Do you understand non-duality?

If so, kindness is the proof. If you are lacking in compassion then that is proof that your understanding is intellectual. It shows that the ego idea (concept of separation) is still at work. The ego idea is the essence of violence. It is resistance against the flow of life and it is the very belief in a world apart from oneself. I am making no claims to be permanently free of ego. Sometimes it arises, other times it is absent. When it is absent, there is peace, no matter what is happening around one. When it is present, there is struggle. Seeing the ego as another arising of the divine energy is a way to be at peace with even this most difficult manifestation of life. Though it appears to indicate a distinct self, it, itself, is a selfless arising, from God/source/being like everything else.

You don't need me

In 2007, I went and saw Wayne Liquorman when he spoke in Frederick, MD. It was my first encounter with what I, at the time, considered to be an "enlightened human being". When I entered the hall where he was speaking, there was a strange charge in the air. He came out, in front of everyone, and folded his hands and bowed. Then he sat down and silently made eye contact with each person in the audience for a long time. When it was my turn, I felt extremely anxious, like I wanted to shit myself. After he had gone around the entire room in this manner, he spoke for awhile then had a question and answer session. Luckily, the main thing I came away from this experience with was the deep down realization that I didn't need him or ANYONE to be complete. How is the worship of another person or a seeing of them as "better" or "purer" than oneself going to make one a healthy, independent human being?

Recently, I've been reading a book about UG Krishnamurti called "Goner". It was written by a person who was with him during the last years of his life. It depicts UG as a coarse man who was verbally and physically abusive. I would not subject myself to be around someone like that. He would often tell his "followers" that it was all pointless and that he wasn't a religious or holy man but they still venerated him. Maybe there was a special energy in his presence, I don't know. Maybe his words and actions didn't reflect his true inner sweetness but why do we look to anyone else for answers, even someone who tells us not to look to others for truth? I don't need any of them. None will bring us closer to truth/God. Truth is in this moment, wherever we are, whatever we're doing. It is life. It is the aware presence that gives expression to all things. We trick ourselves when we believe we need a guru, hero or God to experience it. THIS IS IT.

Curious emptiness

Even amidst the life-story drama of being an apparent individual, there sometimes is recognized a curious emptiness. It seems alien to the story of strife and struggle. It is is an aspect of ourselves that really can't be defined. While wrapped up in identification with the passing forms, it will usually just be skipped over because nothing can be done with it and it doesn't seem useful in "fixing" our imagined problems, which is, of course, our focus. Perhaps at some point the ego (self idea) gets called into question. There may be the seeing of it as merely another thought arising in awareness. This is the dis-identification with the belief in the limited person. Without this core concept, life is known as a sentient emptiness in which everything appears. This knowing void is always present, through every experience of life. Being absolutely nothing, it is absolutely everything. How curious! This conscious void has no problems and is perpetually at peace, always in the only moment there is--the present. Past and future are insubstantial phantoms, they never have nor never will exist. Right now, when is it? Now, of course. Now, look again, when is it? Now.

These words are unimportant. Do you see what they're pointing at? It is the most obvious aspect of existence, and, being so, it is the hardest to see because every where you look, it's all you see. We miss the forest for the trees.

An interesting position

In life, we find ourselves in an interesting position, that is: we are the infinite, mistaking itself for the limited and, therefore, seeking the infinite. The light of awareness gives rise to all manner of sensations, thoughts and feelings. Certain of these perceptions are sometimes mistakenly translated, in thought, into a separate self. After this limited self is taken to be real, there is the attempt to escape the feeling of limitation and to be re-integrated with all that is. The ironic part of this search is that one was never apart to begin with.

It's kind of like this: A person who was born free becomes an actor and starts playing the role of a slave. They play the part so well and for so long that they actually forget who they really are and totally identify with the role. One day, a friend might recognize them or they might naturally grow tired of living "in bondage", ending the masquerade, throwing aside their stage prop styrofoam chains, and they realize the natural freedom that has been theirs all along. There's no need to struggle against chains that aren't real. Bondage never existed, except as an idea and, therefore, liberation doesn't exist either. All of the drama of individuality and isolation has only been the boundless movement of the light of God. There is nothing apart from that.

This is the experience of love

This, whatever is being experienced in this moment, here, there or anywhere, is nothing other than the manifestation of love/oneness. Thoughts might arise that interpret it as "good" or "bad", desirable or undesirable but, here it is, this is it. When we no longer judge experience against what we think it should be, then there is peace. This peaceful sentience is the natural ground of everything. When the self idea (ego) isn't at war with life, there is effortless being. This is always in all ways the case, just overlooked sometimes in favor of the "surface ripples" of thoughts, which can imagine conflict and discord. All is one, one is all. That's all.