Silent Illumination. New MJ Awakening Blog July 17, 2019

SILENT ILLUMINATION

“Quiescence refers to the practice of silencing the mind,
and clarity refers to contemplation, illuminating the mind
with the light of awareness.

Hongzhi himself described the “silent sitting” as
thus: ‘Your body sits silently; your mind is quiescent,
unmoving. This is genuine effort in practice. Body and
mind are at complete rest. The mouth is so still that
moss grows around it. Grass sprouts from the tongue.
Do this without ceasing, cleansing the mind until it
gains the clarity of an autumn pool, bright as the moon
illuminating the evening sky.’

In this state, the mind is without form or feature. Power is
present, but its function is to fill the mind with illumination,
like the sun shining everywhere. Hence, Silent llumination
is the practice in which there is nothing moving, but
the mind is bright and illuminating.”

-Ven. Sheng Yen

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Enlightenment… is the shattering of the illusion of mind/body identification. New MJ Awakening Pic Quote December 10, 2017

Enlightenment is awakening and resting in/as the undivided, eternal, effervescent, formless Self. It is the shattering of the illusion of mind/body identification. And then opinions are seen as clouds passing in the sky, with no origin, no solidity, and no consequence to Self.

-John Dole

The reason you can’t find “IT” is because everything is “IT.” New MJ Awakening Blog July 27, 2017

The reason you can’t find “IT” is because everything is “IT.” There is nothing that is not “IT.” “IT” is all there has ever been, “IT” is all there is, “IT” is all there will ever be. Everything is “IT.” The search is over when this is realized. If everything is literally “IT” (and what “IT” is is undefinable and unknowable) than there is nothing whatsoever to get, nor anything not “IT” to get it.

Michael Jeffreys

“It’s the very attempt to define existence that keeps us from seeing it.” New MJ Awakening pic quote July 25, 2017

You can’t find the truth because You ARE the Truth. New MJ Awakening pic quote July 14, 2017

You can’t find the truth because You ARE the Truth. –Michael Jeffreys

If you ever come to the West LA weekly satsang (which is held weds. evenings in my apt.) you’ll see Buddha peacefully sitting on the table next to the couch.  

2 reasons why seeking for your unlimited nature can’t ever work. New MJ Awakening Blog November 23, 2016

 

Seeking is made of two different parts: the seeker and the sought (duality). I seek to obtain, in the future, something that I currently do not possess. So if I want a root beer, I can go out and obtain it. However, when it comes to searching for my true nature, seeking fails on at least two accounts:

1) How can a limited entity (me) obtain a limited object (anything in the world), and expect to have that make me unlimited. A limitation plus a limitation does not equal unlimitedness. If I have a pound of coffee and I add a second pound of coffee, I do not end up with unlimited amounts of coffee.

2) I can’t seek for myself because I already am myself. 

Imagine a piece of chocolate seeking for a piece of chocolate!? Since it doesn’t recognize itself as chocolate, it spends all its energy looking for chocolate. It will never find it because if it knew what chocolate was it would realize it’s chocolate and the search would be over. It doesn’t realize that IT’S what it’s looking for. It just needs to stop long enough to realize this.

Michael Jeffreys

Awakening is the realization that you are not an object, but the “seeing” of all objects. New MJ Awakening Blog November 20, 2016

Awakening is the realization that you are not an object, but the seeing (a verb, but never a noun, as Paul Hedderman says) of all objects. What makes it tricky is that the mind turns everything into an object since that is the only way it can “deal” with it. Thus, when it thinks of you, it can only do so as an object. But you are not an object… see the problem!?

This is why the solution is the removal of the ignorance that is preventing you from realizing that you already are what you seek. And therefore it is knowledge that sets you free because it brings to your awareness what you were previously ignorant of: that you already are free.

Just like when you forget your reading glasses are on your head. You already have them, you just are ignorant of this fact. As soon as it’s brought to your attention that they are on your head, the search is over and all you can do is laugh because you realize they have been with you all along.

This is why seeking doesn’t work. It starts from the premise that what you are looking for isn’t already present, i.e., isn’t what you already are. When it’s realized that, “I already am what I have been seeking,” the search is over and the play of lila can finally be enjoyed for the ever-changing and amazing mind/objects show that it is and is not.

Michael Jeffreys

Death is for the body, not You. New MJ Awakening Blog November 13, 2016

Death is for the body, not You. Only that which is born can die. You were never born so You can never die. Even if you identify as the body, it does not make you the body. The body changes, you do not.

Death is another change. And even after death the body continues to change, decompose, etc., while the eternal You remains ever untouched and unchanged. Death is for objects; You are not an object, but the knower of all objects. You are like an ever-present changeless mirror that exists whether or not an object appears in it.

Michael Jeffreys

Ignorance is present when I have yet to realize every wave is ocean. New MJ Awakening Blog November 11, 2016

A wave can only fight against another wave as

long as the ocean is obscured from its knowledge.

 

When it’s realized that every form is ocean,

harmony pervades. –Michael Jeffreys

Why no OBJECT has the power to complete you. New MJ Awakening Blog November 9, 2016

“Objects don’t work as the source of happiness for a very simple reason: I seek completeness when I am already complete. I do this because I do not know who I am.”

–James Swartz, from The Essence of Enlightenment

MICHAEL: An object can’t complete what is already complete.

Meditation Question:

Has ANY object ever brought me permanent, lasting, unchanging satisfaction??