UNKNOWABLE YOU
Just like the finger pointing to the moon has no moon in it, whatever you see, hear, taste, touch, smell, or think has no “you” in it. You will never find yourself in any appearance because you’re always what is seeing it.
Michael Jeffreys
ONE ENERGY APPEARING AS EVERYTHING
Because the word God is so laden with concepts, it may be more helpful to think of everything as Energy. Literally everything. No exception.
So the body, skin, blood, bones, organs, eyes, ears, thoughts, thinking, stories, imagination, feelings, emotions, sensations, seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, people, conversation between two people, animals, insects, noises, walls, floors, buildings, water, fire, stars, the sky, earth, the internet, your computer, Facebook, that which is typing these words, that which is reading these words, and the words themselves, all Energy.
Even the “me” that you think you are is actually energy whose quality is that of a sense of separation/autonomy/control, i.e., an energy of “Meing.”
So all apparent forms are nothing but Energy… One Energy dancing in infinite ways. No you, no me, no I, no other… just One Energy expressing however it’s expressing. That’s the great unfathomable and undefinable Mystery. And that’s all that’s ever “happening”… Nothing appearing as Everything.
-Michael Jeffreys
TIME COMES FROM THE SENSE OF SEPARATION
“Everything is new, everything is aliveness when there’s no sense of a ‘you’ that’s filtering everything…
But that whole sense of time actually comes from the sense of being separate. When it falls away it’s so obvious there’s no time. There’s no past, there’s no present and there’s no future. There’s no now. What’s the now?
Because if there’s a now, that means there’s something behind it… where’s the boundary at? I mean if this is the present, where’s the boundary on the past and when does the future start?”
-Kenneth Madden
THERE IS NO ONE TO BECOME ENLIGHTENED
“There is no such thing as an enlightened person. There never has been. No person has ever become enlightened. Because the whole idea of a person becoming enlightened is a total contradiction, it’s a total ignorance.
Awakening is the realization that there is no one. When the seeker drops away, that which is sought becomes apparent. But it becomes apparent to no one… it just is apparent.
That which we seek is always present, is totally constant. That which we long for is already this.”
-Tony Parsons
MICHAEL: You didn’t create the “me” and you can’t make it go away… the activity of trying to stop your thoughts or make the “me” go away is simply more “me” activity. Trying to get rid of an illusion just reinforces it. It would be like trying to get rid of the Boogey man in the closet.
THE SEEKER IS A REJECTION OF WHAT IS…
WHAT IT LONGS FOR IS ITS OWN ABSENCE
“Nothing that the seeker does brings them nearer to that which is already free. Everything the seeker does is a sort of an effective way of avoiding freedom. The seeker is desperately afraid of its own absence, and it’s the one thing it longs for.”
-Tony Parsons
MICHAEL: There’s just what’s happening and it doesn’t have an owner. It’s the illusory “me’s” attempt to control the uncontrollable that is its suffering. Indeed, “me” and “control” are synonyms, as one never shows up without the other.
ME IS A STORY AND STORY IS NOT WHAT IS DRINKING THE WATER
Trying to improve, fix, or get rid of the me only attempts to reinforce a story about that which has never actually existed.
For example, a dog doesn’t think, “I am thirsty. But I notice the bowl is only half full. What happens when I run out? Then what? Maybe I’ll die of dehydration. This is terrible!”
Rather, it just finds itself going to the water and lapping up the cool liquid. It doesn’t need a story to do this. But to the human, the story seems very important to the “me.” And that’s the cause of our suffering.
Whereas the dog inherently trusts life, we don’t. Because we are too fixated on our stories, rather than what’s actually happening, which no words can contain or truly explain.
Michael Jeffreys
Aliveness cannot be put into words, which are old, limited, dead.
Michael Jeffreys
WORDS TO DESCRIBE WORDS TO DESCRIBE WORDS, AD INFINITUM…
And yet, is there any word what-so-ever that can actually adequately explain ANY of this?
The birth, the pain, the laughter, the heart breaks, the love, the horror, the joy, the sadness, the fulfillment, the confusion, the suffering, the insights, the peace, the disappointments, the triumphs, the tragedies, the contentment, the death?
“The Universe is made of stories, not of atoms.”
-Muriel Rukeyser
Like many, I used to use words like “consciousness” and “awareness” and “nonduality” as if I actually knew what they meant, but now I realize I haven’t a clue. For example, we often hear the expression, “My awareness.” So there is this me that has something called awareness? Really? But if I look now, directly into this moment, I cannot locate an actual “me” anywhere nor can I locate an actual “awareness” that it possesses.
It seems that ALL words (including these) are inherently empty.
Thus “The Tao that can be named is not the true Tao” suddenly deeply resonates.
And that leaves nothing to say about any of this that could possibly be true.
Therefore, SILENCE seems the most honest thing I can “say” in this moment.
Michael Jeffreys
Michael Jeffreys 