Knowledge and Religion

How can suffering equal freedom

Today I would like to talk about an experience that I had when I was practicing. I think it is a very common experience for those aspiring for self-knowledge. This is so you will be aware of it and will be able to turn what you may perceive as a negative situation into a chance to explode in your growth.

So your practice is going along and you are feeling more peace and happiness. Since you know the secret of the place of happiness, you walk around with that little knowing smile. Then all of the sudden you feel more suffering and mental pain than you ever felt before. It may feel as though you were hit in the gut. What is going on here?

What you are bumping into is a conceptual limitation, a limiting framework that you may have believed and lived by for most of your life. Now you have provided the space for it to creep up.

Remember, this is not new suffering. This is suffering that was always there. But against a gray background you may have hardly noticed the darkness of suffering. But as this background becomes clearer your suffering stands out more. Now you have the opportunity to notice your limitation so that you can release it and stand free.

This is one of the reasons I say, “In our practice you are not what you see and feel.” You are the ever free and shining awareness. So when you feel suffering and limitation it proves that your natural state is awareness and not the suffering that you perceive.

Often times what happens is that people identify with the suffering they feel, rather then with the awareness that they are. However if you can make this small shift from being the suffering to being awareness you are well on your way to resolving your limitations forever.

Even if it seems to take a little time to recognize the causes and to dismantle your suffering, if you just know that you are already on the right side you will be well on your way to freedom.

By the end of my practice I was hoping that suffering would come up in my mind. That’s because I recognized that suffering provided me with the opportunity to resolve my limitations. Without limitations, where would I come down to? All I could do is remain in my natural freedom as the self that’s at the heart of all.

In the next blog I am going to go into more detail. I will dredge up some embarrassing details from my own practice and show how I was able to find and resolve the limitations that my embarrassment pointed to. But the most important thing in this case is not the details. The most important thing is that when suffering comes up it is not proof that you are trapped and stuck; it is proof that you are free.

I hope that this raises lots of questions for you. If you noticed, in this blog I just use your first name when answering your questions. That’s so you remain anonymous and can ask questions with impunity. People are amazed when they find that things that bothered them seemingly forever can be resolved in a few minutes.

So tell me what keeps you feeling limited and bound. I will help you to untangle the knot that keeps you feeling limited. All you have to do is recognize that your  suffering is not your natural state.

I do this so that you can wake up to your innate freedom much faster than I did. The only advantage that I have in my long and plodding practice is that I have lots of experience in untangling myself from perceived limitations. So I know what works and what doesn’t. If I can share this knowledge I can cut years of futility off of your spiritual practice.

If you want to get a sense as to where all of this leads go to www.light-up-your-life.com. I think you will be surprised when you see how free you can be. And don’t forget to tell your friends.

Best Wishes,

Michael Gluckman

Who experiments

After an early morning Aikido class, Chris and I sat down and wrote this blog.

We love the idea of internal experiments. If you even have a little sense that this teaching is theoretical these experiments will show how experiential you really are.

These experiments can help you to see the difference between what you’re suppose to experience, and what you actually experience. For instance every one knows that when you close your eyes you don’t see the body but the body is there, right? But when your eyes are closed do you actually feel a body? Take a look for yourself and see. You may feel body parts like a head or a back. But in your experience do these parts add up to a body?

If you want a fresh experience of life try these experiments. It’s a lot cheaper than an airplane ticked to some exotic beach, and the effects are a lot more lasting.  

But there are limitations to these experiments. Who is the one doing them? That’s the one you come back to when the experiment is over. While you may have some interesting and mind-expanding experiences, at the end, you always come back to who you think you are. So you may as well find out who that is.

Indeed the purpose of self-knowledge is to introduce you to yourself. For starters you know that you are not an object. You see objects, right? So they are not you. Find the ultimate subject and you will rest free without boundaries.

Here it is not a question of coming back to any other place. This is the place where you naturally abide. Where there is no separate experimenter to do the experiments. Where the scientist disappears and becomes his or her experiment. 

To become this you have to disentangle yourself from any limitation that you take to be yourself. To find out more about this read the blog archives. If you start with the oldest date and work forward you will see that we actually took a systematic approach to removing limiting frameworks.

Can you become yourself? The answer is defiantly no! How can you become what you already are? The best you can do is to remove any limitations that seem to hide the freedom that you are.

Last you should know that you never have to pretend to be the self. The image will never be as good as the real thing. So if you like experimenting, find out who the scientist really is. Then you will know the limitless self that pervades the whole universe, and that will just be you.

And don’t forget, all questions are accepted here. Curiosity killed the cat but you should know that you are not a cat. Don’t assume that it is natural to suffer or live with limitations. So if you think the cat is your nature question until you are free of that cat. 

For more information go to www.light-up-your-life.com. And if you enjoy these blogs don’t forget to tell your friends.

Best Wishes,

Michael & Chris

Is It a Snake or Is It a Rope

I noticed that I’ve been remiss in writing these blogs. So far I’ve talked about self-knowledge In Christianity and Buddhism. But I missed Hinduism. Yet in the Vedanta, you find the clearest pointing out of your own self-nature that was ever written.

The reason you get this clear exposition on self-knowledge is that no one bothered to edit out the Vedanta from the Vedas. People may not have agreed the Vedanta or understood it, but they left it there for all to see.

Vedanta means the end of the Vedas, the basic Hindu scriptures. It has a double meaning. It means that the Vedanta is the last books in the Vedas and that self-knowledge is the end of the need for the rituals prescribed in the Vedas.

Then a sage named Sankaracharya came along. He simplified the language and clarified the meaning of the Vedanta. One way Sankara did this was by take examples from everyday life. He used them as illustrations so that you could understand the deep principles that he talked about.

One of the most famous illustrations that he used was the example of the snake and the rope. So here’s the story. Once upon a time a man was taking his evening walk in the forest. As the sun was setting over the hills, he felt a bite on his leg. He turned abound and looked. To his horror he saw a rattlesnake. Now he knew that he was going to die.

He thought that he would never see his children grow up, and he wouldn’t even be able to say goodbye to his wife. As he thought about all of the things that he would leave undone in his life he became very sad. Then his eyes became red and his face became wet from tears.

An old lady then was passing by. When she saw him in tears she asked, “What is the matter?” The man replied. “I was walking through the forest when I was bitten by a rattlesnake. Now I know that I am going to die. I won’t even have time to say goodbye to my wife and children.”

The old lady glanced around and in a moment she saw what happened. She asked, “Where is this snake?” The man pointed behind him. The old lady said, “Take a close look at the snake and tell me what you see.” The man looked closely and what did he see. In place of the snake he found only a rope.

The old lady said, “See that branch over there. You got scratched by that branch and you though you were bitten by a snake. But the snake was just a rope.” Relieved, the man thanked the lady and with joy in his heart he was able to go on his way.

We see this world as the container of our consciousness and bliss. But like a snake the world is always wriggling and moving. And with its movement our happiness and even our life seems to get snatched away. We have the feeling that we are not quite getting what we want. This leaves us feeling helpless and sad.

Then the sage in the form of the old lady comes along and says, “Take a look again. What is this world anyway?” We look afresh and find that the word that we thought was out there was really in us. That the happiness we struggled to get out of the world was really ours already.

What we thought was a snake with the power to harm and kill us was really a rope our own consciousness. With this discovery we wake up and see what the world isn’t separate from us in anyway.

Moreover, when this world seems to disappear we see that we remain in perfect peace; that the death of the body is really not our death. With relief and joy in our heart we are able to go on our way.

To find out more about your own being read the blogs in our archive. In different was they all point to your own self-nature. If you are a beginner and see something interesting here, go to www.light-up-your-life.com for more information.

Tomorrow, the end of the experiment. When you have great insights into your nature find out where they actually point. So stay tuned to your known self-nature. 

Finally I always encourage you to ask questions. It is really exhilarating to ask questions where you really don’t know the answer. After all asking questions is half the battle. Then you can find the answer. Remember, “Seek and you shall find; ask and you shall receive.”

We assume so many things about life our minds and about the self. Some assumptions keep us feeling limited and unhappy. By simply questioning you can rise above these assumptions. And if you enjoy these blogs, tell your friends.

Best Wishes,

Michael

Flawless Purity

I love this Sutra. It shows the Buddha in a whole different light. A lady, Gangottara, starts to question the Buddha and he has to defend his enlightenment.

You can tell that the people relaying this story were a little confused. They kept trying to put him up on a pedestal but they never quite succeeded.

In the dialog the Buddha seems quite normal and accessible. It seems as though anyone could wake up. In fact every time the Buddha’s teachings seem a little intellectual, Gangottara complains.

To get a sense of what a magically produced being is, it is like in a dream. The reality of the dream is your mind. Here this would be called the “Buddha Mind”. The characters and their interplay in the dream are like a magic show with no reality of its own.

Once you see the nature of your mind, you will see the similarities between the “waking state” and the dream. Samsara is a name for the world, which is in constant motion. The stillness that supports this motion is the nature of your Mind. To know if this is true of not look at your mind and see.

Now we will let the Buddha and Gangottara explain this:

The Sutra of Flawless Purity

Thus have I heard. Once the Buddha was dwelling in the garden of Anathapindada in the Jeta Grove near Sravasti. At that time, a laywoman named Gangottara came from her dwelling in Sravasti to see the Buddha. She prostrated herself with her head at the Buddha's feet, withdrew to one side, and sat down.

The World-Honored One asked Gangottara. "Where do you come from?"

The laywoman asked the Buddha. "World-Honored One, if someone were to ask a magically produced being where he came from, how should the question be answered?"

The World-Honored One told her. “A magically produced being neither comes nor goes, neither is born nor perishes: how can one speak of a place from which he comes?”

Then the laywoman asked. “Is it not true that all things are illusory, like magic?”

The Buddha said. “Yes, indeed. What you say is true.”

Gangottara asked. “It all things are illusory, like magic, why did you ask me where I came from”

The World-Honored One told her. “A magically produced being does not go to the miserable planes of existence, nor to heaven; nor does he attain nirvana. Gangottara, is that also true of you?”

The laywoman replied. “As I see it, if my own body were different from a magically produced one, then I could speak of going to the good or miserable planes of existence, or of attaining nirvana. I see no difference, though, between my body and a magically produced one. So how can. I speak or going to the good or miserable planes, or of: attaining nirvana?”

“Furthermore, World-Honored One, nirvana's very nature is such that it is not reborn in the good or miserable planes, nor does it experience parinirvana. I perceive that the same is true of my own nature.”

The Buddha asked. “Do you not seek the state of nirvana?”

Gangottara asked in turn. "If this question were put to one who had never come into being, how should it be answered?

The Buddha replied. “That which has never come into being is nirvana.”

Gangottara asked. “Are not all things identical with nirvana?”

The Buddha replied. "So they are, so they are.”

“World-Honored One, Are all things are identical with nirvana, why did you ask me. 'Do You not seek the state of nirvana?"

"Furthermore, World-Honored One, if a magically produced being asked another magically produced being, 'Do you not seek the state of nirvana?' what would the answer be?”

The World-Honored One told her. “A magically produced being has no mental attachments [and thus seeks nothing].”

Gangottara inquired. “Does the Tathagata’s very question stem from some mental attachment?”

The World-Honored One told her. “I raised the question because there are in this assembly good men and good women who can be brought to maturity. I am free of mental attachments. Why? Because the Tathagata knows that even the names of things are inapprehensible, let alone the things themselves or those who seek nirvana.”

Gangottara said. “If so, why all the accumulation of good roots for the attainment of enlightenment?”

[The Buddha replied,] "Neither Bodhisattvas nor their good roots can be apprehended, because in the Bodhisattvas’ minds there is no discriminative thought as to whether they are accumulating good roots or not."

Gangottara asked. “What do you mean by 'no discriminative thought'?”

The World-Honored One answered. “The absence of discriminative thought cannot be understood or grasped by means of thinking. Why? Because in the state [of no discriminative thought], even the mind is inapprehensible, let alone the mental functions. This state, in which the mind is inapprehensible, is called inconceivable. It cannot be grasped or realized: it is neither pure nor impure. Why so? Because, as the Tathagata always teaches, "All things are as empty and unimpeded as space.”

Gangottara inquired. “If all things are like empty space, why does the World-Honored One speak of form, feeling, conception, impulse, and consciousness; the [eighteen] elements: the [twelve] entrances: the twelve links of dependent origination; the defiled and the undefiled; the pure and the impure: samsara and nirvana?”

The Buddha told Gangottara. “When I speak of a ‘self.' for example, although I express the concept by a word, actually the nature of a 'self is inapprehensible. I speak of form, but in reality the nature of form is also inapprehensible, and so it is with the other [dharmas], up to nirvana. Just as we cannot find water in mirages, so we cannot find a nature in form, and so it is with the others, up to nirvana.

“Gangottara, only a person who cultivates pure conduct in accordance with the Dharma, perceiving that nothing can be apprehended, deserves to be called a real cultivator of pure conduct. Since the arrogant say that they have apprehended something, they cannot be said to be firmly established in genuine pure conduct. Such arrogant people will be terrified and doubtful when they hear this profound Dharma. They will be unable to liberate themselves from birth, old age, sickness, death, worry, sorrow, suffering, and distress.”

“Gangottara, after my parinirvana, there will be some people able to spread this profound Dharma, which can stop the rounds of samsara. However, some fools, because of their evil views, will hate those Dharma-masters, and will contrive to harm them. Such fools will fall to the hells for that.”

Gangottara asked. “You speak of ‘this profound Dharma which can stop the rounds of samsara.' What do you mean by 'stop the rounds of samsara'?"

The World-Honored One replied. “To stop the rounds of samsara is [to penetrate] reality, the realm of the inconceivable. Such a Dharma cannot be damaged or destroyed. Hence, it is called the Dharma that can stop the rounds of samsara.”

Then the World-Honored One smiled graciously and emitted from his forehead blue, yellow, red, white, and crystalline lights. The lights illuminated all the numerous lands, reaching as high as the Brahma Heaven, then returned and entered the top of the Buddha's head.

Seeing this, the Venerable Ananda thought to himself, “The Tathagata, the Worthy One, the Supremely Enlightened One, does not smile without a reason.” He rose from his seat, uncovered his right shoulder, knelt on his right knee, and joined his palms toward the Buddha, inquiring. “Why did the Buddha smile?”

The Buddha replied. “I recall that, in the past, a thousand Tathagatas also taught this Dharma here, and each of those assemblies was also led by a lay woman named Gangottara. After hearing this Dharma preached, the laywoman and all the assembly left the household life they entered the nirvana without residue.”

Ananda asked the Buddha. “What name should be given to this sutra and how should we accept and uphold it?”

The Buddha said. “This sutra is called 'Flawless Purity.' and you should accept and uphold it by that name.”

From The Sutra on Flawless Purity
“A Treasury of Mahayana Sutras”
Garma C, C, Chang, General Editor
Translated form the Chinese
Copyright© 1983 The Pennsylvania State University

I hope that you enjoyed this sutra. If it raised some questions in your mind please do not hesitate to ask. Ask and you shall gain your freedom.

Next The Snake and the Rope. To see what this means stay tuned. And if you enjoy this blog don’t forget to tell your friends. For more information go to. www.light-up-your-life.com

Best Wishes,

 

Michael

Finding what you are

Chris had some comments and questions.

In one of our e-mails you said, "Certainly we help where we can. But at the same time we see the perfection where people are already free and beyond the need for help."

Do you mean that while you do enjoy helping others that ultimately you see that they are already free and beyond the need for help because they are the Self whether they are consciously aware of it or not? Ultimately there is no one to help for you are all and all is you.

Separateness does not, never did, and never will exist. While you may meet someone that may not "be awake" the only truth is the self within them which is the awakeness itself? Would it be true to say that there is nothing separate to be awake from? There is no dream to awake from? All there is, is I, the Oneness, the Absolute, the Sat, Chit, Ananda (existance, knowledge and bliss)?

Is it true to say that if it can be sensed, it does not exist? And if it cannot be sensed, it exists?

Hi Chris and thank you for this question. I once saw the title of a book, “Selling Water by the River.” This is a perfect summary of self-knowledge. People are already the Self. But looking out into the world they overlook one little thing. The very one who is looking. They take what they see to be their self. They project fundamental being, which is also Consciousness and Bliss out into the world and call objects like their body and mind the self.

The problem with this is that the objects are in motion. As they change Conscious and Bliss seems to change too. And so people seem to suffer as they experience the ups and downs of life. But a cloud sliding in front of the sun does not really affect the sun. Similarly, people’s apparent ignorance does not really hide the self. Standing here we see that the people and all of their interplay in the world is nothing other then the self. 

That’s why we never tell people that if they want to be happy they should have this or that, perhaps a new self or a better self. This would only perpetuate the fundamental ignorance of who they really are already. 

We just allow people to be themselves. That way when they wake up they will also just be themselves. There is no need to put up an image when you can have the real thing. Without the need for an image life becomes very relaxing. That’s because you can just be yourself.  

Here you are everything and nothing both at the same time. Like a dream character is not separate from the mind of the dreamer, nothing is separate from your own nature. So when you deal with the world you can have the confidence in knowing it is just yourself. Not a foreign substance.

Now how do you sense or know the self. In the same way that you know you are a human. You do not have to think, “I am a human.” You know it directly by your own experience. That’s how you know the self too.

If you say you don’t sense the self that would be wrong. You know the self because that’s who you are. But if you say that you know it as a separate object that would also be wrong. That wouldn’t be self knowledge, that would be object knowledge. And so in the Upanishads they say, "I know it but I don’t know it." But best of all you are it.

Most people view the Buddha as larger than life. As way up there above what we could ever be. But next we are going to have a rare sutra that seems to bridge the gap between God and us. I think you will enjoy it. 

After reading this I hope that you have lots of questions. I encourage you to get curious and to continue questioning until the one who could ask is gone. Resolve not to live in limitation, but to find that which is always free. That is what you really are.

If you find this series of blogs helpful don’t forget to tell your friends. And of course your comments are always welcome. This blog is yours too. For more information go to www.light-up-your-life.com.

Best Wishes,

Michael

 

Are we everything or are we nothing

Chris asks:

Is it not true that there is only one and then the one itself disappears into nothing? Is the everything and the nothing the same?

Hi Chris,

This is a good question because it shows that you are touching something that is deeper than the thoughts in your mind. Here words fall short. All they can do is point to that which is beyond the minds ability to grasp with its neatly wrapped frameworks. All we can say is that you can’t quite put your finger on this experience.

Stay here and you will find that things are a lot closer than you could ever have imagined. It feels like the freshness in the air after a rainstorm. It is like you are communicating without even a hint of separation. Here everything is on the inside. Here the light is the nature of your own mind.

This is like being in love. From within it what can you say? It feels like the mind has disappeared and all you can do is enjoy an intense intimacy and oneness. It feels like letting go is just natural. That love is what life is meant to be like.

Then you seem to return to your mind and your minds says, “What was that?” And then the mind tries to define an experience where it was absent. “I love her because of the color of her eyes or because of the shininess of her black hair. I love her because of her personality or because of the way she thinks etc. etc. etc.”

What happens next? These things start to change. The body grows older. In time the behavior and personality change. It feels like the object of your love disappears. And with that it feels like your love disappears.

But you know there are exceptions to this rule. Some people just don’t know that they are supposed to leave their love. Or they leave it and then they find it again. The result is that after 60 years of marriage they seem to be deeper in love than ever. Now what could be the cause of this? Certainly the bodies and minds have change. In fact, there is hardly any resemblance between the 20 year old that he married and the 80 year old that stands before him now.

So how could this be? Maybe this couple discovered that love was the natural place to abide and not in their thoughts. So they never let the thoughts in their mind define or limit their love.

Now Chris, in a similar way an aspirant after truth touches his innate consciousness and bliss. He sees that the world is just inside of him and not really an external thing, or the world disappears completely along with time and space. The mind can’t quite grasp this and you say, “What was that?” You answer, “It must have been nothingness.”

But this is not a true picture. In order to answer this question you have to look from within the experience. Here words cannot capture it. It is not nothing that’s for sure, but it doesn’t fit into our experience of something either. All you can say is that you have to experience it to know the freshness and beauty of your own self-nature.

Then like love you see that this is just your natural state. You are not really centered in your thoughts. So you can let your thoughts say what they will. “It is nothing; it is everything.” You can write these long blogs with lots and lots of thoughts.

And yet you know that you can never really define the love that springs right from your own self-nature. The best you can hope for is that someone will see what you are pointing to and abide there also. Then they will be beyond the need for these words. Chris, please let me know if this answers your questions. 

Now Chris has another question which we shall get to next.

In one of our e-mails you said, "Certainly we help where we can. But at the same time we see the perfection where people are already free and beyond the need for help."

Do you mean that while you do enjoy helping others that ultimately you see that they are already free and beyond the need for help because they are the Self whether they are consciously aware of it or not? Ultimately there is no one to help for you are all and all is you.

Separateness does not, never did, and never will exist. While you may meet someone that may not "be awake" the only truth is the self within them which is the awakeness itself? Would it be true to say that there is nothing separate to be awake from? There is no dream to awake from? All there is, is I, the Oneness, the Absolute, the Sat, Chit, Ananda?

Is it true to say that if it can be sensed, it does not exist? And if it cannot be sensed, it exists?

This is a different teaching than you will normally encounter and Chris put his finger right on the reason. So tomorrow we will discuss this.

After reading this I hope that you have lots of questions. I encourage you to get curious and to continue questioning until the one who could ask is gone. Resolve not to live in limitation, but to find that which is always free. That is what you really are.

If you find this series of blogs helpful don’t forget to tell your friends. And of course your comments are always welcome. This blog is yours too. For more information go to www.light-up-your-life.com.

Best Wishes,

 

Michael

Can I experience the Buddha

Chris also wants to know what the Buddha mind is anyway.

Is the natural state of the Buddha Mind transparent? Is the Buddha Mind seeing itself because it is itself? Just like the sun ‘sees’ light because it is light?

Once again Chris, thank you for your question. You should know that a sage doesn’t really care about the words that he or she uses. The sage wants you to have the direct experience of that which is at your core. This is also the core of the universe.

So for ages the sages were using the Indian Vedanta as a pointer to their sublime experience. In summary, you are the subject; whatever you see is an object in your experience and not you. You see the body, the breath, the emotions, the intellect, the subtle body (that which exists in deep sleep), and the ego. For more information, look at my past blogs where I go into this in detail.

So you are consciousness, the seer the ultimate subject. You do not see consciousness as a separate thing. You know it because you are it. An analogy might be, the sun does not need a candle to see its self. The sun is light and so knows its self by its self without needing another light. So the Vedanta says, “You are not the mind, you are the seer of the mind.”

This is a great system and thousands of people woke up by tracing their consciousness to its source. But the Buddha noticed that this system was starting to become corrupted. People were using this system to win arguments, and to learn an interesting intellectual system instead of for its intended purpose, to wake up.

So the Buddha said, “There is no consciousness, just the Buddha Mind.” If you want to know the nature of the Buddha mind, take a look at your mind and see what it is. What color are your thoughts? Are they square or round? Are they transparent or clouded? So, Chris, if you want an answer to your questions, take a look for yourself. You do not need me to give you a theoretical answer when you already are the Buddha mind.

See, here is one of the problems with the way I teach. I use many different methods from many different religions. You do not need all of these methods to wake up. Any one is good enough. But I am afraid that if we mix up these methods, like a big melting pot, we will start to lose their power. That’s the power that leads to direct experience.

Ok, here’s a meditation, straight from the Buddha to end this talk. When you see an object where are you seeing it from? For instance, as I write this I am sitting in my office. Outside I see a beautiful oak tree. So first I see the window frame and then I see the trees outside, right?

Now, in the same way, if I see this tree from the inside my head, first I should see the frame of my eye and then I should see the tree. But do I? Besides I do not see the tree here. I see it over there, right on the other side of the window. So where do I see the tree from anyway?

Just like in meditation, the purpose of these experiments is not to come to a hard intellectual conclusion. It is rather to reexamine your experience. Indeed, what do you experience anyway? I think that you’ll find that when you look at your experience afresh, life will become very interesting, in a way you may not have anticipated.

Next Chris has one more question: Is it not true that there is only one and then the one itself disappears into nothing? Is the everything and the nothing the same?

After reading this I hope that you have lots of questions. I encourage you to get curious and to continue questioning until the one who could ask is gone. Resolve not to live in limitation, but to find that which is always free. That is what you really are.

If you find this series of blogs helpful don’t forget to tell your friends. And of course your comments are always welcome. This blog is yours too. For more information go to www.light-up-your-life.com.

Best Wishes,

 

Michael

Please don’t say renounce the world

Chris asks,

“Are you a real Renunciate because you do not salute the false I, or the Ego. You do not take yourself to be something you are not. While you may have sex and engage in many different various kinds of activities it ultimately holds no bearing on the true you; beyond time and space. You are not a true renunciate because of your actions, thought or words, but rather by your self knowledge and not bowing down to that which does not exist.” Is this a true and accurate statement Michael?

Hi Chris, thank you for your questions. I’ve noticed that renunciation is one of the more scary topics for aspirants to discuss. That’s because they think that renunciation is renouncing their happiness. Now honestly, would you really want to go to heaven if all you did was play the harp all day?

So aspirants think of renunciation as giving up what they enjoy and doing things that are suppose to be good for them like sitting for hours in meditation. And when these aspirants finally bite the bullet and give up the things they enjoy like sex or their favorite food, pizza, what do they do? They spend their time thinking about sex and their favorite food. I hope that you agree that there must be a better way.

Real renunciation is returning happiness to its source. When you enjoy the pizza or the sex where do you feel this enjoyment? Is it in the pizza or is it in your own heart. Moreover, that pizza must be very powerful if one bite can completely destroy your spiritual practice. So my advice is not to give up your activities and enjoyments. It is rather to return happiness to its source, the actual place where you experience it. 

So stop blaming that slice of pizza for something that it is incapable of delivering, your own innate bliss. And when you are on your third large pizza and it is no longer giving you that intense happiness, don’t blame it for your sorrow either. Once you notice the power and steadiness of your own innate bliss, you will be a renunciate whether you appear like one or not.

What you will learn is that the world-lings are the real renunciates. They renounce their innate joy and then run after objects hoping to get a small taste of happiness.

Now strictly speaking a sage is not a renunciate either. When the world and the ego are gone, what is there to renounce. When you discover your own self-nature you will find that you are what you’ve been looking for in a million different ways. You are the self of all and that’s all there is. There is nothing separate to be renounced. It is not that I don’t salute or acknowledge the ego. It’s just that there is no ego to be found anywhere.

Now I have head of so called Gurus who have large followings and much wealth. They collect automobiles and women. They cite the same principle that I did above, that a sage does not need renunciation or any other rules. Their reasoning might be right, but I can tell you from my experience when you are happy and at peace you don’t need much of anything. Besides, once you see that you posses everything in the universe anyway, why would you be coveting a little more.

So the real renunciate is the one who returns happiness to its source, the place where you actually experience it. Then you can let your life come to a natural balance.

Chris also wants to know what the Buddha mind is anyway. Is the natural state of the Buddha Mind transparent? Is the Buddha Mind seeing itself because it is itself? Just like the sun ‘sees’ light because it is light?

This again is one of my favorite topics. So tomorrow we answer, what is the experience of the Buddha mind? After reading this I hope that you have lots of questions. I encourage you to get curious and to continue questioning until the one who could ask is gone. Resolve not to live in limitation, but to find that which is always free. That is what you really are.

If you find this series of blogs helpful don’t forget to tell your friends. And of course your comments are always welcome. This blog is yours too. For more information go to www.light-up-your-life.com.

Best Wishes,

Michael

Are we affected by the thoughts of others

From Chris (If you want to know what blog really means).

I really do like you BLOGS Bliss-Love-Onesee-God-Self. And make a point to read every single one.

Here’s the other question from Joe: are we affected by the thoughts and vibrations of others?

Thanks Joe for this great question. Here’s two ways that you can view this question. First you walk into a subway car in a big city. There’s a foreboding looking man with a black jacket sitting across from you. You stay as far away from him as you can. In the other corner there are some teenagers taking horse-play to a new level. You can see that they are threatening the people around them.

Then there are all sorts of people sitting and standing up and down the car with what seems like ominous blank stares. They seem anything but happy. Doesn’t this environment affect you too?

First of all you will never hear me tell you to block out the things going on around you from your mind. What I do say is that your natural state is Awareness and as Awareness you see everything. If you attempt to block out the ugly you will also miss the beauty like the old man sitting in the corner with a smile and a look of perfect peace.

But notice that while many of the people on the train have problems and do not seem very happy, their unhappiness in not directed at you. It is directed at the problems they have to face in there own lives.

Did you ever notice how your attention goes right to things that seem wrong? For instance you may have a strong healthy body but if you get a headache you forget about the rest of your body and all your attention goes right to your head.

Similarly, you may have a wonderful family and live in a nice house; but if you have a fight with the boss, you forget about your family and house. You churn the thoughts about your boss, and the fight, over and over again in your mind. I think this is God’s way of saying, “Look here and resolve this so that you can come back to peace again.” 

Now Joe, because you read my book, “Making Your Wisdom Come Alive” and these blogs, you already know where they will come to rest, right in their innate peace and awareness. When their joy comes back it will not really be because their state-of-mind or their situation changes. It will be because their nature is oneness and joy.

If you abide here, you will have an affect on them, not the other way around. If you abide here you will provide an unseen resting place that they too will be drawn to. There may be no outward signs of this, but the inward force of peace and joy will have its effect.  

Now here’s the second way we could answer this question. What if someone consciously tries to direct their thoughts in such a way that they will affect your mind or your well-being? This is like someone aiming a subtle gun at you and shooting you with the aim of killing you.

We’re not going to argue here if this is possible or not. I think it is sufficient to say that a lot more people claim to have these powers than actually do. It is very difficult to obtain these powers. It takes lots of time and discipline.

People would use these powers for the same reason they would use a gun (physical gun). Not seeing that they are already the happiness they seek, they project their happiness on things outside. If they perceive you as an obstacle to their happiness they may in some rare cases try to eliminate you. Remember, this is very rare. People see lots of obstacles to their happiness but it doesn’t necessarily follow that they are going to kill these obstacles.

So let’s say someone really intends to destroy you with their thoughts. What can they destroy, your mind and your body. But you already know that these objects are not really you. You are awareness the ultimate subject. You are the space in which the mind and body goes through. Standing here you are free from the effects of the changes that occur to the mind and body. The good news is that you are even free from death.

But there is another benefit of standing here and that involves subtle powers. Because standing as awareness you become more subtitle than subtitle powers, they often times don’t have their intended effect. That’s because often times subtle powers presuppose that you are what they affect. But they just cannot affect the space of awareness, your real nature. So standing here you may even render these subtitle powers ineffective. But most important, standing here you will be what people look for in billions of different ways.

Tomorrow I have a question from Chris, “Are you a real Renunciate because you do not salute the false I, or the Ego. You do not take yourself to be something you are not. While you may have sex and engage in many different various kinds of activities it ultimately holds no bearing on the true you; beyond time and space. You are not a true renunciate because of your actions, thought or words, but rather by your self knowledge and not bowing down to that which does not exist.” Is this a true and accurate statement Michael? To sum this up, have I renounced happiness?

After reading this I hope that you have lots of questions. I encourage you to get curious and to continue questioning until the one who could ask is gone. Resolve not to live in limitation, but to find that which is always free. That is what you really are.

If you find this series of blogs helpful don’t forget to tell your friends. And of course your comments are always welcome. This blog is yours too. For more information go to www.light-up-your-life.com.

Best Wishes,

Michael

Freedom from the grip of anger

Questions from Joe,

I feel that I have to watch my anger, or it will come out in inappropriate places and it ends up biting me in the back. What should I do?

Before I attempt to discuss this question it is important to note that here we are not trying to eliminate anger. Given the right situation in life, anger is an important emotion. For instance, a child is about to wander across the street into speeding traffic. You see this child and pull him or her back and yell no!

Here anger allowed you to respond to a situation faster than you could think about it. I am sure that you would agree that in this case anger was not the opposite of love. Another famous example of the use of anger is when Jesus drove the money lenders out of the temple. So I hope you can see the importance of anger in the right situation.

Where we begin to question is when anger comes out in inappropriate situations. Here anger is based on limiting conceptual thinking. Let’s say that the door is stuck as you’re trying to get into a room. Your reaction is to get so angry that you kick in the door. Afterwards you realized you turned the door knob the wrong way. Here the frustration you felt clouded your thinking. It defiantly didn’t help the situation. Another situation, your boss yells at you at work. In response you come home and yell at your kids.

So, how do you get to the core and eliminate this type of anger? First, know that anger is not your natural condition. Peace, joy and oneness are your natural state.

Second, if you find yourself boiling up in anger it is worth looking at why you are getting angry. You must know; if you didn’t know, you wouldn’t get angry.

In general this kind of anger is caused by frustration. You throw your innate happiness out into the world. Then you feel as though your happiness is getting blocked. Just think, what can take your happiness away? If I can’t get through the door then I will lose my happiness. If my boss fires me then my happiness will be gone.

Fear of losing happiness and therefore your security, may seem to limit your options for dealing with situations in your life. But if you can just return happiness to its source, you will find that you have a lot more options for dealing with these situations than just having a job or getting fired. Yes, you can even confront your boss if you feel that his or her anger is irrational. Or just recognizing that the boss’s anger has nothing to do with you, or you can return to school and change careers.

These are just a few examples of the options that open up for you when you return happiness to its source. Fear of losing your happiness and security is paralyzing. Returning happiness to its rightful place is freeing.

Finally, once you return your peace to its source, look at how you view the world. Is it a big obstacle that is out to get you? Now I know Joe, that you have had experiences of oneness. Look from there and see if anger is your nature. When you feel oneness you feel that you are in harmony with the world. Is there anything really apart from you to get angry at? Let your life match your highest experiences and see how your life will change.

If, after noticing your innate oneness you find that you are still caught in anger, look to where you picked up this response to situations in life? Did you pick it up from your parents or friends? This is not to blame someone. It is just a chance to look at what you took to be true and why. When you become conscious of what you took to be true, you are in a better position to change. That’s because you see that there are a lot more options than you knew.

So follow these steps and you will see for sure that anger is not the natural response to situations in life. The peace and love that come straight from your essence is your real natural response. Anger is just a tool. You don’t use a can opener for every job you do, right? Similarly, anger is a tool that you should rarely have to pull out.

Next, another question from Joe, are we affected by the thoughts and vibrations of others? So stay tuned to your own self nature. Please let me know if this answers your question. Remember feel free to ask. Questioning is the gate to your freedom. For more information go to www.light-up-your-life.com.

Best Wishes,

Michael