The thought that "life is a dream" is a dream.

Where would all of the thoughts of all of the sages of all of the ages be without a breathable atmosphere and oxygenated brain? We can talk about a disembodied "Absolute" and how life and nature are "unreal" but would such thoughts exist, COULD such thoughts exist without the body, brain and the environment that supports it? If we weren't abstract-thinking animals, these kinds of statements/discussions wouldn't hold any attraction for us. Try to talk to a cow about emptiness or "The Absolute" - it will just continue eating grass.

The Root Belief

The ego (self-image) is the root belief - all of the others are offshoots. From this image of separation, gods are born, "enlightenment" is conceived, Hells and heavens in all of their threat and promise are imagined. The seeker is also born - the one seeking reunion. As long as the premise of a separate self isn't seen through, the search will go on. One can pray, meditate, stand on their head, self-flagellate, follow a guru, create religions, chant "hari-krishna," ring bells, burn incense, become a beggar, devote their life to causes, fight for truth, give it all away, fast, find god, lose god, etc. When the self-image is seen as the flimsy, fickle construct it is, what was considered outside of oneself collapses into the singularity too. We were never apart from the universe or natural process. The lonely ego and lonely deity it imagined outside of itself collapse into oneness as well. 

Of course these words are just another possible description and perspective - like all words. The only reason we get so caught on them is our specie's penchant for abstract, symbolic thinking. If there is a "reality," it's only found beyond the words and images. Burn the maps. Only when we're truly lost are we truly found. The ego-idea hates this kind of talk, though - it wants security, something it can never have. It can't even appear to exist outside of thought.

Spiritual Self-Reliance

I am now negotiating with Non-Duality press to publish "Myth of the Ego" and my latest book, "Spiritual Self-Reliance" together in one volume. Since I wrote "Blessed Disillusionment," there have been many changes in my personal life and the way I see things. I passed the manuscript for SSR to them a few days ago so it's very fresh material for me and illustrates where I'm at currently.

Here's something I posted on facebook last night about being in love with the mystery of life:

"Free from belief in limiting concepts, I live as unbounded life. No safety net. No tightrope. The wholeness of life in this moment lives itself as me. No position to be defended or forced. No shortfall or surplus. This, just as it is, enough. No description necessary to be. The mystery fills the horizon and circumference of space in even the quietest moments. The fact of existence itself, absolutely inexplicable. Nothing to buy or sell. It blows my mind how nothing I know. Eyes look outward again and again in wonderment. This is impossible. Entirely. Entirety. Eternity."

Love.

Things have changed!

Since the last time I posted, my outlook has changed considerably. Over a couple of decades of seeking, I managed to internalize a lot of ideas. I find that clear seeing requires not being under the sway of ANY concepts, no matter how "spiritual" they are or good they make us feel. Though the philosophy of Advaita (non duality) is often seen as the "end of the road" I found myself even questioning that set of concepts and beliefs. At a certain point it struck me how little I actually know. It was very humbling because it was clear to me that, in that moment, I knew NOTHING yet I still WAS. It became clear to me that, for adherents of it, even non duality is a belief system. Admittedly, it can be a powerful pointer--the very notion that nothing is separate, but I find myself to be most clear when NO ideas are clung to.

I have shared this realization with some non duality folks on facebook and it has mostly gone over like a fart in church. We of course get invested in our identities, even when the identity is the idea that we don't have an identity!

Existence doesn't require any thoughts or descriptions, these mental formulations are secondary and this is where most if not all of the problems in our lives lay--that we mistake ideas for truth.When that quits happening life is experienced as wholeness. All divisions lie in thought. Of course there is no actual separation between consciousness and what appears within it: life.

It is easy to speak absolutely when one has learned how to. Nisargadatta did this very often. Though I have found much of what he said to be helpful, I have to question if he actually knew with absolute certainty everything he was saying... I doubt it!