Knowledge and Religion

Reality comes from what we are

Ok, after another diversion we are back to The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation. Because there is so much in this verse, I divided it into two parts. To review the first part go to: The Wondrous Experience of your Own Being.

Samsara is the Sanskrit word for the ups and downs in life. You know at one moment things seem to be going well, at the next moment you get sick and things seem to go down hill. To understand this verse you have to know that you just made a mistake. You were never really caught by the ups and downs of life. You were always the silent stillness that saw the changes, but you just overlooked it.

You were never caught in limitation
So your job is not to get out of the limitations of the world. Rather you just have to discover how you were never caught in them. So right in the middle of your everyday jobs and relationships you were always free of the world. To recognize this is to find the real beauty of these teachings.

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Making Your Wisdom Come Alive is like a novel where you are the main character. It takes many surprising twist and turns, and in the end you find yourself standing in the place of wisdom and joy, where you always are,and always will be.

For more information go to:
Amazon.com

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With this as a guide let’s see how Padma talks about this:

The Wondrousness of these Teachings, Part 2
Although wandering in the Samsara, it remains undefiled by evil. Wondrous is this.

Although seeing the Buddha, it remains unallied to good. Wondrous is this.

Although possessed by all beings, it is not recognized. Wondrous is this.

Those not knowing the fruit of this yoga seek other fruit Wondrous is this.

Although the Clear Light of Reality shines within one’s own mind, the multitude looks for it elsewhere. Wondrous is this.

The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation
By Padma-Sambhava
translated by Karma Sumdhon Paul, and Lobzang Mingyur Dorje
Edited by Evans-Wentz
Oxford University Press

Not noticing that our sense of reality comes from the clear light of Consciousness, we hope to get our sense of reality from what we see. And thus we mistake reality for the thoughts in our mind or objects that we see. Now while these objects seem real enough while they last, they seem to come and go. As an example people are born, but they also die, houses are built, but they also get destroyed.

And so it appears that reality comes and goes. But this doesn’t feel right. Somewhere in our heart or gut we know that reality is more than a thing that lasts for a fleeting moment. And that is because reality comes from what we are, not from what we see.

Reality is clear
Our real being is the Consciousness that lights up the world, not the things that we see. But the problem is that Consciousness is clear. It is the light that lights up even darkness. But since it is clear, a person cannot stand separate from it to look at it. And so many people think that it doesn’t exist.

But the good news is that you can know your own being. But you have to know it in a different way. You know it by standing there and not by standing as an object that you see, such as the body or a few thoughts in your mind; so stand as the clear consciousness that you really are and see how things look from here.

In this beauty you are right at home
You will be amazed to find that the thing you were looking for in many ways was right here all along. It is here that you see how things are really connected; you are the thing that makes the world seem so bright. Also here in your real home you will find the happiness that you were looking for. This happiness is freer and more expansive than anything you could have imagined. In all of this beauty, you will find yourself right at home. Here there is a silence that cannot be put into words, that does not fit into any description. Wondrous is this.

Feel free to ask questions
Now I want you to experience your The Clear Light of Consciousness in its full glory. So please feel free to continue asking questions. I’m always glad to hear your reactions and clarify my answers. Unlike the path of faith, on the path of Self-Knowledge it is curiosity that destroys limitation and allows you to abide in your natural freedom.

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

You can have what is really good

In the past two weeks I received several promises telling me that I could not only have spiritual enlightenment, I could have millions of dollars, expensive cars and houses and a great relationship. Imagine all of this for just signing up for their course.

Although this course might make the teacher rich, I can tell you one thing for sure: this type of smorgasbord that attempts to give you everything, will not lead to enlightenment. That’s because enlightenment is discovering the source of happiness and happiness does not come from houses, cars, money or relationships. Happiness comes right from your center.

The desire for Lasting Happiness Comes from your nature
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Making Your Wisdom Come Alive is like a novel where you are the main character. It takes many surprising twist and turns, and in the end you find yourself standing in the place of wisdom and joy, where you always are,and always will be.

For more information go to:
Amazon.com

____________________________________________________________________
Enlightenment is getting to the core of the universe and the one thing that the whole universe is built on. That is the desire for fulfillment and happiness. The basic characteristic of this happiness is your true identity; but this is the one spot that we look right past in our search for happiness. We look to objects for our happiness and never notice the place where we actually experience happiness. That place does not depend on what we have and don’t have. The good news is that you can be happy and at peace no matter what your circumstances seem to be.

However if you feel that your happiness depends on objects like cars and houses, you may get these things, but in the long run you will be disappointed. That’s because they just can’t give you the happiness that comes from inside of you. And in the end the thing that seemed to give you happiness will seem to snatch it away as when the house burns down, the car crashes or you will lose your ability to enjoy them.

Find the thing that will really last
So you have a choice, you can either spend your life gathering the things that seem to provide happiness, or you can dive within and find lasting happiness in the place where it actually exists. This does not mean that in order to wake up you have to live in poverty. It only means that the thing that you put the emphasis on in your life is the thing you might actually get. So just be sure to go after what you really want so when you get it you can be at peace.

In my stay here in California, I have seen too many people with expensive cars and houses who seem confused and miserable. Due to old age and disease they have lost their ability to enjoy their riches. When their wealth disappears, then what will they do? So look ahead and use your life to find your real nature. That's how you can find lasting satisfaction.

Feel free to ask questions
Now I want you to experience your Self-Nature in its full glory. So please feel free to continue asking questions. I’m always glad to hear your reactions and clarify my answers. Unlike the path of faith, on the path of Self-Knowledge it is curiosity that destroys limitation and allows you to abide in your natural freedom.

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

                                                                     Michael Gluckman

The Wondrous Experience of Your Own Being

After a few weeks hiatuses where we considered other questions, it is time to get back to The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation by Padma Sambhava. Since this book was written for the future, it is straightforward without a lot of jargon.

The key to understanding these teachings is to stand in the place that Padma points. This is like visiting the Eiffel Tower in Paris as opposed to reading about it. When just reading about it, you will never get a full sense of the experience of the Eiffel Tower, the bright lights, the smells, the tastes and the people. That’s because your actual experience is much richer than what you can capture with the linear process that we call thinking.

The limitations that you see are not your limitations
The same is true of the experience of your own Self-Nature. It is much closer and much clearer than you could ever capture with your thinking. At best, with your thinking you will just get a one sided impression of what your being is really about. But if you can stand here, even for a few seconds, you will see that there is something very amazing going on in life that you just overlooked.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Making Your Wisdom Come Alive is like a novel where you are the main character. It takes many surprising twist and turns, and in the end you find yourself standing in the place of wisdom and joy, where you always are,and always will be.

For more information go to:
Amazon.com

____________________________________________________________________

Ultimately, when you realize that the limitations that you see are not your limitations, you will remain here forever. Your real identity is the light that shines on the mind. You do not take a trip to this state called Consciousness and Bliss. It is not a vacation spot; it is your real home. Thinking that you were limited by a body and mind, you felt limited. But now it is time to return to your real home and to find the place that you never left. To get here just stand in the place that Padma points to in the next verse:

The Difference between Self-Knowledge and Psychology

The aim of Self-Knowledge is to find out who you are. This is an experiential type of knowledge. Experiential means you know the self by standing as the self, not as a separate thing.

Of course even now we are the Self. But now we mix up our own Self-Nature, the seer of objects, with the things that we see. That’s when we feel limited by these things. The reason that objects feel too limited for us is because or original nature is much more expansive than that which can be held by an object.

Our nature has no boundaries
Taking our Self-Nature to be an object is like taking space to be limited by the walls of a room. Then when there is an earthquake and the walls crash down, the room space again merges with space. But what really happened? Space was never really limited to a room. The same space was both inside and outside the room. It was also in and through the walls of the room. When the walls fell down nothing really happened to space. It was the same before and after the room was destroyed.

In the same way, we were never limited by the things that we see. To know if this is true or not, return your identity to its original place as unlimited Consciousness and Bliss and stand there free from the objects that you see.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Making Your Wisdom Come Alive is like a novel where you are the main character. It takes many surprising twist and turns, and in the end you find yourself standing in the place of wisdom and joy, where you always are,and always will be.

For more information go to:
Amazon.com

____________________________________________________________________

Thoughts are just an object in our awareness

Thoughts are one of the objects that we see. When we take our identity to be limited to our thoughts, we feel defined by these thoughts. This is unfortunate because our thoughts can be affected by many things that are out of our control like a chemical imbalance in the body and Alzheimer’s disease.

But once we blame thoughts for our limitations and suffering the next step is how to make our thoughts better. That’s where psychology comes in. But changing our thoughts is like trying to make the room bigger. No matter how big we make it, the room will never contain all of the space. In the same way, no matter how good we make the thoughts they will never be an accurate reflection of the changeless Consciousness and Bliss, which is the backbone of our existence.

Our nature is the stillness the see the fluttering mind
So no matter how we attempt to improve our thoughts we will never be able to hold them in the state that we want. That’s because the nature of thoughts is movement. But if you ask one simple question you will discover the reality behind your mind. How do I know about change? You know change because you are free from change. Your nature is the stillness that sees the ever fluttering mind.

And so with the slightest shift of your identity from an object that you see to the ultimate subject, you can stand in the freedom that you always wanted, unconcerned by your thoughts.

The more we attempt to change our thoughts the more we feel caught by them
Attempting to change our thoughts is like attempting to still the waves in a lake. The more we try, the bigger the waves become. Similarly, the more we attempt to change our thoughts the more we feel caught in them. That’s because we feel defined by what we think. But if we can find our real identity, we will find the peace that passes all understanding, unaffected by the thoughts in our mind. Standing here we will become the expansiveness that we really are.

So unlike psychology, we never define you by the thought patterns in your mind. That’s because you are much brighter and much more expansive than your thoughts can ever tell. Stand in your real nature, without doing anything else, your thoughts may start to reflect the peace of your own Being. And if your thoughts do not seem to reflect your natural state you will still be at peace. This is the peace that passes all understanding. It is a state of being, not a state of mind.

Feel free to ask questions
Now I want you to experience your Self-Nature in its full glory. So please feel free to continue asking questions. I’m always glad to hear your reactions and clarify my answers. Unlike the path of faith, on the path of Self-Knowledge it is curiosity that destroys limitation and allows you to abide in your natural freedom.

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

                                                                     Michael Gluckman