Knowledge and Religion

We put you beyond the need for help

Here is the continuation of our conversation from yesterday. Always ask for clarification when parts of our conversation are unclear. When things are clear, you will be on your way to freedom. So here is Scott’s reply to our last blog:

Great reply Michael!

A few things I wanted to point to were addressed in your note. One is the definition of Tranquility. I’m sure you notice it is capitalized. I wish to point people beyond thought, contemplation, understanding and emotion (the mind) and experience the realm of Self knowledge, or if you will, Tranquility.

Part of this experience is knowing what it is like, from “direct experience” which you so eloquently mention. One method is to offer the distinctions of contemplation, thought, emotions, the mind and then the space that all this takes place. One point I have mentioned thus far, is that in this experience, there is no judgment, and better yet, no judgment of judgment!

This perhaps is a good exercise for me in honing my philosophy of life, identifying and intellectualizing as a means of communicating an a-la-cart path for others myself and others.

I certainly admire and respect your work and teaching.

Regards,
Scott!

Michael replied:

Hi Scott,

Thanks for your reply. I like your no judgment. Seeing clearly means that you see how free people really are. After all where there seems to be a person, in reality there is only God. However seeing clearly also means that you can sense the concepts and self imposed boxes that people live in.

But then again you can see how easy it is to become aware of limitation and to let it go. After all when you look for these frameworks you find that they are made of nothing. Remember, the secret is that when you see a limitation it proves that you are not that limitation; you are Awareness. So on every level you really see that the person is free. That is seeing clearly without judgment.
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Step by step, Making Your Wisdom Come Alive points you to the source of timeless Wisdom, the place of enlightenment; this is Bliss that does not depend on what you do or what you think; it is your natural freedom.

For more information go to:
http://www.light-up-your-life.com/wisdom.html

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In all desires there is one desire
As for the a-la-cart, if people go for the fruits, vegetables, salads, rice, beans, ice cream, meats, or any other thing that they desire they are really going for the Tranquility and Happiness that can only be found on the inside.

Once they find that they will no longer need my book or my help. That's what I am hoping for....to put people beyond the need for my help. I hope I read your comments correctly.

Please feel free to continue asking questions. I’m always glad to hear your reactions and clarify my answers.

If the comment section of this blog doesn't work, please send your questions and comments to michael@ananya.com. To find out where this all leads go to, www.light-up-your-life.com. And finally, if you enjoy these blogs please tell your friend

Best Wishes,

Michael

Finding Tranquility

In the last few weeks I have had some back and forth email communication with Scott, a friend and Aikido buddy. I thought that I would include pertinent parts of this communication to help you clarify your spiritual practice too. Scott wrote:

Hi Michael!

I wanted to share some excitement with you. While on my trip, I picked up a book on Stoic Philosophy. In grief, it was about how the Stoics applied their philosophy to their lives. First, their life goal was "Tranquility." The book goes on to describe the various psychological and philosophical antidotes to Tranquility compromising situations i.e. Dealing with insults, aging, luxury, sex, etc.

I found the material fascinating. But as I was reading I realized the philosophy had a big whole in it. Although they were fairly complete on situations that threaten Tranquility, they did not teach how to develop and foster Tranquility.

When I had this realization, I had an intuitive idea to write about Fostering Tranquility, as well as the Stoic antidotes. I wanted to include as much pertinent wisdom that I have been taught and exposed to in my 44 years from the various teachers, friends, family, strangers, books, papers, classes, seminars and intuitions.

So far, I have written an outline and started in on the content. The first draft is in the form of a letter to my nephews. They are triplets, born on New Years Eve 2007. They are certainly a miracle to be alive since they were born premature at 5 months! They are alive and well at 1 year 2 months old. Perhaps it will evolve into more of a book format to share more outwardly.

The reason I am sharing this with you is that I wanted to interweave some concepts that you and I discuss, as well as in your book. Perhaps I can get your feedback on the material as it develops. I might also like to get some production pointers for publication; if/when it develops that far.

More to come,

Scotty

And Michael replied:

Hi Scotty,

I like your idea for a book. If you feel that you have something to communicate don't give up. This is the way that the truth of things spreads to all who are interested.

Unlike many teachers of nonduality and self-knowledge, I encourage people to read as many different philosophers as they desire. That’s because, even though self-knowledge seems very simple, so simple that people just overlook it, it exposes the holes in other philosophies.
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Step by step, Making Your Wisdom Come Alive points you to the source of timeless Wisdom, the place of enlightenment; this is Bliss that does not depend on what you do or what you think; it is your natural freedom.

For more information go to:
http://www.light-up-your-life.com/wisdom.html
__________________________________________________________________________

Is Tranquility a state of mind?
For instance, many people consider tranquility to be a state of mind. But trying to get the "right state of mind" is an endless maintenance project. It is like trying to get the waves in the ocean to stand still. And even if you guard yourself against everything that can destroy your tranquility, you still feel that something is missing.

The secret is that you are not centered in the mind. Therefore, your thoughts do not have the ability to define you: You see the mind, it does not see you. Moreover you are the peace that you are looking for. If the "bad thoughts" come up it is like falling down on the mat (an Aikido reference). Whether you fall or just walk around you don't feel like you are a different person, do you? Understanding this sameness is this is the key to finding "The peace that passes all understanding."

People try to imitate peace
Not knowing the source of peace, people try to imitate this peace with their mind. That's why they think that some circumstances foster peace and others take peace away.  But why settle for an imitation when you can have the real thing. Ramana Maharshi called this "a thief dressing up like a policeman and trying to catch the thief."

But if you can allow yourself to return to your original center you will be the tranquility that everyone is looking for in a million different places. You will have found the secret that lies in the heart of all. As space is not affected by wind and fire, you will not be affected by the circumstances in your life, including the thoughts in your mind and even death itself. Remember, we are not trying to make you into a rock. You can even express joy and sadness. But in your heart you will be free.

Peace does not equal dullness
However, this peace does not come from being too dull to see your circumstances and thoughts about them. Rather it is because you are standing in your natural state, which is alive and free.

By the way, I would be glad to give you feedback on the material and any other assistance that you need. Please feel free to continue asking questions. I’m sure you heard the statement that curiosity killed the cat. In this case curiosity kills limitation.

If the comment section of this blog doesn't work, please send your questions and comments to michael@ananya.com. To find out where this all leads go to, www.light-up-your-life.com. And finally, if you enjoy these blogs please tell your friend

Best Wishes,

Michael Gluckman

Where is the world anyway?

Where is the world anyway? At first the answer to this question may seem simple: the world is where you see it, right. But if you look deeply into this question you will be in for one of the most amazing journeys.

That’s because we often overlook the place were we actually experience the world. But you should know that life gets really interesting when you examine your experience anew. That’s because your experience of the world is more direct and immediate than it seems.

In Fact it is even closer than your thinking about it. Here is where things really come alive. It’s where you experience the world afresh like a new born baby. It is here that things lose their sense of separation and become one.
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Step by step, Making Your Wisdom Come Alive points you to the source of timeless Wisdom, the place of enlightenment; this is Bliss that does not depend on what you do or what you think; it is your natural freedom.

For more information go to:
http://www.light-up-your-life.com/wisdom.html
__________________________________________________________________________
How can you access the place of direct experience?
After this introduction you may wonder how you can access the place that I described. The answer is to question the experience of the world that you take to be normal. For instance now I am looking out the window at a tree full of yellowing buds. Where do I actually experience this tree? If the tree was out there while I am here I wouldn’t be able to experience it, right? So I must really experience the tree in here. It is only an illusion that the tree is over there.

Moreover, if I was over here, like being in a room and the world was over there then first I would see my eye sockets, like the frame of a window and then I would see the budding tree, right? But I don’t see the tree like that. I just see the tree directly, don’t I?

Our experience is more direct than our thinking recognizes
So is the tree over here or is it over there? Notice that the answers that I find are hard to comprehend with the linear mind. But fortunately there is a more direct way of experiencing the world. At this point you are stepping out of your normal thinking process and experience the world directly. From here you can see the meaning of: “Those who know cannot say.” You also get to see that your thinking only describes a limited view of the reality that you naturally comprehend. Here things are too close in to stand apart as a separate observer. Yet everything becomes perfectly clear.

Here’s another experiment that you can try that will help to clarify this: When I see the budding tree, there is an image that my eye picks up like a camera. The image goes through the optic nerve and into my brain. From my brain the image somehow gets transferred into my mind and I see my mind. So am I seeing the tree or am I seeing my own mind?

This is your home
If you can catch the meaning of these experiments you will be standing outside the usual processes of your mind; but you will feel right at home. That’s because you will have found the home that you were looking for in the millions of things that you did and that you thought. The amazing thing is that you were standing here the whole time and just overlooked it.

Those of you who studied Buddhism might have heard such statements as there is nothing outside the One Mind or there is only the Buddha mind. In Sutras like the Shurangama Sutra the Buddha provided these experiments so that you could have the direct understanding of his words. So now you know that you can experience these statements directly. The world you thought was out there is really in here, and in here is bigger than you could have ever imagined. In fact it is larger than the whole universe.

Our experience is not limited to thoughts
The truth of the matter is that our experience was never limited to thoughts. Thoughts are like a filter that seems to limit our experience. But the whole time we are standing on this side of the mind where we see things as they are. From here we get to see that there are not really two sides, over here and over there: just the one ever-present mind.

So now when some asks, “Where is the world anyway?” you can reply, “I know but I cannot say.” Standing as the whole you get to see the whole because that’s what you are. There is no need to stand separate.

If you need help with these experiments, ask here and we can explore and find answers together. If the comment section of this blog doesn't work, please send your questions and comments to michael@ananya.com. To find out where this all leads go to, www.light-up-your-life.com. And finally, if you enjoy these blogs please tell your friends.

Best Wishes,

Michael Gluckman

What does enlightenment look like?

Here is another classic blog that I wanted to bring to your attention. It will deepen your understanding of what is enlightenment.

On Tuesday at our meeting I was asked, what is the experience of enlightenment? This is a great question that I thought I could address in this blog. People who I talk with tend to put enlightenment way up on a pedestal, fit for Jesus and the Buddha but not for me.

If someone declares that they are enlightened it is like declaring that they are God, and you know what happens to people who think that they are God. For this reason, instead of talking about enlightenment, I often talk about self-knowledge. Since even now we are the self, for most people self-knowledge seems more normal and obtainable. As it turns out, enlightenment is finding reality; reality and your identity are one.

Your sense of reality comes from where you are centered

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Give the gift of enlightenment when you give Making Your Wisdom Come Alive. This book points to the wisdom and joy that you find at your center. Here you can find the light that makes life shine in its full glory.

For more information go to:
Amazon.com

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The reason it is hard for most people to fathom their identity is that their sense of reality depends on where they are identified. For instance if they are centered in their bodies, then the objects in the world seem real. If they were to develop a spiritual practice based on the assumption that they were centered in the body, then they might want to develop the body, making it more flexible or stronger. Also they might want to do something to the things that they have. To them this would be the path to perfection.

If you were to tell them that it is not the condition of the body that is important but the condition of the mind, they may not be able to grasp what you are talking about. However, if they were centered in the mind, then reality would seem like a state of mind. A spiritual practice for someone centered in the mind might be quieting the mind, thinking only good thoughts, or obtaining the correct understanding. To this person perfection would be a state of mind. The condition of the body would be less important.

Now if you were to tell these people that reality was not a state of mind they would have trouble comprehending what you were talking about. That’s because they would attempt to understand what you were saying with their thinking, the reality that they know. But their thoughts would never reach reality, which is closer in than the mind.

So the first step to finding enlightenment is to just notice that reality might be greater then what you are seeing right now. That’s when you get curious and wonder, “What is enlightenment anyway?"

You see limitation and that proves you're beyond limitation
The answer is that you are the seer of limitation, not the one stuck in limitation. Enlightenment is returning home, to the place where you can rest at ease. When the mind and the world appear, it is your identity that makes them seem so real. Indeed the world that you thought was out there is really in here. Its substance is the Consciousness and Bliss that comes from you.

You know freedom directly without the need for another sign
From here you will see that the condition of the body and mind are not your condition. Enlightenment is a state that has no sign. You know it by the freedom that you feel on the inside. In enlightenment you die to the limited sense of ‘I’ and all of its attachments like a mind and body.

And when the world disappears like in sleep or at death you remain at home, just as you are. You get to see that the feeling that I will never die, against all perceived logic, makes perfect sense. That’s because changelessness comes from what you are, not from what you see. When you die to limitation you will never die again.

The surprise of waking up
Since this is beyond what you can think, waking up is a real surprise. Things are different than you thought and the same, both at the same time. You were always here but just looked right past it. Standing here as the perfection that you are, everything makes perfect sense. 

If this seems like a description of something that is very far away, just remember that even now, you are what you are looking for. Although you can’t see your identity as a separate thing, it is closer in than you can imagine. If you take the challenge and look within, you will find the beauty that makes all of life shine. Being reality will be as normal as being a man or woman. Who would have thought that the highest enlightenment, attributed to Christ and Buddha is just who you are.
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Question everything
Here I always encourage questions. People take too much for granted about the world, their body, mind, and their nature. Questioning encourages you to take a fresh look. Looking afresh, once again life becomes fresh and a real adventure. Without changing a thing, everyday experiences become completely new. If you need help with your questions you can write me at 
michael@light-up-your-life.com.

Please join us
Every Tuesday we hold a meeting here in our house in Los Gatos California. All too often it is only my wife and I that attend. But we still have a wonderful time. If you find yourself in this area and would like to attend here is a link where you can find more information

www.light-up-your-life.com/talks.html

Other resources available to you
If you need a more basic understanding of this Self-Knowledge or if you just want support for your practice, go to www.light-up-your-life.com and read down the main column. Also check out the different links that we provide as resources. They can help you to sharpen the focus of your meditation practice.

Another resource that we offer is the book, Making Your Wisdom Come Alive, a step by step guide taking you from your everyday experience to the highest wisdom and truth. To find out more, click on the link below:

wisdom.light-up-your-life.com

To join our mailing list go to: http://www.light-up-your-life.com/join.html

Please Tell Your Friend
Please tell you friends. Although we don’t have an advertising budget, we hope that everyone who wants to can find out about and wake up to this wisdom.

You have my best wishes,

Michael Gluckman

Who am I anyway?

Stacey had some comments on yesterday’s blog: Finding security in an ever changing world:

Great article Michael, I would definitely have to agree with your writing saying that security comes from perception in life. All of life is built upon how we view it from within. This goes for all things in life, whether it is financial or physical problems. They still have to be dealt with within our own minds and reasoning, and this will ultimately determine how we deal with situations going on around us.

Yes I agree that our identity should not be linked to objects. We are not objects; we are people, who can also think about the space to which we live.

All the best,
Stacey T Pollock
http://creationtheory.weebly.com

Hi Stacey,

Thank you for your comments. The very key to the mystery of the universe is discovering that we are not an object. This means that we are not limited by what we see. So self-knowledge is a matter of stripping off limitation like you strip off worn out clothes. In the end you discover that you are the seer herself, unencumbered by any of the objects that you see.

Then, of course, you can still chose to wear the clothes. But you don’t take yourself to be the clothes. In Vedanta, the knowledge tradition in India, when you take your identity to be an object, it is called misidentification.

This is like in the dim evening light, taking a rope to be a snake, or a post to be a ghost. When you finally see what’s there, you put an end to fear. You also put an end to running after happiness and security in objects that just can’t give you what you already have.

To know the world, return home
If you want to know what the world is, just return to your true home. In Vedanta this home is called Consciousness and Bliss. Your identity is limitless, free from the least feeling of separation. Standing here you get to see what the One God really is. It is not which one. God is one without a second. This is not a matter of faith. When you know yourself you know what God is.

So what is an object? Well, you don’t take your self to be a house or a car. So we can eliminate them quickly. Yes, we can summarily say that you are not a house. But what about this body, you see that too, don’t you? So are you limited to a body or are you the Awareness that sees the body?

Inquiry is revisiting the objects that you thought were you
I think that you can see where we a going here. You really want to revisit those objects that seem like they are you. You know, “This is just the way I am” or “This is just me.” These are the little assumptions that keep us centered right smack in the middle of limitation. But now we can look at these objects with fresh eyes. This is a freshness that comes from our newly found wisdom.

So moving in a little closer, what about the mind? As you pointed out in your article, we barely know what the mind is anyway. But we do know our thoughts, don’t we? Thoughts are just objects that we see; they are not us. So we even stand beyond the reach of the mind.

Are we limited to a person?
Now what about the person represented by the thought ‘I?’ Aren’t we aware of that thought too? “I know, I don’t know, I walk, or I’m a writer.” In all of these cases the ‘I’ is just an object that we also see, isn’t it? So the most surprising part of this inquiry into our nature is that we even stand beyond the person.

Then how do you know your self?
So the next obvious question is, if we are beyond the mind, how can we know our self? We are not an object that is seen. So there has to be a different way, don’t you agree? The answer is that we know our self because we are our self. Since our nature is Consciousness and Bliss, we don’t need a light outside of our self to see what we are.

If we wanted to see the sun, we would not have to light a candle, right? We know the sun by its own light. In the same way we know our self because we are consciousness, without the need for a separate consciousness.

Indeed it is misidentification to think that it is the mind that perceives the world. It is by our own consciousness that we know the world, and know our own mind too. So it is really our nature, Consciousness that lights up the world.

Here we find a freedom that we never knew existed
We can’t stand apart from this Consciousness and look at it as though it were an object. But we know Consciousness in all of its magnificent radiance. We know Consciousness because we are Consciousness, unfettered by any of the limitations that we see. Standing here we discover a freedom that we never knew existed.

Stacey, your comments and questions are always welcome here.
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Question everything
Here I always encourage questions. People take too much for granted about the world, their body, mind, and their nature. Questioning encourages you to take a fresh look. Looking afresh, once again life becomes fresh and a real adventure. Without changing a thing, everyday experiences become completely new. If you need help with your questions you can write me at 
michael@light-up-your-life.com.

Please join us
Every Tuesday we hold a meeting here in our house in Los Gatos California. All too often it is only my wife and I that attend. But we still have a wonderful time. If you find yourself in this area and would like to attend here is a link where you can find more information

www.light-up-your-life.com/talks.html

Other resources available to you
If you need a more basic understanding of this Self-Knowledge or if you just want support for your practice, go to www.light-up-your-life.com and read down the main column. Also check out the different links that we provide as resources. They can help you to sharpen the focus of your meditation practice.

Another resource that we offer is the book, Making Your Wisdom Come Alive, a step by step guide taking you from your everyday experience to the highest wisdom and truth. To find out more, click on the link below:

wisdom.light-up-your-life.com

To join our mailing list go to: http://www.light-up-your-life.com/join.html

Please Tell Your Friend
Please tell you friends. Although we don’t have an advertising budget, we hope that everyone who wants to can find out about and wake up to this wisdom.

You have my best wishes,

Michael Gluckman

Finding security in an ever changing world

In the United States we are uncovering many instances of fraud. The most famous instance is of course, Bernald Madoff, who was arrested by federal agents, accusing him of running a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, perhaps the largest in Wall Street's history.

Today I thought I would talk about the victims of this fraud. They thought they had lots of money and now they find that their money is gone. If before they thought that security equals money, now they realize that this is just not true.

With everything changing where can we find security?
And yet everyone wants to feel secure, to feel that their happiness cannot be destroyed in a minute. So where can they look? If money, houses, cars, and physical health can’t provide it, where can we get our security from? Even our minds and thoughts can change for reasons beyond our control. Old age and certain chemical reactions in the body can cause our thoughts to change in ways that we could not have anticipated.

So do we have to live without security? Do we have to resign ourselves that our happiness can be snatched away in an instant with no recourse? This doesn’t feel right, does it? Then maybe we just overlooked the place where security comes from.

We know for sure that if there is a solid unchanging foundation to our life, it does not come from an object. All objects are born, have a life, and then pass away. Scientists tell us that this is even true for the universe, let alone our body, mind, and wealth. So where can we find security, happiness or peace that will not pass away.

We overlooked one little thing
The secret is that we see objects, but we are not limited by the objects that we see. Therefore security comes from what we are, not from what we see.

Taking our identity to be an object, we begin to feel limited by the body and the mind. Part of that limitation is the fear that we could lose our happiness and even pass away. So we want to find a way of securing our life, our happiness, and our peace. But even the techniques that we use to gain this security, like investments, pass away. This is an awkward situation.

Is there a place that is not affected by what we see?
But if we return our identity it its rightful place, something happens that we could not have anticipated. We find a place that is not affected by the objects that we see, called the ups and downs of life. This is the steady boundless center and it is because of this stillness that we can even see that which changes.

Standing here life turns on its head. The reality that we thought came from the world actually comes from us. It is our light that makes the world shine. The happiness that we thought came from the world actually comes from this still center. We cannot know our being like we know an object that we see, but we know it in a lot more direct and intimate way. This is our direct experience. We know our self because we are our self.

The depths unaffected by the storms above
Our wealth can come and go; our body and mind will, as they were born, pass away. But standing here we get to see that it is only objects that pass away, not us. Here we find our real security. It is deeper and thus unaffected by anything else that we may appear to have. When wealth comes, we are the same and when it seems to leave us, we remain right in our center, the depths of the ocean unaffected by the storms above. This is our original nature. Know thyself and you will know what I am talking about here.
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Question everything
Here I always encourage questions. People take too much for granted about the world, their body, mind, and their nature. Questioning encourages you to take a fresh look. Looking afresh, once again life becomes fresh and a real adventure. Without changing a thing, everyday experiences become completely new. If you need help with your questions you can write me at 
michael@light-up-your-life.com.

Please join us
Every Tuesday we hold a meeting here in our house in Los Gatos California. All too often it is only my wife and I that attend. But we still have a wonderful time. If you find yourself in this area and would like to attend here is a link where you can find more information

www.light-up-your-life.com/talks.html

Other resources available to you
If you need a more basic understanding of this Self-Knowledge or if you just want support for your practice, go to www.light-up-your-life.com and read down the main column. Also check out the different links that we provide as resources. They can help you to sharpen the focus of your meditation practice.

Another resource that we offer is the book, Making Your Wisdom Come Alive, a step by step guide taking you from your everyday experience to the highest wisdom and truth. To find out more, click on the link below:

wisdom.light-up-your-life.com

To join our mailing list go to: http://www.light-up-your-life.com/join.html

Please Tell Your Friend
Please tell you friends. Although we don’t have an advertising budget, we hope that everyone who wants to can find out about and wake up to this wisdom.

You have my best wishes,

Michael Gluckman