lawnmower

The lawnmower is my friend…

It forces me to think about little things

Like how heavy it is on a hot sunny day

And how nice a sip of tea would taste

Or how to cut the jungle grass

To avoid hurting slimy slugs

And reminds me that lost doggie doo

Must be returned to a neighbor’s yard

That pretty flowers grow between rock

To shield them from a whirling blade

And see what’s cropped today

Will return as tall next week

That rain moves slowly across the sky

But drops fall quickly into green blades

Like how it takes the time out of time

And the do out of doing.

stone dance

An infinity of stones live on this beach

Rounded, oblong, egg shaped, rectangular

Endless shapes, endless sizes

Too small could hurt

Too round might roll

Too stacked will tumble

Too far to step

Eye sees the pattern

Foot finds the path

Body feels the motion

And a dance takes place

On this shoreline of stones

canoe flight

Awareness grows out of aimless thoughts

As paddles merge in time

And reflections sparkle across rippling waves

When oneness is realized

There is no effort inside

The perfect harmony of canoe

And so it lets us fly…

By John Simmons

Spirit   

Upon these ancient rocks I stand

for miles both north and south is sand.

I sit upon these rocks and stare,

there’s more than sand that greets me there,

some unseen force envelops me,

a whispered voice internally.

Upon this beach of ancient lore,

of Raven’s moon and tempests roar,

on this thin line where life first moved,

between ebb and flow of legends, truths.

where I am one with shore and sea,

the air I breathe is all of me.

The first embracing of this sight

my soul released baptised by light.

I reeled from cloudy vision’s stare

and heard a voice expressing care.

Consumed by love at passions door,

surf-mists enshroud me to this shore.

Drifting in this murky state

between life and death and half awake;

subconscious chyrsalis of mind

takes flight, seek truth and answers find.

As dawns the day, the sun gives rise

to understanding in my eyes.

Now as the sun breaks through the trees

an eagle swoops with graceful ease,

surprise is swift, the flesh to end,

reborn the soul to comprehend

immortal spirits lurk and loom

their threads to weave from womb to tomb.

Glimpsing truth like shooting stars,

fingers quest through prison bars.

In knowing love and feeling pain

my soul has seen from whence it came.

Inscaping thus, joy brings a tear

my heart is full, yet tinged  with fear.

Impassioned tear upon the  sand,

cradles me in  trembling hand.

The power to see beyond, behind,

a mystic world but few can find.

I am, I am, at one with thee,

a dream, a quest, eternity.

It forces me to think about little things

Like how heavy it is on a hot sunny day

And how nice a sip of tea would taste

Or how to cut the jungle grass

To avoid hurting slimy slugs

And reminds me that lost doggie doo

Must be returned to a neighbor’s yard

That pretty flowers grow between  rocks

To shield them from a whirling blade

And see what’s cropped today

Will return as tall next week

That rain moves slowly across the sky

But drops fall quickly into green blades

Like how it takes the time out of time

And the do out of doing

Steve Flawith

We are making these books available to a wider audience. To help with this we are offering the books free. Click on the titles below. This will take you to the smashwords site. Then go through the normal buying process but use the appropriate code numbers instead of paying.

The code for

UNDERSTANDING, the simplicity of life is YQ72H  smashwords.com

The code for

SOMETHING TO PONDER Reflections From the Tao Te Ching is SC89X  smashwords.com

The books can be downloaded for all the major e reader formats

Questions:

So I’ve read the book [“Understanding”] numerous times and so far seemed to have missed the point of it all…

In my pondering I am thinking that perhaps there is too much actual thinking going on–trying to get my head around all these concepts, some of which seem to conflict with my reality in this world. All this thinking really just encourages more thinking and more internal arguing and debate within myself. It’s a vicious circle of, round and round it goes, the “understanding part” doesn’t seem to get any closer.

“If the seeker is the obstacle to finding the sought… then the seeker needs to stop searching”

Perhaps the whole thing is really just “all in the acceptance of things as they are”, blemished and non-blemished. Acceptance of everything—the way I am as a person with all my flaws, fears and stories, the way the world is right now, the acceptance of my time in this place, of other people and their stories…

If this state of acceptance of “things as they are” can really be assumed wholeheartedly without reservation and then lived this way everyday within the mind, to me it follows that everything else will follow—there will be no need to continue to search for the path or seek that thing called enlightenment because it’s already been found, it was there all the time; you don’t need to do anything at all except to just accept life as it is, the way it is.

Now, that’s the hard part, can anyone tell me how to do that?

Response from Colin:

Confusion and the mind: Like a dog chasing its tail, is part of a process, frustrating as it may be, that leads to peace. When faced with your own experience and something you read or someone tells you, go with your own reality but makes sure it is reality and not belief. You are the final arbiter of what is real. Advaita merely describes in many different ways the underlying reality and invites you to look and see for yourself. As you know no one can learn to swim for another.

First of all, understanding is not thinking. Thinking may precede it but understanding itself is not a process that involves thought. Also, understanding doesn’t get closer, it’s either understood or it is not. It’s either on or off.

In a way it’s a bit like putting together a jigsaw without having seen a picture of what it will look like when done. At a certain point we look and suddenly realize what the picture will be. This is known as a gestalt or sudden understanding; where certain things have fallen into place. When understanding happens, to whatever degree, whether large or small, it comes quickly like the flicking of a light switch.

Although understanding when it takes place happens quickly it may be only a part of a much larger whole. Only in rare instances is the original gestalt also the final one. When this happens it produces a massive and complete realization.  For others the same realization happens incrementally, a piece at a time and when the final realization takes place it feels like another minimal shift, no big deal! Both are experiences of awakening, the same awakening.

The seeker cannot stop seeking once he starts, the hunger is too strong and appears to over-ride his apparent free will. What is your own experience? For me there were times when I wished I could walk away from the seeking but couldn’t. It had me and I was merely along for the ride.

You have understood correctly, it is, “all in the acceptance,” as you put it; not, however, in your acceptance.

It would be wonderful if you could assume a whole hearted attitude but you can’t. You cannot assume wholeheartedly anything because you do not exist in the way you think you do. If you tried to wholeheartedly assume the acceptance of what is, would it not be a lot like having a firm belief? I’m sure you must already know the futility of firm beliefs.

It is also a correct observation that the acceptance is a state. What also must be understood is that acceptance comes, like understanding, and requires no doing by anyone. So, how does it come about? That is the real question, not how do I bring it about?

There are two major avenues I’m aware of that can bring this about:

If in the first instance, through personal examination the seeker is convinced by his own experience and observations that he does not have free will or that his free will is useless to him, (for instance he cannot stop seeking even when he wants to) it eventually brings with it a relaxation and deep acceptance of life as it is. After all, if I don’t have free will then life is simply happening and has been happening since I was born. Given that, I might as well relax and with relaxation comes acceptance. Acceptance simply happens by itself. It cannot be achieved, no effort will bring it about. The good news is that understanding is all that is needed.

Or from the second avenue:
If through personal examination and observation the seeker comes to understand that he cannot locate himself in time and space. Yes, he seems to have a body, but he cannot locate the notional owner who says, “this is my body”. Then he has to conclude that the apparent solidity of who he had taken himself to be doesn’t really exist.

Then the question arises, just who or what is he? He knows he exists, it is the one thing he knows for sure but who or what is this he that knows he exists? Before he can answer this question he may realize that what he has mistaken himself for might best be described as a collection of concepts, a story, even a collection of stories, but all of them in the end a kind of illusion.

When he comes to this conclusion it follows that he cannot do anything to bring the acceptance about. Why? Because since he doesn’t seem to exist in the way he had thought, who then is to bring about the acceptance?

To arrive at this conclusion through observation usually takes time but when it happens the by-product, so to speak, is the acceptance of life as it is, including ourselves, as we are.

As it turns out, what we were prepared to strive for cannot be achieved through striving but emerges in its own time and its own way, purely as a result of understanding. Quite a paradox!

Then, as you have accurately described, there is no longer any need to search for the right path, no need to seek enlightenment because it has already been found.” You say that is…”the hard part!” But, in fact it is the easy part. Why? Because it is really hard is to have a non existent self exercise his non existent or useless free will to accomplish his objective.

To reiterate. Since no one exists, no personal self, how can a non existent you bring it about. And, from the earlier observation—that free will does not exist, how can you deliberately bring the acceptance about through the exercise of your will? You cannot.

Acceptance may not happen in what you might think of as a timely manner but when it does it will be because there is the very deep realization on your part that who you are is pure subjectivity, Consciousness Itself.

In the meantime you may have to put up with the mind, the thinker you mistook yourself for. It is temporary, however, it will pass in its own good time. In fact, what is taking place, the confusion in the mind, is the unwinding and unraveling of a subtle net of beliefs about which we have previously been unaware. They are sometimes referred to as sanskaras.

I suspect you’ve not missed the point after all.

Colin

Governing a country is like frying a fish
When overdone it soon falls apart.

When a leader is centred in the Tao
Evil loses its power.

How does evil lose its power?
By not resisting
Its power is soon spent.

How do I know this?
Through observation.

The sage understands this
And governs accordingly
Harming neither himself not others.

The word satsang comes from sanskrit and means to be in the presence of the master, literally to breath in the same air or share the same breath as the master.

Satsang, is different from the process of learning in the West. From a Western perspective knowledge is acquired. One of the predominant requirements in the acquisition of knowledge is a good memory. Satsang’s purpose, however, is quite different. It seeks to bring forth the understanding inherent in all of us, and this does not require memory. That is why learned knowledge can be forgotten whereas understanding, when it happens, is permanent. It cannot be undone once it has taken place. This is an important distinction.

Another difference between learning and understanding is that in learning the student tends to emulate the teacher and his methods whereas with understanding one finds one’s own way of teaching. Thus what Ramesh taught appears in many ways so different from the teachings of his guru, Nissargadatta, or  Ramesh’s enlightened disciples. This explains why so many masters speak with authority from the place of a deeply shared understanding while the stories, techniques and philosophical contexts can differ considerably.

Sometimes people refer to Advaita Vedanta as a philosophy. But, strictly speaking it is not. If it was it could be learned. But, Advaita cannot be learned. What Advaita actually is, is a description, an artful description of reality with an invitation, in fact, a requirement that the student find out for himself if what the master points to is true. This is not something that generally happens overnight. Why? Because the process of separating reality from belief is not easy. It is, however, essential to real understanding.

Thus it is that a distinction exists between the role of teacher and the role of guru. The teacher’s role is to facilitate the learning process whereas the the guru’s role is to facilitate unlearning, the dismantling of beliefs in order to reveal the simple reality behind them. This is why the term guru is used instead of teacher. The term guru also derives from sanskrit and means dispeller of darkness, illusion and ignorance.

In addition to the use of language and intellect found in satsang there is another more subtle process taking place. Some guru’s, Ramana Maharshi for instance, were said to teach in silence. From a Western perspective it might be called a process of entrainment, which can be said to take place all the time one is in the presence of the master. ( see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrainment_(physics))

The idea of entrainment is best understood from the perspective of energy. A calm and peaceful energy tends to bring forth the same peacefulness in those whose energy is disturbed.When the strings of a guitar are tuned to a particular key they are also tuned to each other. When slightly off key there is a harmonic distortion detected by the trained ear. As the strings harmonize with each other the dissonance disappears. It could be said that harmony is a natural state and all disturbance moves in a direction toward the steady state it is.

Satsang, as practiced in the East, has been passed down from generation to generation over thousands of years. Because this tradition has largely been lost in the West, we who grew up here have some difficulty understanding its purpose and how it works. Instead we tend to think of satsang as some kind of discussion group amongst friends and fellow seekers. But this is not the case. Satsang is a process which leads to the removal of that which stands in the way of direct understanding.

The master is that, a master. His task is to bring the light of awareness to the student/disciple; awareness of those things he may have taken for granted, those things about which he is deeply unaware. When the seeker reaches a certain point in the spiritual search he starts actively looking  for someone who can answer his questions.

Having done considerable research himself, the seeker is keenly aware he’s not found what he’s looking for. He may even have gone to those considered authorities only to find they knew no more than he did.

What seekers want is the peace the master has. By now they have little interest in discussion with other seekers when in the presence of the master. They might even feel impatient with those who think of satsang as a discussion group and interrupt the flow of dialogue between the master and the seeker.

Satsang is not a discussion group.  It is a process of deep inquiry where questions are directed to the master and close attention paid to the responses. It may be noted at times that the same question raised by different people brings forth different responses. This is important as the master is often responding to a deeper question hidden in the words.

Does this mean that there’s no time or place  when seekers may discuss amongst themselves the process in which they are deeply involved? No, it does not mean this. What it does mean is that satsang is not the place for it.

During the twenty years I went to India and met with Ramesh and other disciples there was no discussion amongst ourselves during satsang. Afterwards, however, we had lively and informative discussions; usually in small intimate groups of friends and acquaintances from all over the world. This often took place over lunch upon leaving Ramesh. Sometimes we explored together the environs of Mumbai and a culture and land so different from our own.

These groups changed constantly as new people arrived and others left. Many friendships were formed and  in discussions with them we could formulate deeper and more precise questions when next we met with Ramesh.

Local writer, Colin Mallard went  to New York in 2011 to receive an award from “The Next Generation Indie Book Awards” for his latest book, Understanding. The book was a finalist in the category of Spirituality. It was also the winner in the “US National Indie Excellence Awards,” in the category, New Age Non Fiction (Indie Awards represent the best work by independent publishers across North America). Understanding had also recently been a finalist in the “US National Best Books Awards” in the category New Age Non Fiction.