letter...

Yay! It's great to hear from you. My exchanges have been quite charged sometimes... they have seemed to carry a bit of a spiritual wrath and sometimes the tenderness shows another face and says, "oh gosh... i hope this isn't too harsh."

What I see these days is that consciousness is ONE... kind of like how the human body is one, though if you wanted to talk about it you could speak about many things, fingers, toes, eyes, etc, It"s like what we are is the ocean, which for whatever reason, took on the perspective of one of its waves and said, "this is what I am" - with all of the suffering that brings (ie. Oh my god I see the shore approaching and that means I'm going to crash on the shore and exist no longer!!)- and now "we", the waves, are waking back up to the truth of our ocean-ness...so it isn't a matter of "changing something" As much as it is about allowing the whole, living truth of this very moment... the only moment there ever is.

It's as simple as seeing that any object, anything that can be identified in this moment - thought, feeling, object, whatever... That thing exists in awareness... do you see that? It's almost too simple... I'm only just gaining the capacity to articulate it myself. Objects exist in awareness... there is the lamp on this table, and there is the awareness in which the lamp is appearing - otherwise, how could it be seen or felt? And if EVERY THING exists in awareness, and YOU are aware of EVERY THING, what are YOU? One of the things? not possible... YOU must be the awareness - the space in which every thing is appearing - including those seductive things which show up and say, "I am this body, I am this separate psychological entity with these thoughts and feelings." It's such a delight to see that these suggestions aren't possible - to see that these thoughts are just THINGS, showing up in awareness. When this is seen, awareness stops believing their story of "identifiable, objectifiable identity", and this frees the body up to do the joyous work of "believing" the whole truth - accepting the information that the senses are providing and working within that, instead of trying to translate everything to fit "the story of me".

love and love
raven

A letter ...

Hello...

i hear a voice say in consciousness:

what is appearing on the screen of awareness right now? Words might say "bronchitis"... words might say "I feel so bad" ... or "this is so boring." Or words might say "this is great", "I am happy"

but... check this out...

what does awareness say? You see? Does awareness say anything about what is appearing in it? No matter how "huge", "ugly", "gross" or "scary", does the awareness in which it is appearing have any problem with it at all? (wow... I find this inquiry so joyous... )

It's so exciting because in this there is the instantaneous realization of "what we are." and this means that in "seeing this", suffering is not possible... why? Because the words which show up in awareness that say, "oh my god I'm having such a bad time," with the ensuing struggle to get away, or the words that show up which say, "oh my god I'm having such a good time," with the ensuing struggle to "keep something", these words are just noises showing up in awareness. The notion that "those noises are what you are" is obviously untrue when we simply ask... what is it that is aware of these noises? Or, how does awareness feel about what is here right now (including those noises)? Obviously, it already accepts it all totally, because there it is. Obviously, it has no problem with it all, because there it is. And when we ask how awareness feels about what is showing up in this moment, where are "you"? This is the key realization:

Any-thing you could point to as a "you" can only be a "thing" showing up in awareness... right?

And if any-thing you could point to as 'you' is a thing showing up in awareness, WHO, or WHAT, IS AWARE OF THAT THING?!!! Any words or thought which follow this question are just more words, more things showing up in awareness! They cant possibly touch the awareness in which they arise... they can't possibly answer the question as a separate somebody...

It turns out that that self-luminous awareness, not "findable" as a "thing", is the only option as 'what you are', and in an instant of true looking, this is "experienced". There are true pointers in this very email.

Right now, as in all moments, YOU have the opportunity to KNOW yourself as you truly, and already, are... the eternal, self luminous space in which ALL THINGS arise and disappear.

raven

the point.

The mainstream suggestion, the overwhelming radiation in consciousness, born of the human mind, is that "control maintains and brings about order." This radiation is a great untruth... it is founded in the notion of "a controller", which in simple looking, has no substance in reality. Despite the presence of a "voice in the head" which sounds like a separate psyschological entity, consciousness is NOW, only NOW... what could be separate from this "seeing of NOW"? The voice in the head is experienced in the now, but that doesn't mean it is separate, or that it has control. The investment that the body gives to this voice is a black hole movement of mess making.

The beauty of this realization, of seeing the truth of this, is that order is inherent to the mind which sees it. The mind which sees the truth is unstoppable in its capacity to a)be in order and (b) give rise to order.

what is life showing?

This is an invitation to be aware of what is showing in your life, to welcome what is here right now, and a promise that if you can investigate the truth of what is present, there is the immediate end of suffering

Let's talk over the possibility of absolute understanding. The opportunity is to see, to be, with eyes which know no see-er. It is only in the immaculate tension of ALLOWING that the fresh, the accurate, the universal can be born. When I say, "what is life showing, right now," I'm talking about the actual thing, and words NEVER touch the actual thing. Being is the constant in all "lives", all situations.

freedom from the fire of personality...

I wonder if you can see what I mean when I say there is a demand on every aspect of creation for action. Moreover, that this phenomenon of life is absolutely interrelated, and every aspect can only live by facing this demand completely.

I wonder if you see the truth of that. The truth, that like the cells in the body, every aspect of creation is immaculately connected in this vast creation, and that true participation... true action requires TOTAL intelligence. It really is important for us to take a moment and go into this. And so I wonder if you see that this action of which I speak can only arise in a way that is absolutely in touch with the burning fact of every other aspect of creation. And everything that exists is born into this demand. And everything that is born is equipped to face this demand. However, while humankind was born into this demand, and while we are equipped to face it, we have not been meeting it. Human kind is currently in the thrall of an immense sickness.... it's a sickness far worse than any of the outbreaks that we have come to know as sicknesses... for it is a sickness in which we are compelled to miss completely the entire point of life... it's a sickness which at the deepest levels has taken us out of meeting the true demand of life, and has us spiraling in a disorder which is a complete abomination.

I'm afraid already that these words might seem too severe. After all, one might say, "look at what we've done as humans! Look at the marvellous cultures!" Please, if you look, you will see that our cultures are not an expression of totally interconnected, totally sensitive order. There is perpetual war, perpetual corruption, perpetual delusion, manipulation. Each one feels broken up inside... lonely, and so must participate in one superficial stunt after another, always living in denial and self protection...

So in seeing all this, is it possible to understand, to see the truth of the matter, and in so doing, be free of the root of this sickness? What is the actual phenomenon which could get in the way of the human mind meeting the demand for absolutely inter-related creativity and action?

The root of this sickness, if you look, is the apparently unavoidable tendency of the human mind to be overwhelmed and caught by a fire of personality... the fire that spreads which separates this vast, beautiful, singular creation of life into the billions human minds who are living in the deluded impression that there are two things, there is "me", and there is life... "me" and my life... and so are caught up in the entertainments, the fantasies, the pleasures, the strategies to give this falseness a sense of vitality. It's a sickness by which, in the name of "me", impressions, ideas and technical knowledge, all upstage the actual fact of life in relationship, and the brain - the mind - is trapped in a delusion where instead of life taking place in the actual situation, there is an attempt for life to take place in the impressions, ideas, and knowledge stored up as memory in the brain. This energetic wave of personalization is born of the human brain, and must instantaneously work to maintain the delusion that is taken for fact. This "work" is the struggle for power and control... as it does so, it's like a robot car following an out of date map. There is complete disorder. Life becomes merely a matter of vain attempts to celebrate a sense of control and power, to assert the delusion of personality, be it of the one or of the many. We are caught in a struggle to maintain pretense, while all the while we are inwardly terrified, violent, greedy... our daily life is based in intimidation, denial and war.

So... being very careful, we must ask if it is possible for the heart and mind live at the centre of consciousness itself, necessarily free of the fire of personality... in the astonishing flowering of this most wonderous phenomenon of life, of consciousness... in the totally interconnected dreamscape that is the very fact of isness... please... this is what we have to look into.

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You know...A truthful, creative life is your BIRTHRIGHT! Not that you know or could imitate what that life might be... and that's just it. It's what life demands... don't you see? It's not something that you have to earn or assert...it's the fact of your life! This is it !


It is the demand upon the flower as it grows. It must do everything it does at the right time and in the right way or that's it. And, if it dies, there is no problem. That sort of passing is inherent in its birth... inherent in the demand.

a new world, a truthful life...

it doesn't matter what the situation looks like, each one of us can and must be clear about one thing: REaction to the situation is conflict, and only if reaction is understood at its very root is there the possibility of action in regard to the situation.

Most of us are living our lives in a perpetual state of reaction... i don't know if you see this. Life demands the action of a fresh mind, of a mind free to give rise to new and accurate relations, but our minds are anchored in a sense of the personal and so there is reaction, born to protect that attachment. And as the personal ALWAYS has its roots in the past, in memory, it cannot ever give rise to a truthful, creative solution. That movement of the personal with its beliefs, traditions, habits and preferences is memory attempting to be reality... the past attempting to be the present. So, there is no use in vowing, "I will not react," for the very root of reaction, is the phenomenon of personality and time... the "I WILL do something". You can see that such movement, the movement of this "me" thing is already REactive. The truth of this is shining in the very fact of what life is showing. It doesn't require a belief - any believer goes against what we are seeing here... look and see... this isn't a theory... it is inherent in what life is showing... it is see-able - factual. In seeing the truth of this, not living in that world where "you agree with me" or "disagree with me", but actually seeing the truth of what is happening, what's left?

Being clear about this one thing would mean that the mind is in its situation... that the mind IS the situation, and there is the clear seeing that any movement as "me", as "I'm gonna or not gonna," constitutes reaction. What's there then? Look and see... There is a certain sort of crisis isn't there? Isn't there something going on IN the crisis? Wouldn't this be the crisis of a new world being born? of a truthful life being lived?

To speak of horror...

To speak about horror or disorder is tricky, because the attached mind thinks it knows what horror, what disorder is... it sees itself as the heart of "respectability, and order" and anything that thwarts that centre is seen as disorder. So "murder" is called disorder, "poverty" is called disorder, "crime" is called disorder, and rightly so, but the societal person doesn't realize that their psychological dependency which creates these modes of "respectable" or "not respectable" is the biggest crime of all. The centre of the "me" itself, which is the heart of psychological dependency, is the essence of disorder, not the various symptoms and expressions. The so called "model citizen" is every bit as tied to murder as the murderer himself, because the whole movement of attachment, which then must live in ideas, is an abomination, is violent at its very inception. It requires killing and delusion to perpetuate.

completely creative action...

Consciousness itself... the very fact of "is-ness", is a single movement. For thousands of years, the human brain has been denying this fact. A most unfortunate, and obviously incorrect phenomenon has been occurring in which memory in the brain has stepped forward or refused to take its place as PAST. Memory has claimed a voice. Suddenly, in the single movement of consciousness, there is the mistaken impression that there are TWO things, "ME" and "CONSCIOUSNESS"... you see? Because this secondary entity, the establishment of the PAST as "me", is false, it is necessarily and ceaselessly thwarted by the fact of consciousness itself. For some reason, mankind has not been able to understand this, the stormy feeling of this contradiction has come to be called pain and fear, and the secondary entity has remained necessarily at battle, always working to "gain control", to "overcome" pain and fear, and to protect itself in what you can see is an impossible, downward spiral of horrifying futility. Something which isn't and can never be real has claimed the human organism. So it spends its days not only being torn apart on the inside, but also necessarily tearing apart the fragile and astonishingly complex fabric of this wonderous life in relationship, all in an impossible bid to bring the past into the present.

There are times where the orgainsm finds itself in a sphere whose details seem to strike deeper than the daily war, and for a moment, the war seems to be over... the memory appears to have
"won" and life seems to have a magic about it. This is the phenomenon of pleasure. Identified with the memory of that pleasure, instantly, the "me" wants more of it, becomes dependent upon it. Sex, drugs, a pleasing vista, a waterfront view. In protecting itself, the secondary entity joins with other secondary entities to perpetuate its war on the fact, and so sets up organizations, traditions, governments, religions, "relationships", channels of conduct by which the war is made "respectable", noble, pleasurable, "spritual" even. Interpersonal pleasure becomes a commodity as I must find out the image you are nurturing in yourself to fight with consciousness, and stroke that image, giving you a hit of pleasure, control and righteousness... you become dependent upon me, so as you stroke the image in yourself, you stroke my image, and we live in a struggle to perpetuate a pleasurable delusion, perpetuating human attachment and war.

So please, if i may suggest it, don't ask "what to do?" Because if you look, who is asking? Isn't it just more of that secondary entity? Please, look and see the truth of all this. If there is a looking with a mind which sees the falsness of the secondary enity, then observation becomes an alltogether different matter. For such a mind there could be only the seeing of "what is", the fact of consciousness. Such a mind IS the fact of consciousness, and there is an understanding which has nothing to do with a secondary entity. Such understanding would be completely creative action.