Non-duality

Total and complete enlightenment: why you’re still not there yet

~ Tom Das ~ 9 Comments
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Am I there yet?

It’s so easy to convince the ego there’s something more it has to do in order to be ‘awakened’ or ‘realised’. There is always a greater state of mind to be attained, a greater realisation to be had, a greater level of emotional balance to be developed, more psychic/yogic/magical powers that you still don’t have. There is always the spiritual carrot dangling in front of you reminding you that ‘you don’t got it yet’. And the ego is always looking to get that carrot. The ego doesn’t want to just let that carrot dangle there.

But this is the essential problem, for there is no ego. By ego I mean doer, or the idea that you are some kind of autonomous or semi-autonomous entity that can chose what to think and do. I’ll say it again: there is no ego, there is no doer.

All practices, all teachings are for the ego. Can you see that? It is the ego that is listening to the spiritual teaching, it is the ego that is trying to get somewhere, it is the ego that wants to be enlightened/awakened/self-realised/free of suffering.

All practices, all teachings are for the ego. Can you see that?

But there is no ego/doer. As it is the ego that is looking, seeking and trying to get this, how can there be a teaching

‘All you have to do is be aware’
Really? Aren’t you already aware?

‘But you need to be more aware’
Why? Because you think you are are not good enough where you currently are? Isn’t this just more trying to get somewhere/something else?

‘You must realise that you are Pure consciousness. You are eternal and indestructable’.
Really? How on earth do you know that? And what of it? All realisation that come can also go. Plus it sounds a bit egotistical and conceptual to me, identifying as awareness…

‘All you have to do is let go’
Really? Who is letting go? The ego? There is no ego! And what are we letting go of? This is just more ego-talk.

‘In the highest realisation you will feel complete bliss, know everything, be able to answer all questions perfectly, exude a golden (or is it white?) aura and be generally extremely cool to hang around’
All realisations, states of experience and altered perceptions come and go, as do all powers and attainments. That which arises can also fall, that which appears can also disappear.

‘I’ve finally figured this all out!’
Well done Mr Ego, you got it!

‘Just devote yourself completely to <insert God of choice/Guru/Consciousness here>’
OK Ms Ego, go ahead and do that. Oh, and by the way, you’re just a fictitious imagined entity so how can you do anything?

 

OK, ok, am I being too harsh?

Practices don’t work, but they are often essential (see here for more about how spiritual practices can work, even though they don’t work). Spiritual practices are dished out by teachers who are still stuck in (imagined) duality or by genuine teachers who realise that the seeker is just too caught up in their illusion to see through it and so the next best thing is to encourage the seeker to aim for peace and happiness. All teachings are for the doer, they are all within the confines of the illusion of doership.

You see, just like Father Christmas, the doer is an illusion, an idea, a belief, a false notion. If you believe in it, then there are consequences, but there’s actually no evidence for the doer. The belief exists, the doer doesn’t. The illusion exists, but the doer doesn’t.

If that’s where you are, caught up in egoic thought processes, then fine. You will feel like you have to do something, so you may as well do a spiritual practice. Just remember that the teachings are not true, just realise that all spiritual practices are for the ego, and then you can go ahead and do them. They will, if they are any good, have a purifying effect: hopefully  they will make you feel happier and more at peace, reduce your attachment to thoughts, reduce the hold of the ego, and then perhaps, as you are not as caught up in yourself and your belief in doership, this ‘no-doer’ will be ‘seen’, spontaneously and naturally.

So what do you do then?

Initially you can start to look for evidence for the ego/doer. What this really means is that the ego is looking for evidence that it doesn’t exist, which of course is an impossible task. But then eventually , somehow,you have to see that the whole construct is corrupt, wrong, illusory: all there is is spontaneous movement. This is not just an idea, but just the way things are. And it is already always being ‘seen’ or noticed. How this is seen cannot be put into words, but the seeker that takes themselves to be the doer has no choice but to try anyway (or not try).

If this is not working for you, then see my article on practices to attain enlightenment here.

But isn’t this itself a realisation? Kind of. It is realising there is nothing needed to be realised. It is the realisation that there is no realisation required. It is the dropping in the belief of spiritual inadequacy. Nothing is needed for total complete supreme enlightenment to be! Isn’t this what non-duality means?

Behold the voice within that chases the carrot and always thinks there is more to do: ‘This is not the highest teaching…this doesn’t sound right…you have to meditate…you have to sing and chant…this is too simple…you have to do this or that…’.

Notice how the genuine spiritual teaching simply says ‘This is it! Just this, as you are, already!’

Notice how the mind listens to the teaching but then says ‘OK, I hear you, but this is most certainly not it!’ or ‘This can’t be it!’ or ‘Can this be it? But I don’t want this! Isn’t there more? That other teacher says there is more…‘

Most teachings convince you that there’s something wrong with you as you already are, or that you are not complete already. Even if they say you are already perfect and complete as you are, they then go on to tell you what to do (to improve yourself or your understanding or experience in some way).This, my friend, is called duality. Non-duality points to the fallacy of this narrative. Get it? Have you got it? 🙂

With love, blessings and a deep gratitude to you all

Tom

❤ ❤ ❤

 

Reading Sri Ramakrishna in Calcutta: All Religions point in the same direction

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

I used to read the works of Sri Ramakrishna as a young teenager. I first came across his books in Calcutta whilst on holiday there visiting family. I think it was in the gargantuan Howrah railway station that I spied a pile of his books. His books, I learnt in later travels to India, can be found in railway stations all over India, often in makeshift stalls that line the train platforms. I remember having to pester my dad to give me the money (was it 5 Rupees?) to buy the small paperback that I still have to this day.

Ramakrishna could barely read and write and his teachings were written down by his friends and devotees. It fills me with a fond nostalgia to read this today (as it popped up on my Facebook timeline!)…

‘Jal’ and ‘Pani’ are 2 words for water in the Bengali language, Jal typically used by Hindus and Pani by Muslims.

 

Ramana Maharshi: Non-duality and how to be Self-Realised (Atma-Jnana)

~ Tom Das ~ 1 Comment

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In the following excerpts, Ramana Maharshi is telling us that we are already free, totally and completely. Can you accept this? Can you allow these words to move you? Can you intuit the truth to which they point?

If we talk of knowing the Self, there must be two selves, one a knowing self, another the self which is known, and the process of knowing. The state we call realization is simply being oneself, not knowing anything or becoming anything. If one has realized, one is that which alone is and which alone has always been. One cannot describe that state. One can only be that.

Questioner: How long does it take to reach mukti (liberation)?
Maharshi: Mukti is not to be gained in the future. It is there for ever, here and now.
Q: I agree, but I do not experience it.
M: The experience is here and now. One cannot deny one’s own Self.

Questioner: How shall I reach the Self?
Maharshi: There is no reaching the Self. If Self were to be reached, it would mean that the Self is not here and now and that it is yet to be obtained. What is got afresh will also be lost. So it will be impermanent. What is not permanent is not worth striving for. So I say the Self is not reached. You are the Self, you are already that. The fact is, you are ignorant of your blissful state. Ignorance supervenes and draws a veil over the pure Self which is bliss. Attempts are directed only to remove this veil of ignorance which is merely wrong knowledge. The wrong knowledge is the false identification of the Self with the body and the mind. This false identification must go, and then the Self alone remains. Therefore realization is for everyone; realization makes no difference between the aspirants. This very doubt, whether you can realize, and the notion `I-have-not-realized’ are themselves the obstacles. Be free from these obstacles also.

Q: There must be something that I can do to reach this state.
M: The conception that there is a goal and a path to it is wrong. We are the goal or peace always. To get rid of the notion that we are not peace is all that is required.
Q: All books say that the guidance of a Guru is necessary.
A: The Guru will say only what I am saying now. He will not give you anything you have not already got. It is impossible for anyone to get what he has not got already. Even if he gets any such thing, it will go as it came. What comes will also go. What always is will alone remain. The Guru cannot give you anything new, which you don’t have already. Removal of the notion that we have not realized the Self is all that is required. We are always the Self only we don’t realize it.

Q: When a man realizes the Self, what will he see?
M: There is no seeing. Seeing is only being. The state of Self-realization, as we call it, is not attaining something new or reaching some goal which is far away, but simply being that which you always are and which you always have been. All that is needed is that you give up your realization of the not-true as true…At one stage you will laugh at yourself for trying to discover the Self which is so self-evident.

Q: But how to do this and attain liberation?
M: Liberation is our very nature. We are that. The very fact that we wish for liberation shows that freedom from all bondage is our real nature. It is not to be freshly acquired. All that is necessary is to get rid of the false notion that we are bound. When we achieve that, there will be no desire or thought of any sort. So long as one desires liberation, so long, you may take it, one is in bondage.

Q: Is not the realization of one’s absolute being, that is, Brahma-jnana, something quite unattainable for a layman like me?
M: Brahma-jnana is not a knowledge to be acquired, so that acquiring it one may obtain happiness. It is one’s ignorant outlook that one should give up. The Self you seek to know is truly yourself.

Q: How to realize the Heart?
M: There is no one who even for a moment fails to experience the Self. For no one admits that he ever stands apart from the Self. He is the Self. The Self is the Heart.

Q: How can I attain Self- realization?
M: Realization is nothing to be gained afresh; it is already there. All that is necessary is to get rid of the thought `I have not realized’. Stillness or peace is realization. There is no moment when the Self is not. So long as there is doubt or the feeling of non-realization, the attempt should be made to rid oneself of these thoughts. They are due to the identification of the Self with the not-Self. When the not-Self disappears, the Self alone remains. To make room, it is enough that objects be removed. Room is not brought in from elsewhere.

Q: However often Bhagavan teaches us, we are not able to understand.
M: People say that they are not able to know the Self that is all pervading. What can I do ? Even the smallest child says, `I exist; I do; this is mine.’ So, everyone understands that the thing `I’ is always existent. It is only when that `I’ is there that there is the feeling that you are the body, he is Venkanna, this is Ramanna and so on. To know that the one that is always visible is one’s own Self, is it necessary to search with a candle ? To say that we do not know the atma swarupa (the real nature of the Self) which is not different but which is in one’s own Self is like saying, `I do not know myself.`

Q: But how is one to reach this state?
M: There is no goal to be reached. There is nothing to be attained. You are the Self. You exist always. Nothing more can be predicated of the Self than that it exists. Seeing God or the Self is only being the Self or yourself. Seeing is being. You, being the Self, want to know how to attain the Self. It is something like a man being at Ramanasramam asking how many ways there are to reach Ramanasramam and which is the best way for him. All that is required of you is to give up the thought that you are this body and to give up all thoughts of the external things or the not-Self.

Q: It is cruel of God’s leela (play) to make the knowledge of the Self so hard.
M: Knowing the Self is being the Self, and being means existence, one’s own existence. No one denies one’s existence any more than one denies one’s eyes, although one cannot see them. The trouble lies with your desire to objectify the Self, in the same way as you objectify your eyes when you place a mirror before them. You have been so accustomed to objectivity that you have lost the knowledge of yourself, simply because the Self cannot be objectified. Who is to know the Self ? Can the insentient body know it? All the time you speak and think of your `I’, yet when questioned you deny knowledge of it. You are the Self, yet you ask how to know the Self. Where then is God’s leela and where is its cruelty ? Because of this denial of the Self by people the sastras speak of maya, leela, etc.

Q: Yes, I still understand only theoretically. Yet the answers are simple, beautiful and convincing.
M: Even the thought `I do not realize’ is a hindrance. In fact, the Self alone is. Our real nature is mukti. But we are imagining we are bound and are making various, strenuous attempts to become free, while we are all the while free. This will be understood only when we reach that stage. We will be surprised that we were frantically trying to attain something which we have always been and are.

Q: Is mukti the same as realization?
M: Mukti or liberation is our nature. It is another name for us. Our wanting mukti is a very funny thing. It is like a man who is in the shade, voluntarily leaving the shade, going into the sun, feeling the severity of the heat there, making great efforts to get back into the shade and then rejoicing, `How sweet is the shade! I have reached the shade at last!’ We are all doing exactly the same. We are not different from the reality. We imagine we are different, that is we create the bheda bhava [the feeling of difference] and then undergo great sadhana (spiritual practices) to get rid of the bheda bhava and realize the oneness. Why imagine or create bheda bhava and then destroy it?

Q: Since realization is not possible without vasana-kshaya (destruction of mental tendencies/habits), how am I to realize that state in which the tendencies are effectively destroyed?
M: You are in that state now.
Q: Does it mean that by holding on to the Self, the vasanas (mental tendencies) should be destroyed as and when they emerge?
M: They will themselves be destroyed if you remain as you are.

Q: Is one nearer to pure consciousness in deep sleep than in the waking state?
M: The sleep, dream and waking states are mere phenomena appearing on the Self which is itself stationary. It is also a state of simple awareness. Can anyone remain away from the Self at any moment ? This question can arise only if that were possible.
Q: Is it not often said that one is nearer pure consciousness in deep sleep than in the waking state?
M: The question may as well be `Am I nearer to myself in my sleep than in my waking state?’ The Self is pure consciousness. No one can ever be away from the Self. The question is possible only if there is duality. But there is no duality in the state of pure consciousness.

Tibetan Buddhism: Free and Easy by Gendun Rinpoche

~ Tom Das ~ 7 Comments

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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.

New Online (Skype) Meetings: Non-Duality & Spirituality Meetings, London, UK

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

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