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