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The Essence of Spiritual Teachings The mind doesn't allow for love. With all its inclusions and exclusions and motives for doing so, it is far too crowded. Thus there is the invitation to return to childhood. The child, as of yet, doesn't have a mind. The ego or mind is undeveloped. So a leap backwards, in this case, to infancy, is in reality a leap forward. When this is seen, so is the essence of "spiritual teachings." The irony is that when we look for the mind, while expecting to find one, we don't. There is just a vast sense of space, subsequently, it is seen that everything is a development, and who you truly are is space. This simple seeing and sensing space IS the consciousness of the child, and it is the AWE factor to which I invite you. Enlightenment Is... What often passes for enlightenment is a hodgepdge of insights from various wisdom traditions, a blend of psychology, philosophy and isms. But enlightenment isn't that. Enlightenment, very uniquely, is when the ego is found to never have been. However much one may "progress" in both insight and experience, until this moment arrives, enlightenment hasn't happened. The enormous shock of enlightenment is that there is not even one, let alone two. The ego is a story, it is not an entity. There is no entity. There is only That. The Mind is a Thought. Seekers have no difficulty noticing thoughts. What is rarely noticed is that the seeker is also a thought. The thinker is a thought. The doer is a thought. The individual is a thought and the person is a thought. Mental activity gives the illusion of a singular entity, or "mind" which is then discovered to never have been. No such mind ever existed. "There is not even one let alone two." The Support of a School. Because this is so rarely seen and so contrary to everything that is known, I have begun a school to explore this unusual discovery. The Enter the New: School of Enlightenment is such a place. Nestled in Miller Beach Indiana, we meet to explore this single phenomenon. In this school, we don't learn; we look. We explore a very specific phenomenon. Together, with a little guidance, a surprising fact can be realized - that contrary to belief, the mind really doesn't exist. Seek the mind, and the mind is found not to be. This is self-inquiry, and this is peace, and this is freedom. Since a "non-existent" mind can neither come, nor go, the "awakening" happens, not when the mind goes, as some have articulated, but when the longstanding assumption that any such mind ever existed is overturned. By recognizing this simple but extraordinary truth, only That remains. The enlightenment, as it turns out, is that "the mind" never was. Nothing is Mine In the story, there are a number of "I"s "me"s and "my"s, but upon further investigation, I find that the "me" truly isn't. This is a cancellation of the entire story, as it relates to me. How can it be otherwise if there isn't a me. My perceptions, my feelings, my thoughts, all presuppose the "me" which isn't. Hence nothing is mine, including me. This is freedom from the story and from every story. Now, if presently, there isn't a "me" to which these stories refer, will a "me" magically appear, some later date in the future? Can a non existent me return? Clearly, it cannot. The default setting of the brain and nervous system try to involve "me," but I am not. This is freedom. What Happens Thoughts spontaneously arise, which then get associated with an assumed entity or person that isn't truly there. However, the arising thought itself gives this appearance. By referring back to an assumed separate entity, or thinker, the belief, "I' think," is established. In reality the "I" or a thinker is just another thought and has appeared only after thought has arisen. It is not that thoughts originated from "I" but that "I" originates from thought. The Troubled I If the I that is referenced as being "troubled" occurs after thought and not before, then this troubled "I" doesn't exist. This troubled "I" that doesn't exist before thought doesn't exist, except as a thought. Thus, the troubled, "I" which doesn't exist before thought is in reality the product of cognition. Simply put, the troubled "I" is a thought. So, I begin wanting to know whether these stories, which are the product of cognition, are identical with what I am. What I find is that prior to thought no "I" exists. That which exists is free. I look for the "I," and in its place I discover peace. As soon as a story is identified, which necessarily involves the ego, I investigate and I find the ego to be only a post-cognitive phenomenon. The ego is a thought. Neither the story nor the creator of the story are entities, since both arise only after thought arises and not before. The "I" that occurs is post-cognitive and is not what or who I really am. Who I am is free. That which exists post-cognitively does not bear upon what exists pre-cognitively. In light of this new discovery, I find that the question to be asked is whether I am identical with the "I" in the story. Upon investigation, I find that I am not. I discover the "I" of the story to be a product of cognition, and I find who or what I truly am, just to be. Self Realization In the simplest terms, self-realization is the invitation to discover the "who" behind the body and mind. We say, "my body," "my mind," while never investigating the one whose body and mind it is. The invitation is to turn away from the mind and body, which are mistaken for who you are, in order to discover who or what you truly are. In this investigation, I find that there are no words for what I am. Nothing can be known about That, except that it is. Beyond this, I cannot know anything about myself. I know only that I can't know. Ordinarily, what is known to me about myself is not the Truth at all. What is known is a persistent thought, that up until now has supplied me with an identity. It is as if an idea is accepted and valued as what you are, while the truth is altogether overlooked. When this is rectified, there is a discovery of what I am not as well as a recognition of what I truly am. Breaking the Relationship The assumption is that I am the creator of stories, but upon investigation I find that there is no creator. Thus my association with the story, as the creator of that story, dissolves in the seeing that no creator exists. So long as I continue believing that there is a creator and I am he, I am connected with that story, just as the parent is connected with the child. These stories originate from a mind; that is the assumption. Through seeking a mind and not finding one, the relationship with the mind is broken. When we look for the mind, we are looking for the originator of stories. When we don’t find one, the relationship with stories, as the originator, is broken. The End of Suffering Enlightenment means the end of suffering, because the "enlightenment" is that the sufferer is an illusion. It's not that the body isn;t real or that nothing exists, or that everything is imagined. It is not an "illusion" in that sense. The sufferer is an illusion, in the sense that the effects are seen. There are: thoughts, feelings, sensations etc, but no perceivable cause. It's like trying to say that the child exists, without the parent. This is not possible. For there to be a child, there must be a parent. If the parent is found not to be, then the same holds true for the child, even if the child seems to be so. This is the relationship with thoughts and the originator of thoughts. It is exactly the same. The Single Solution Enlightenment is the single solution to every suffering, every problem, every self concern.
For all of these burdens have one thing in common; it is the self, that is assumed to be at the center of it all. When one discovers that the ego is just a thought, an idea, the entire belief system collapses into one harmless story. In this, a lightness comes, and life is no longer "your" suffering or even, "your" anything. Freedom is Losing Something Freedom is not gaining something. What is to be gained is gained already. Freedom is about losing something. It is about losing the internal policeman, whose sole function is correction. This IS the ego, the longstanding gripe with what is. "That's not OK" is the defining belief. Of course, if that is lost, then things truly are OK. When the internal policeman is recognized, the necessity of having to be that dissolves along with the need to compulsively correct. So long as the policeman remains the ruling authority, with its function of correction, there is little room for life as it is. So, freedom is not gaining something; it's losing something; it's losing this compulsion to correct. The gripe is the ego, and a gripe cannot coexist peaceably. Peace is when this need dissolves or is no longer the ruling authority. To recognize this internal policeman without needing to be involved is freedom, or total trust in life as it is. Space Makes No Effort The mind is an idea that doesn't really exist. What exists is space. That is what you are. When you look for the mind, That is what is instantly revealed. You are the space that allows for the comimg and going of all. It's not that you decide to allow. You don't decide anymore than space "decides." Does space intentionally make room for objects? Of course not. Neither do you. Space makes no effort. A calm mind is good, but to know that the mind is only an idea and that you yourself are space is indeed better. Knowing that you are the space that allows for the coming and going of all...now, that's Freedom. Only Verbs What if you started thinking only in verbs, if you dropped the "I" from your inner monologue and as a result the habit of
referencing yourself ceased. You would be free of "I" and "my," and life
would be left effortlessly living itself. Eventually you would no longer be involved and
everything would continue without you. Enjoy, Kevin Prakash |
The sense of "I" arises only after thought arises, not before. This means that individual claims of causality are not only truthful, they're delusional. The truth is: you have nothing to do with thoughts and feelings, sensations and actions, except that they occur in the infinite space that you are. In other words, your claims: "I' do this; 'I' don't do that" are untrue. |
