You Don’t Want to Awaken! December 30, 2011

The first step to awakening is to admit that you don’t want to awaken! I am serious. Look, and you may just see that a part of your Being is actively enthralled with the illusion… with wanting to figure it out as well as make the experience nicer, shinier, better. What not so subtle message does this send to your brain about the present moment?

Do you see? Your programming has set up the game so that you cannot allow yourself to be happy in the present moment! The programming is already convinced that THIS moment does not hold what it thinks will make it happy… and so, surprise, surprise… no happiness! Quite ingeniously really, the programming doesn’t care WHAT you think, as ANY thought keeps you from discovering its secret! The search itself is taking you away from your own happiness!! Why do you think you haven’t found it yet? Don’t you think if it were really “out there” you would have found it by now after, say 10, 20, 30 or 50 years? If just 10% of that time were spent looking inward and being still, the matter would have been settled by now.

-Michael Jeffreys

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The Mind is a Junky December 29, 2011

Most of us don’t think of ourselves as a drug addict… but if we are still attached to the mind’s incessant and never-ending desires, we are no different than a heroin addict. What used to get us high is no longer enough and so new highs are sought out as the mind constantly searches for its next fix, be it with people, events, or objects. How much longer can we keep pretending this is not the case?

For some, it will be right up until they take their last breath. However, a few will see clearly that nothing impermanent will EVER or CAN ever satisfy that which is permanent. What if it were seen that the permanent needs NOTHING? That you are perfectly fine just as you are? What would it be like to not need anything? To be whole and complete exactly as you are right here and now? “Not possible!” says the drug addict!!… Q: Why on Earth are you listening to a drug addict??

–Michael Jeffreys

The Mind has Us All Convinced that WE are the Center of the Universe!? December 22, 2011

Observe the mind and you will see that the “I” or “Me” is actually more like an opinion than a reality. It ONLY sees the world in terms of, “How does this effect ME? After all, I am what’s most important in all of reality!” And imagine, WE are ALL doing this, i.e., that little voice is telling ALL of us that WE are the center of the Universe!? This is why understanding HOW the mind works is so important on this path.

Haha, what a character this little “egoic” guy is! Its selfishness is a survival mechanism, but seeing everything in terms of “life or death” is both exhausting and unnecessary. The first step is to get some space between you and the demanding voice in the head.

To stop reacting to it. To stop letting a sound in the head, which YOU did not put there (it’s spewing out society’s thoughts, rules and beliefs that have been programed into you), control you. How? By simply watching it without reacting to it. The more you react to it, the more power you give it. Watch. Look. Listen. This doesn’t take any thinking… just a willingness to simply BE naked, without attaching to anything. Can you do it? Only one way to find out…

-Michael Jeffreys

Ownerless Thoughts or The Present Moment December 18, 2011

If you get still, you can actually see your mind create “problems” out of thin air. One moment you are perfectly fine, doing whatever you are doing, and the next a thought appears out of nowhere, and says, “Yeah, but what about this??” And instead of letting it be and just continuing on with whatever you were doing, WHICH YOU CAN CERTAINLY DO, you BELIEVE the ownerless thought, as if it were Yours!? The mind created it, let it deal with it! You just acknowledge it, politely decline, and quietly go about your business of enjoying the present moment.

-Michael Jeffreys

You are the “Alive Knowing,” but never the known December 9, 2011

So much of this path is about observing how the mind identifies with experiences automatically. Watch as it creates a link or connection to how whatever you are experiencing relates specifically to a “You.” For example, if a song comes on the radio that played during the first time “You” kissed your sweetheart back in high school, the mind automatically recalls all the past feelings, emotions, and memories that are attached to it. Of course, they are not part of the original song, but put there by mind! And it is assumed/implied that there is a “You” who went thru the original experience and is now reminiscing about it.

But hold on… where, exactly, is this imagined “You” in all of this? Are you the song? The memories? The feelings? The emotions? No, No, and No. You are not any of these. Awakening is the fantastic realization that experiences arise WITHOUT the need for a personal, separate “I” that actually exists! In other words, the “I” we believe ourselves to be is an un-investigated assumption by the mind, not a reality. There is only the naked, miraculous experience of the moment, however it is experienced. The imaginary “I” is a habitual overlay or superimposition by the mind, not an actuality. What you are can never be “known”… it can only, ever, be directly experienced. This is because you are the “alive knowing,” but never the known.

-Michael Jeffreys

The difference between Mind and Consciousness December 5, 2011

A key to awakening is being clear on the differences between MIND and CONSCIOUSNESS: Mind tries to work things out using comparison and judgment – Consciousness simply KNOWS (and that knowing is received via intuition). Mind is loud and often confusing – Consciousness is SILENT and CLEAR. Mind is about me and my interests – Consciousness is about the good of ALL BEINGS, NATURE, and the PLANET. Mind sees a divided up, separate world, us against them – Consciousness sees only ONE, WHOLENESS, the TOTALITY. Mind operates from lack and fear. Consciousness operates from ABUNDANCE and LOVE. Mind is an illusion (it only exists to itself!) – Consciousness is ALL that IS and is what YOU are.

–Michael Jeffreys

Just what, exactly, IS the “right” number? December 4, 2011

If you are, like me, an organizer of a meetup group (they are all over the world on just about any topic you can think of), you know the fun game of last minute cancellations and adds. You check your emails and the mind says, “Oh drat! 2 people just changed their rsvp from yes to no.” And 20 mins. later: “Oh goodie, someone new just joined and they are coming!” Of course, the mind then says, “Although we are still down by 1.”

And then it hit me: What IS the “right” number, the “correct” number of people that should be attending? And I realized that I honestly couldn’t say because I honestly didn’t know!? I mean is it 12?.. 37?… 1000? Isn’t the right/correct amount EXACTLY however many show up!? Those that are “suppose” to be there will, and those that aren’t, won’t. Period. And so worrying about it suddenly is seen as a total waste of precious energy. And so you relax into peace and stillness that’s always available, right here and right now, because you know that whatever happens, whatever the Universe “decides,” will be, as always, perfectly divine.

–Michael Jeffreys