuition but love does not care about love. Love just is when things are seen for what they are. To put it more poetically, in seeing truth (of no-self), love is.
In seeing truth, love is
Q. What about happiness?
A. Again, who cares about happiness? It’s the ego! The ego cares, and the ego is a fiction. Relax your mind and look for the ego – where is it? It is just empty thoughts, there is no entity there! But you have to really want to know the truth to see this: by that I mean that you have to be willing to drop all your ideas and concepts about yourself and your life. Then you really have to actually look – at least most people do. Some people just see this spontaneously, but all you have to do is notice what is already true.
When this is seen, that there is no ‘self-entity’, the neurotic drive for happiness naturally dissipates, and then Joy naturally arises. Why? Because the (neurotic) drive for happiness is actually a form of suffering. When there is no concern for happiness, then Joy naturally tends to manifest. A feeling of wellbeing may not always be there, but who cares? That’s just the way things are. No feeling-state or mind-state is permanent. Everything changes. Nothing lasts forever. Who cares? That’s the freedom.
Investigate the present reality instead of chasing a future projection.
When you are trying to get somewhere, you are chasing a projected ideal, something conceptual, not something actual. Instead of chasing the conceptual, why not remain with the actual, with what is actually happening now? Investigate the present reality instead of chasing a future projection. When the ego is seen through, all there is is what is. This is actually love, this is the real love. The lack of a centre, the lack of a doer, that’s what love really is. It’s not an emotion at all. It’s not necessarily even feeling loving, although that may happen when it’s appropriate.
When the ego is seen through, all there is is what is. This is actually love, this is the real love.
Without the ego at play, all there is is natural functioning. Emotions then act accordingly when they are required. It’s not healthy to be happy all the time, nor is it likely to be physiologically possible. Our varied emotions, fears and mental states are there to guide us as we navigate the world.
So, when the ego is seen through, this is what we could call love, although love is just a label for this as it actually is. This ‘love’ is not what most people mean by ‘love’. It is not an emotion, it includes everything that is happening, and it is not dependent on what is happening. It is un-conditional you could say. It is always here because it is none other that what is here. It is universal motion seeing through illusion. It is what is recognising what actually is.
Not mine
Nothing is mine.
I did not create
This world,
This body,
Or this mind,
With its thoughts.
They were all given to me.
Yes – even my thoughts were given to me.
None of it has anything to do with me.
Then I look at the ‘me’:
There is no me.
Only this,
None of it mine,
All of it moving.
Tom Das 