The “I” that is seeking, trying to find its true nature, trying to find God has only ever been a thought. –Michael Jeffreys
“Self-truth-knowing is found in the silence of your own consciousness.”
–W. Norman Cooper (from, Experience Your Perfect Soul)
MICHAEL: Notice where it’s not, and will never, ever, throughout all of existence be found: in thought.
Thinking or silence.
If I am thinking I am not silent.
If I am silent I am not thinking.
Michael Jeffreys
So I just came back from my dentist. After 6 visits over the past two months and a lot of prep work, my permanent bridge was finally ready to be installed. Although, like many of us, I don’t have insurance and didn’t have the money to pay for it, a dear client gave me a generous Christmas check which helped cover it.
As I was getting up out of the dental chair, feeling grateful that I would soon be able to chew hard food again, I casually asked my dentist how her twenty-something year-old son was. I had not seen him around the office lately, but I used to see him quite often last year when I would come in, sitting at the computer playing video games. We would chat and he would tell me which games he liked to play as well as his passion for bike riding. A very friendly and outgoing young man.
Well suddenly, the energy in the room shifted and my dentist’s eyes began to tear up, and she said, her voice choking-up, “He passed away in a biking accident…. why did God take him!?” And overcome with emotion, she went into her office and closed the door behind her, leaving me and her assistant standing there in silence. The assistant also had tears in her eyes, as did I.
During a moment like this, all words fall far, far short. My dentist had transformed into a grieving mother right before my eyes, and there were no words to console her broken heart. Her assistant told me she doesn’t really talk about it to patients, but in this moment, my innocently asking how he was, two days before Christmas, was too much for her to keep it all inside. And so out poured a mother’s profound sadness and grief for the loss of her only son.
She didn’t come out of the office, and so the assistant and I exchanged a few words of compassion, and then I hugged her good-bye and left. I was deeply touched by what I had just unexpectedly witnessed. I drove home in the LA rain in silence. I had gone in to have work done on my teeth, but it was my heart that was transformed.
Michael Jeffreys 12/23/16
Have you ever asked your internal voice, “Who is Speaking?” And then waited for the answer?
We habitually, automatically, and robotically believe the thoughts in our head without question… yet, have you ever inquired to see WHOSE Voice is actually speaking? Who or what, exactly, is saying all those things in your head virtually 24/7?
If the voice declares, “It’s me, it’s my voice!” don’t fall for it. Saying, “It’s me” doesn’t give you any information. Okay than, who is this “me”??
Few will actually take the time to investigate this deeply, perhaps because knowing unconsciously this would expose the egoic identity for what it is and so, for whatever reason, they prefer, for the time being, to continue on in the dream with “business as usual.” But for those few who feel this burning desire for Freedom, the next time the internal voice speaks, they will ask themselves, “Who is Speaking?” and then sit silently, for as long as it takes, until the answer reveals itself from within.
– Michael Jeffreys
As I work with individuals one-on-one, the #1 thing I do is LISTEN from a space of PRESENCE. I often begin my sessions by saying, “You have my FULL attention, please share with me whatever is on your mind.” And then I be quiet. This non-judgmental space allows the person to share openly and freely… and at some level, oftentimes that is all we really want is to be genuinely heard by another.
Yes, I do jump in with comments if/when I sense/feel/intuit a transparent belief that may be running (a belief that the person unconsciously holds as “the truth” and so does not see it as a belief, but “the way it actually is”). Together, we take a look at this belief and see if it is actually “the Truth” (which cannot be contained by ANY single perspective!), or merely one view point? (Not wrong or right, just extremely narrow and painful as long as we insist on holding on to it.)
Often during our time together the person will begin to mirror my stillness and the two of us will just naturally and spontaneously go “radio-silent,” and become still. And from this place of stillness, right here and now, I ask them if they can find any problems? Sometimes, almost begrudgingly, they exclaim, “no!” And we laugh…
-Michael Jeffreys
Can you point to anything and say, with complete certainty, that it is “you”? Can you point to any thought, and say, I AM that? Can you point anywhere on your body, and say, I AM that? Can you point to anything and say that IT is “you”?
What happens when attention shifts to the one asking the question? Where is this question emanating from? What is the source of everything that appears? Yes, the mind can answer using words, but the words themselves cannot tell you “who made them.” Look deeper. Where does silence come from? (This is a zen-koan, so don’t look to mind for the answer.)
-Michael Jeffreys
