AM I THIS BODY, YES OR NO?
Am I my car or do I have a car?
Am I my body or do I have a body?
I am 100% certain I am not my car, but am I 100% certain I am not this body?
Michael Jeffreys
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Am I this BODY, yes or no? New MJ Awakening Blog
September 13, 2019
Where do LABELS come from? New MJ Awakening Blog
September 11, 2019
WHERE DO LABELS COME FROM?
The Earth does not call itself the Earth.
Stars do not call themselves Stars.
The Sky does not call itself the Sky.
Mountains do not call themselves Mountains.
The Ocean does not call itself the Ocean.
Trees do not call themselves Trees.
Birds do not call themselves Birds.
Dogs do not call themselves Dogs.
Insects do not call themselves Insects.
Sound does not call itself Sound.
An Arm does not call itself an Arm.
A Leg does not call itself a Leg.
Feelings do not call themselves Feelings.
Pain does not call itself Pain.
Fear does not call itself Fear.
Love does not call itself Love.
Silence does not call itself Silence.
What is it that labels anything?
CAN THE LABELER BE FOUND?
-Michael Jeffreys
You, the One Seeing the mystery, is the mystery. -GP Walsh… New MJ Awakening Blog
September 9, 2019
You
The One
Seeing the mystery
Is the mystery.
-GP Walsh
MICHAEL: 9 simple words that have the power to awaken one from the dream of separation. From “me and other,” to You, Mystery seeing Itself… and realizing that’s all that’s been going on this entire time in all its infinite permutations. Endlessly fresh, new, and mysterious… all of it… even what is observing it.
That which is Birthless/Deathless appears illusorily in the form of the world… New MJ Awakening Blog
September 3, 2019
“Nothing whatever is born or dies anywhere at any time. It is Brahman alone appearing illusorily in the form of the world.”
-Yoga Vasishtha Sara
MICHAEL: To the mind this makes no sense because the mind IS duality, and as such can only see things in terms of separation. In other words, everything being THE ONE (a/k/a Brahman) simply doesn’t compute to the mind.
Thus, Self-Realization is not for the mind since it cannot be figured out or understood intellectually. Something in you either “groks” the eternal Truth or doesn’t. But either way, you’re still not, nor have you ever been, other than THAT.
As Reality doesn’t change, what am I… New MJ Awakening Blog
August 28, 2019
As much as we try, there are no words… New MJ Awakening Blog
August 25, 2019
ONE ENERGY appearing as EVERYTHING. New MJ Awakening Blog
August 22, 2019
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. New MJ Awakening Blog
August 20, 2019
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
Nonduality: Intellectual Understanding vs Direct Experience. New MJ Awakening Blog
July 28, 2019
NONDUALITY: INTELLECTUAL UNDERSTANDING VS DIRECT EXPERIENCE
Intellectual understanding is when your mother tells you when you’re a kid not to put any metal objects into an electric socket because you’ll get shocked. Direct experience is when your mother is not around and you go ahead and stick a knife into the electric socket and get knocked on your ass as your whole body receives a powerful and painful white hot jolt of unforgiving electricity.
With the former, your understanding was conceptual. It had not penetrated your being. But with the latter, no words are ever again necessary because now you know from direct experience the dangers of sticking a fork or knife into an electric socket.
The same is true for Nonduality. You can read dozens of books and watch hundreds of youtube videos on Nonduality, but your understanding will remain intellectual. You understand that the “me” is an illusion, but only as a concept. And thus you find you’re still suffering. And so you look for another video, hoping the next one will do the trick.
But the truth is until you actually see this for yourself, the suffering will continue because the “me” hasn’t been fully realized to be a phantom. It seems like it’s there, but when looked for can never be found. And that’s the key, you have to actually look for this “me.” Meaning, the next time you’re suffering, instead of trying to think of a way out, you hit the pause button and take time to actually look for the one who claims to be suffering. I mean really look!
You’re looking for the entity inside you that claims to be suffering or annoyed or hurt or upset or whatever. Because if you can’t actually find it, i.e., there’s literally nothing there (and you’re willing to be honest with what you actually find… or don’t find in this case), then the whole thing collapses as the house of cards it actually is. This is the practice of “self-inquiry” in action. But few actually do it, and yet it’s the key to ending this business of seeking once and for all.
You have to actually do the looking for yourself (no one can do it for you), which is direct experience and goes deeper than just intellectually agreeing with the concept that there’s no “me.”
Michael Jeffreys
THE MIND – Zen Master Bankei New MJ Awakening Blog
July 19, 2019
Zen Master Bankei (1622-1693)
THE MIND
“The mind, as Bankei describes it, is a dynamic mechanism, reflecting, recording and recalling our impressions of the world, a kind of living mirror that is always in motion, never the same from one instant to the next. Within this mirror mind, thoughts and feelings come and go, appearing, vanishing and reappearing in response to circumstances, neither good nor bad in themselves.
Unlike the man of the Unborn, however, the impulsive person suffers from attachment. He is never natural because he is a slave to his responses, which he fails to realize are only passing reflections. As a result, he is continually “hung up,” entangled in particular thoughts and sensations, obstructing the free flow of the mind. Everything will operate smoothly, Bankei insists, if we only step aside and let it do so.
He illustrates this to the members of his audience by pointing out that, even while engrossed in listening to his talk, they automatically register and identify everything else around them—the calls of crows and sparrows, the various colors and aromas, the different sorts of people in the room. No one is deliberately trying to do this; it simply happens. That, Bankei says, is how the Unborn functions.
For Bankei, the important thing is letting go, breaking the mold of our self-centeredness (mi no hiiki) and bad habits (kiguse). These are familiar Japanese terms that Bankei used to describe the chief components of delusion. Self-centeredness is the basis of the false self. It is “ego” in the pejorative sense, the reflex that leads us to judge everything from a narrowly selfish viewpoint.
What fuels and informs this attitude is bad habits, character flaws that, like self centeredness, are the result of conditioning. We grow up imitating the people around us, Bankei says, and in the process acquire certain failings which finally become so ingrained that we mistake them for our real selves.
Unlike the Unborn Buddha Mind, however, neither bad habits nor self-centeredness is innate; both are assimilated from outside after birth. When we become deluded, we temporarily forfeit the Buddha Mind we started out with, exchanging it for these learned responses.
The only way out of this dilemma, Bankei maintains, is to go back the way we came, to return to the unconditioned, the uncreated, the unborn.”
-Peter Haskel (from the Introduction to BANKEI ZEN)
