Knowledge and Religion

Freeing yourself from limitation

Zak had some experiences where he was abiding beyond the condition of the mind. Then he asked the following questions. 

Of course there are always more questions...

There are two times in which seeing (being seems more apt) feels impossible:  When I am tired and when I'm in the company of others.  It seems very very hard to focus during these times.

I have been reading your wonderful book and you probably get to that somewhere..The reason it seems impossible is that when I attempt seeing in these situations, the usual inexpressible widening/feeling of ease does not happen.  It's very hard to describe but there certainly is a difference when awareness is seeing awareness as opposed to when awareness is seeing anything else.  I mean, if there was no difference or opening of some sort, how would one ever know if it was being seen?  Opening and widening aren't the right words.  It goes beyond that.  It's not experiential, as you said.  but it does not seem to happen in those two instances I listed.  I could continue with these kind questions forever, it seems.

Love to YOU

Dear Zak,

Your practice is going along amazingly like mine did so you will probably really enjoy my book. Now that you have a sense of what it’s like to hang out as Awareness, unaffected by the condition of the mind and the world you are starting to notice the areas where you come down back into limitation.

I call these areas conceptual frameworks, unexamined beliefs, or assumptions. Just by seeing what’s going on here you pull out the stakes that tether you to limitation. Notice I never say to replace the bad thoughts with good ones, or to take on positive beliefs in place of negative ones. Although the power of positive thinking is very popular, it occurs on the level of the mind. The people who teach this method overlook one thing. When you recognize limitation you are automatically standing as Awareness, the reality behind the universe. So our job is just to recognize the beliefs that we hold. Just recognize them for what they are: beliefs and not reality.

So let’s get more specific here. First let’s examine focus, and then we will get a little more into the company of others which is actually a great one to look at.

What is Focus?

Focus is just a state of mind. As you notice it is always changing. When you are highly interested in a subject your focus has a natural intensity to it. Then you get sleepy or you go to the class with the worst teacher possible. Your focus seems to fade out. But where do you stand so that you are aware of these changes in focus? You even see when your mind slips into a dream or into deep sleep. Here you are looking from the Consciousness that is always there. You can clearly see that this Consciousness is not a state of focus.

This Consciousness is present even when the body and mind pass away completely. So it certainly is not affected by a small change in your ability to focus. One last comment here: I do not recommend cultivating a dull state of mind. Bright awareness is your very nature. That includes the alertness to see limitation and step beyond it. But when you find your focus slipping, just notice where you stand. You are the Consciousness that sees the change in your ability to focus not the state of mind that we call focus.

In the company of people you can be free

Now you talked about when you are in the company of others. You will find that people are wonderful teachers. That’s because, by no fault of their own, they will always find a way to bring up your assumptions. It seems like every idea about what people are and what the world is comes to the forefront. These are the ideas that seem to keep feelings of separation in tact. They make us feel uncomfortable.

Some people will find this an obstacle and wish to move into a monastery where they can have minimal contact with people. But for us, our contact with people, even if it doesn’t go as we expect is a celebration. That’s because when we see a limitation, we have the opportunity to be free from that limitation. Feelings of limitation are God’s way of say look here.

In my case for instance I saw the world as a scary place that I had to defend myself against. That’s why I took up the martial arts. I was born in a Jewish family right after World War II. I remember seeing pictures of concentration camps with the theme, “Never let this happen again.”

When I went to school in New York City I lived in the lower east side and had plenty of conflicts and robberies. Isn’t it interesting how I sought situations in my life that would affirm my view of the world. When I finally started to challenge this view of life and to notice the harmony that goes through the core of life, my outlook changed.

I finally was able to see that the world and the people that I met were not different than me. Can people really be different from Awareness? They are just the one Consciousness. Now when I relate to people, or write to you, or talk with people, it is Consciousness talking to Consciousness. The feeling of ease comes when you are just relating to yourself without the feeling of another. Without separation, there is no obstacle here. Even when you are with people you feel right at home.

This does not mean that at times I don’t disagree with people and have arguments. But no matter how heated an argument gets, it’s impossible to lose sight of the reality behind the differences. That’s the Awareness that binds us as one. This Awareness is not a state of mind and cannot be affected by your state of mind.

Now that you know that in reality at the core there is only Awareness and not separate people, see if you can detect what is bothering you when you are around people. Continue to look at the spots where you feel limitation and you will find yourself getting free in ways that you would not expect.

You do not have an infinite number of concepts

One last comment: You don’t have an infinite number of concepts to deal with that will take forever. Be willing to look at any concept that may arise. But at the end you will see that it is just one or two concepts that bind you. Dig them out by the root and you will have no place to go except to remain as the freedom that you are.

Finding support for your practice

This is a more advanced article. If you want a basic understanding of this path, or if you want support as you practice throughout the year go to: www.light-up-your-life.com. Read down the page and enjoy the wonderful pointers to your Self-Nature. Also notice the many links to resources that are available to you.

You can also read through the archives of this blog and you will see how it is possible to find the innate freedom that’s right at your center.

If you would like a step by step approach to getting to your core and finding this freedom, you can get my book, “Making Your Wisdom Come Alive.”

Here questions about this article or other things going on in your life are always welcome; you can write us at michael@ananya.com. I love questions and try to answer them all in this blog. That’s because when you start to question limitation, you are on the verge of destroying it.

Tell your friends

If you enjoy these blogs, tell your friends. Although we don’t have money for advertising, we would love to see everyone who wants to, wake up to the wisdom at their very core.

Best Wishes,

Michael Gluckman

 

What's the differnce between a thought and Awareness?

Zak has now come to the big question question:

One more question.. (hopefully the last)

This is a big one and I don't know why I didn't begin by asking it. It's what would always trip "me" up before.

How does one know if they are actually inquiring/seeing or are just tricking themselves and experiencing nothing but a thought about what they think truth is?  Sometimes I wonder if my experiences while I am seeing are real, if what I am seeing is the real I/I am not that is the truth.  Also, sometimes it seems easy to see, other times incredibly hard and subtle.  This whole thing seems so frustratingly subtle that it's hard to see what is really happening.

How do I know when I am actually inquiring?  I can stop here for a moment and just see without judgment for about two seconds at a time before thought grabs the attention again.  In that short period there is just seeing.  Is that it, or is it something more?  There really isn't any more asking "Who am I?" anymore.  In fact, that never seemed to work at all.  The only thing that has ever worked has been this that I described.  Sometimes during this, there are incredibly indescribable (and fleeting) experiences of freedom and rest and exhilaration.  Other times there is nothing.  Does that mean when there is no experiential feedback during this seeing practice, "I" am not doing it right?   I realize I am starting to repeat myself, and I apologize.

OKAY,

I think that's really it.

THANK you once again.

Hi Zak

Thanks for your questions and curiosity. This kind of curiosity is what destroys the feeling of limitation so that you can wake up to the reality permeating the whole universe. Dullness is thinking that limitation is natural and true. Curiosity begins to pull up the stakes that keep us grounded in limitation.

Self Inquiry in some sense is really strange. That’s because even now you are the Self. But taking yourself to be limited to an object that you see, you feel limited. So at the end, in Self Inquiry you discover that your real home is not limited by what you see. Then you are free.

You do not cultivate reality

I am sure that you already know that you are not trying to obtain a physical or mental state. After all any physical or mental state that you would cultivate would in time disappear. This would not take you to the changeless reality at your core.

For instance when you know yourself, it does not mean that the body will never experience pain. And of course the mind will go ouch! So how with all of this can you still be free?

This is not something that I am telling you based on a memory of an experience. This is my direct experience even now. This experience does not depend on my ability to write about it or talk about it. Even if my mind was completely jumbled this awareness and bliss would still be my nature.

It is also your nature. Here is the proof: You say, “Sometimes during this, there are incredibly indescribable (and fleeting) experiences of freedom and rest and exhilaration. Other times there is nothing.”

From where to you see change?

You see your mind changing from moment to moment, don’t you. Where do you stand so that you can see the changes? Are you changing too or are you the still, ever-present Consciousness that change goes though? It is because of this great stillness that you even know about the changes in your experience.

For instance, you were in the middle of a deep and blissful meditation. Then you started to day dream. You were a monkey in India about to receive a banana from Ramana. In an instant another monkey jumped up and snatched it from you. At that moment you came back and thought, “Dam, I just lost my meditation.” But the real question is how did you know about this day dream? Were you unconsciousness or were you the awareness that saw the day dream.

When you’re in the habit of standing as the mind you may try to split the mind in half. One half you call Consciousness or the witness, the other half you call the object that you see. But even if you have to do something as simple as responding to an email, you lose track of this mental witness. But you were aware of the whole process of splitting your mind up and losing track of one half, weren’t you?

You saw this process from non-volitional Awareness. You didn’t create it, you can’t use it, and you can’t lose it. It is even there in deep sleep when there is no object to see. The only thing you can do is return there and be yourself. You are not a thought or group of thoughts. It is the fact that you are aware of thoughts that makes them seem so alive and real. You are that Awareness.

One practice that I recommend is that when you have a job to do that’s so complex that you can’t stand apart from it, just do the job with your whole mind. Then afterwards take a few minutes and meditate. Notice how you were aware the whole time. Without even taking thought of it, you were centered right in your own true nature.

What is it like to wake up to this?

There is one other thing that I neglected to mention. Waking up is instantaneous, but it didn't feel like Bam! As if I was blasted into hyper-space. Rather it felt like for the first time I found what is truly normal and natural, that I had finally found my home. This home was always there but I had just overlooked it.

Mistakenly I had taken myself to be the ‘I’ which was the subject of my thinking. But that wasn’t me; it was just another object that I saw. My real nature could not be defined or captured by that little thought.

Does the state of your mind really dictate your meditations?

As long as you assume that you are defined by what you think then your thinking will seem to define reality. When your thinking is quiet or subtle you will think that you are having a high meditation. When your thinking gets noisy and confused you will think that you have fallen into a low meditation.

But the real secret to Self-Knowledge is to notice that you are really centered in Awareness and Bliss. That center is unaffected by the condition of the mind and body. After reading all of these words you might think that waking up is very complicated. But standing here things are really simple; so simple that even Ramana’s cow Lakshmi could wake up.

I would recommend reading through “Making Your Wisdom Come Alive.” In this book I show you the common places where people identify with limitation and I show you how to free yourself from these feelings of limitation.

Finding support for your practice

This is a more advanced article. If you want a basic understanding of this path, or if you want support as you practice throughout the year go to: www.light-up-your-life.com. Read down the page and enjoy the wonderful pointers to your Self-Nature. Also notice the many links to resources that are available to you.

You can also read through the archives of this blog and you will see how it is possible to find the innate freedom that’s right at your center.

If you would like a step by step approach to getting to your core and finding this freedom, you can get my book, “Making Your Wisdom Come Alive.”

Here questions about this article or other things going on in your life are always welcome; you can write us at michael@ananya.com. I love questions and try to answer them all in this blog. That’s because when you start to question limitation, you are on the verge of destroying it.

Tell your friends

If you enjoy these blogs, tell your friends. Although we don’t have money for advertising, we would love to see everyone who wants to, wake up to the wisdom at their very core.

Best Wishes,

Michael Gluckman

The Secret to Self-Inquirey

Zak has the following questions:

I don't know if you remember me.  Years ago we had some communication, and then again we had a brief communication last year (I think)

I have been all around the block with spiritual teachers and spiritual teachings. Finally I came to Ramana and self-inquiry; finally I came to the point.  The truth.  The end.  I knew from the moment I read and heard about self-inquiry that it is the answer to all and the end of duality.

I have been struggling with self-inquiry practice for a year or so.  I have been in communication with several of those who teach and speak self-inquiry. I had two or three brief "awakenings" that lasted a week at a time.  Each time it was all seen.  I am was seen, I am not, was seen.  All was so obvious. (or was it?  It really is impossible to know for sure).  But time and time again bullshit returns.

For the past few days I have resolved to devote all my time and energy into finding, once and for all, the truth.  I just returned from the closet, where I sat and stood in the darkness for hours from morning into this afternoon.  Fervently I try to see who I am.  Awareness seeing awareness.  I am going to try until I don't anymore.  Only finding and seeing the truth will end the illusionary person who is trying to find anything.  That person is still here.  Still seeking. Still not finding anything but brief and weird (REALLY weird) metaphysical experiences.

These experiences once dazzled me, but I am no longer here for a light show.  I am here for the TRUTH.  Once and for all, god damn it.

I have read everything I could find on the practice of self-inquiry. 

Every thing I have read remains cryptic.  "Simply turn awareness to awareness itself"  "simply inquire, 'who am I?'"  My response is, HOW?

HOW? HOW?  I can make up thoughts about these things, I can try to blindly do what is suggested, I can try to observe present experience, I can try to drop all and let go, yet nothing is seen.  No ending of self.  No beginning of peace.  HOW does one REALLY self-inquire?

The seeking still seeks.  Your response may be, "what sees that the seeking still seeks?"  I have tried that.  I have tried it all. (really)

Thank you for your time and your kindness.

I look forward to your reply.

- Zak

Hi Zak,

I definitely remember you. Thanks for your questions. I like your energy and determination. That’s the kind of energy that will transport you to the other shore. Ramana’s recommendation is to practice with the energy of a drowning man fighting for air. Practicing with that energy, you will see that the other shore is your identity even now.

Ramana also recommends finding out who you really are.  That’s where you actually stand. The place where you stand will determine how you seem to experience the world, life, and your thoughts. For instance, if you stand as a physical body then physical matter will seem to be the center of things. If you stand as your mind then your thoughts will seem to be the center of your experience.

If you stand as the thought ‘I’ then the person will seem to be the center of your experience. For instance you said,

“I can make up thoughts about these things, I can try to blindly do what is suggested, I can try to observe present experience, I can try to drop all and let go, yet nothing is seen.”

How many times in this quote do you use the word “I”? Is that “I” you or is it just another thought in your mind, another thing that you see?

The secret to Self Inquiry is that you are aware of the subject “I” as well as the various struggles that you have with your mind. The thought “I” is an imposture; it is not really you. It is like a thief dressing up like a policeman and then trying to catch the thief. Will this policeman ever succeed?

You are not a thought. You are the ever-present Awareness. You do not see Awareness as a separate object. You know Awareness because you are Awareness.

See, what happens is that people overlook the living quality of Awareness and assign the utmost importance to their thoughts. Then they begin to feel that it’s the thoughts that shape their experience and define their identity. But the whole time they are struggling with their thoughts, they stand as the witness of their struggles as well as the witness of the one who seems to be struggling. So Self-Inquiry is returning to your real center and looking at things from here. From here you will know the way things really are.

The Feeling of going in and out of realization

You mentioned that you had experiences of realization that lasted for a week at a time. You said,

“All was so obvious. (or was it? It really is impossible to know for sure)  But time and time again bullshit returns.”

I’m glad that you mentioned this because when I was practicing I had the same experience. From within the experience it seemed like it would last forever. But then I would come “down” again and I didn’t know why. Moreover, when I came down, my suffering seemed a little more intense that it was before. So what was going on?

Well one day it occurred to me to ask, “What am I coming down to anyway?” After all that’s what I was taking to be my real home, or what was really true. I thought, “I have really high meditations but the place that I come back to when I am not looking, that’s what I am taking to be me or just the way I am.”

I can take a nice long vacation to place a like Hawaii. But at the end when my vacation is over I will return to my home in California. When you wake up you will see that it’s like returning home, to a place that’s all inclusive where there is no other place to go or no other identity to slip back into.

In my case for instance I was taking the world to be a scary place that was completely separate from me. So in the end I was coming down to the guy who struggles with the world. When I recognized this framework as a limiting concept and not reality, all of the sudden I eliminated a place that I regularly came down to.

It was soon after that that I saw that my real mistake was taking “I” to be a limited person and not the omnipresent Awareness. That’s when I woke up.

So what I recommend is that if you don’t wake up after reading this blog, let’s dig through the bullshit and see if we can find the unexamined concepts that you are coming down to. You will then see that just by becoming aware of your conceptual frameworks (the things you take to be true) you will be free of them. You will find your life and your meditations changing in way that you would never have expected.

Who experiences reality?

Also one more point about doubting the validity of your experiences. When you stand as Awareness, things become very clear and simple. But your thinking is too limited. That’s why when you feel centered in your thoughts, you may wonder, “Did I really experience that?” Yes, you did experience reality. But the “you” was not your mind. The “you” was reality experiencing itself with no other thing to stand in between. So “you” as thoughts did not experience reality. It was Awareness experiencing itself.

Finally I just wanted to mention that I highly recommend Ramana Maharshi. Stick with his teachings and you will surely wake up. And if this raises any more questions that I can help you with, please feel free to ask. I don’t want you to end up with a better mental concept of what nonduality is. I want you to wake up to your direct experience.

Finding support for your practice

This is a more advanced article. If you want a basic understanding of this path, or if you want support as you practice throughout the year go to: www.light-up-your-life.com. Read down the page and enjoy the wonderful pointers to your Self-Nature. Also notice the many links to resources that are available to you.

You can also read through the archives of this blog and you will see how it is possible to find the innate freedom that’s right at your center.

If you would like a step by step approach to getting to your core and finding this freedom, you can get my book, “Making Your Wisdom Come Alive.”

Here questions about this article or other things going on in your life are always welcome; you can write us at michael@ananya.com. I love questions and try to answer them all in this blog. That’s because when you start to question limitation, you are on the verge of destroying it.

Tell your friends

If you enjoy these blogs, tell your friends. Although we don’t have money for advertising, we would love to see everyone who wants to, wake up to the wisdom at their very core.

Best Wishes,

Michael Gluckman

Our connection is very deep

Craig wrote with the following comments and questions:

Hi Michael!
 
I know it was a "mass email" but nonetheless it was delightful to hear from you. I think the message of following one question or quality for a year is a good idea for me.  And since I never could choose just one flavor of ice cream, imagine the challenge to choose just one spiritual quality to explore... for a whole year! Being a bit scattered can be delicious, fun and interesting at times, but the tendency towards fragmentation can also erode peace and clarity. So, I'm ready to take this suggestion on.
 
I have a question: earlier this week, I awakened to this sense of gratitude for people in my life, and was a bit surprised how extensive and deep it went when I explored it a bit. It's a marvel how fortunate I've been with various connections. It was almost too much as it dawned on me how certain people have had such life-shaping influences. So my question is, when someone seems to show up just at the right place and time repeatedly over the years, or another person seems to almost inadvertently and subtly exert influential changes in my life's course, is there a spiritual connection beneath all this? Are these people angels on assignment, so to speak? Is there a spiritual gravity that draws certain people to others at the right time? Maybe these are just questions that will have to remain a mystery, but I still have to ask...
 
Thanks! And happy New Year and merry everyday to you!
 
Craig

Dear Craig,

Thank you for your reply to my mailing. Although it is a mass mailing, if you can call my small opt in list “mass,” if you desire to wake up to that which is at the core of the universe you can consider this blog written directly to you.

You find the core by discovering your own Self-Nature. That nature is not an object that you see. It is what you are. Sages call your essence Consciousness and Bliss. So the key to this practice is to stop identifying with the limitations that you see and return to your real identity as the seer of limitation, not as the one who seems to be stuck in it.

Why establishing a steady practice is important

That’s why establishing a practice and sticking to it is so important. What will happen? Sometimes you will feel like practicing and sometimes you won’t. In either case the feelings will seem to be real. But if you continue with your practice of standing in the place where you actually experience happiness, or standing as the witness of the things that you see and feel, you will find that something very interesting starts to happen.

Your thoughts and feelings will start to shift. And when they do the new thoughts and feelings will seem real. As an example I had some of my best insights on days when I didn’t feel like practicing. And one of those insights was that the sense of reality that thoughts and feelings seem to have does not come from the thoughts and feelings at all. The sense of reality comes from me. You can imagine that when I had that insight, I felt like practicing once again.

So I support your intention to take up a practice and stick with it for a whole year. Then next year if you are not completely free and awake, you can reevaluate and fine-tune your practice to go deeper. As part of your practice I encourage you to establish a time each day where you sit and meditate.

Now I know that you are a very busy man. But if you see that the potential for meditation is to step beyond all that comes and goes, including the body that passes away, then you will see that the purpose of life is to find the uncaused stillness that lies at your core. Dedicating some time each day to meditation is just keeping your priorities straight. No matter how important everything else in life seems, at the end this is what’s really important.

One thing that I want to emphasize here. Although we are talking about a year of practice, what you are searching for is here even now. At any moment you can wake up to the peace and freedom of your own Self-Nature. Use this knowledge to put full energy into your practice now. Reserve nothing for tomorrow when you can wake up today.

How deeply are we connected?

As for your feelings of gratitude for the people in your life, you are starting to get a sense of how deeply we are all connected. These feelings empty out into a living oneness, permeated by bliss that has no beginning and no end.

After all if limitation does not apply to your nature, can there be a place where you are not? At your core you are everything and nothing both at the same time. This is the deepest meaning of connection and oneness. At your core you are not only connected to all the people in the universe, you are connected to everything in nature without the least separation.

Now I know that this does not make sense to the mind. But the beautiful thing about spiritual practice is that you discover stuff that you could never anticipate. It comes as a complete surprise. But what you really find is that your direct experience is much deeper than your mind could ever think up. When you look afresh you will find that thinking is just a small part of what you actually experience.

In fact if you look closely you will see that all your experiences and all your connections are coaxing you back to your core. Whether the people in your life seem to be angels pointing you in the direction of happiness and peace, or devils throwing obstacles in your path like the school principal, they are all helping you to find the happiness that is free from obstacles. You find that by looking within. Here you will see that the essence of life is spiritual and the feeling of being connected is spiritual.

Finally congratulations for recognizing these life-changing influences. I’ve seen so many people who have discovered this knowledge and then looked right passed it as if it wasn’t even there. They are like fisherman, satisfied with the small fish, who forget about the big one that’s right in their grasp.

Continue to remain curious and to ask questions. Curiosity is one of the best weapons for stepping out of dull limitation and into the sparkling Consciousness and Bliss that’s right at your center. This blog was written at a high level with the hope that it will raise lots of questions in your mind.

Finding support for your practice

If you want support as you practice throughout the year go to: www.light-up-your-life.com. Read down the page and enjoy the wonderful pointers to your Self-Nature. Also notice the many links to resources that are available to you.

You can also read through the archives of this blog and you will see how it is possible to find the innate freedom that’s right at your center.

If you would like a step by step approach to getting to your core and finding this freedom, you can get my book, “Making Your Wisdom Come Alive.”

Here questions about this article or other things going on in your life are always welcome; you can write us at michael@ananya.com. I love questions and try to answer them all in this blog. That’s because when you start to question limitation, you are on the verge of destroying it.

Tell your friends

If you enjoy these blogs, tell your friends. Although we don’t have money for advertising, we would love to see everyone who wants to, wake up to the wisdom at their very core.

Best Wishes,

Michael Gluckman

 

 

Make Your Wisdom Come Alive

I want thank Kevin Loucks for his recent review of Making Your Wisdom Come Alive on www.amazon.com. I really like the way he summarized the book and showed how it affected his life. You can see this review below:

I've wanted to write a review of this book since I first read it more than a month ago, but I had so many thoughts in my head that I really didn't know where to start. Finally, I realized that what I had to say was really very simple, and the title to this book says it all.

Michael Gluckman has a wonderful writing style that allows him to explain complicated ideas in a very accessible, conversational fashion. For me, however, the best part is that his premises are demonstrable through personal experience. Yes, that's right, you can prove the truth of his assertions with the benefit of your own experience.

I personally came upon "Making Your Wisdom Come Alive" after many years of reading, studying and rereading other books, from the Bhagavad Gita to the Tao Te Ching, and many others. I understood and enjoyed on an intellectual level the things that were being said, but I always had trouble bridging the gap between my intellect and my experience. Finally, there came a point in time when I needed to experience what I was reading about first hand, but I wasn't really sure how to do that. Michael Gluckman, and "Making Your Wisdom Come Alive" helped to start me on my way.

In the past month, since I first read Michael's book, I have begun to see progress in applying the reality that I had been studying from a dry, scholarly perspective for so many years. This is a journey that requires patience, and attention to detail, but with Michael's help, I am on my way.

In the meantime, the texts that I have been reading for all these years have "come alive" in new and wonderful ways, and I am seeing things all around me that I never noticed or appreciated. Also, my behavior is better generally, and the little silly things that I used to waste too much time worrying about are not so important any more.

Needless to say, all of this is not bad for the price of one small book....

I highly recommend "Making Your Wisdom Come Alive" because, as I said in the title to this review, the title of this book says it all. Michael Gluckman's book does make your wisdom come alive, and much, much more.

Kevin Loucks

Here are some links where you can get this book:

http://www.light-up-your-life.com/wisdom.html

http://www.amazon.com/Making-Your-Wisdom-Come-Alive/dp/141966946X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199954424&sr=1-1

Best Wishes,

Michael Gluckman
www.light-up-your-life.com

Have a happy New Year

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you a happy new year. In this year I hope that you find the peace and happiness where there is no turning back.

If your resolution this year is to wake up to your own nature, and find the wisdom and peace that you always possessed, here are some suggestions. Follow the one suggestion that makes sense to you. Stick with it for the whole year and see how you grow.

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If you enjoy these blogs, you will enjoy Making Your Wisdom Come Alive by the same author. You can get this book at Amazon.com. Here is the link:

Making Your Wisdom Come Alive

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1) See that you are the source of Bliss

Notice that the happiness you experience does not depend on what you sense, what you do, or what you think. You discover the source of happiness on the inside. This practice is really simple. Find the place where you actually experience happiness. This place is free from the objects and people that seem to cause your happiness and your suffering.

This happiness stands free from the ups and downs of life. It is a shift of your center from that which is in motion to the stillness that’s at your core. Although this stillness is often overlooked, when you find it by standing there, you will find the meaning of, The kingdom of heaven is within you.

Discovering this you will have happy new years with no end in sight. This is the secret to discovering what you really are. Keep your practice simple and steady and you will find the meaning of these words.

2) Find your innate Awareness

Notice that whatever you think or feel you stand as Awareness, not as the thoughts. In that way the thoughts, whether good of bad, will not have the ability to define you. That’s because you will see that you are the steady Awareness, which is your being;  not as the thoughts that flash through your mind.

You will see that thoughts in themselves have no reality. The sense of reality that they seem to have actually comes from the Awareness that shines as their background. You are that Awareness.

This practice never involves trying to think the good thoughts or getting rid of the bad thoughts. It is just a matter of standing in your natural place or just recognizing where you stand already. This is the secret for discovering your own Self-Nature.

No matter what obstacles or suffering you seem to face, continue this practice and you will surely find your freedom.   

Finding support for your practice

If you want support as you practice throughout the year go to: www.light-up-your-life.com. Read down the page and enjoy a wonderful pointers to your Self-Nature. Also notice the many links to resources that are available to you.

You can also read through the archives of this blog and you will see how it is possible to find the innate freedom that’s right at your center.

If you would like a step by step approach to getting to your core and finding this freedom, you can get my book, “Making Your Wisdom Come Alive.”

Here questions about this article or other things going on in your life are always welcome; you can write us at michael@ananya.com. I love questions and try to answer them all in this blog. That’s because when you start to question limitation, you are on the verge of destroying it.

Tell your friends

If you enjoy these blogs, tell your friends. Although we don’t have money for advertising, we would love to see everyone who wants to, wake up to the wisdom at their very core.

Best Wishes,

Michael Gluckman