Pointers point

Pointers

point

attention

out of the mind

into free fall.

Pointers are a very different use of language from the normal usage.

Pointers point outside of thought, not further into it.

Pointers are words that lead to freedom from words. 

A pointer that I have found to be very helpful is the question:  Where is my attention right now?

The capacity to "see" the mind and notice what it is attending to is an astounding capacity that tends to be underused.  When this question/pointer arises ( "Where is my attention right now?") and I'm honest with myself, the answer is often:  My attention is fixated primarily on the thoughts in my head.  My attention is on thoughts of me-and-my-life and on thoughts of me-and-what-will-happen-to-me. My attention is lost in ruminations about past and future.

Surprisingly, it can be a joy to see this stuckness of attention on the "me".  Watching the mind-shows called "past and future" and "me"  is so much better than being in them. It becomes increasingly obvious that attention, through conditioning and habit, tends to gravitate again and again back to past and future thoughts about this image called "me".  Through this gravitational pull of habit, attention repeatedly becomes lost in the trance of thought.  It's so freeing just to see this dynamic of attention as it occurs!

Pointers break the trance.

They redirect attention.

Another pointer is the question:  What gives rise to the thought 'I am' ?

Resting in this question, "What gives rise to the thought 'I am' ?"... can take awareness into a felt sense of the aliveness that gives rise to the thought 'I am.' 

Both Bob Adamson and Eckhart Tolle, and many others, have said-  let the pointer do its job.  Let the pointer take awareness into the silence.

Nisargadatta had one pointer from his teacher and he spent every waking moment with this pointer for three years, and the shackle of the mind fell off.

Bob Adamson has said that staying with one single pointer is all that is needed to fully realize freedom.  There are many powerful pointers, he gave one example of such a pointer:

What is wrong with this moment

unless you think about it?

This is also the title of Bob's first book.  Every time I ask the question, "What's wrong with right now?" and pause...the mind-bubble pops.  Every time I ask the question, "What's wrong with right now?" and pause...there is the quiet shock of  THIS-ness, where absolutely nothing is wrong. Awareness jumps off the diving board from mind to no-mind.  Awareness leaps from the finger pointing at the moon to the moon itself. Awareness notices what's closer than any word or thought.

Today there is a wealth and explosion of beautiful pointers, like a huge flock of magnificent birds, flying across the internet and in many books.  I am so grateful!  My intention is to go deeply into a small number of pointers, such as the ones mentioned in this post, and to let them clear the mental suffering as it arises.  Whenever any suffering is undone, the burden is less for all.

Thank you to all my friends on the blogosphere who have shared liberating pointers.  The pointer is similar to  a koan or paradox that bursts the boundaries of the mind. 

If you have some favorite pointers, please feel free to share them in a comment.

There are so many great blogs out there, and I will mention one in this context because nearly every post is titled "Pointers." If you haven't had the pleasure of checking out "Radiance of Being" (Rodney Stevens), you may want to click on this link:

http://radianceofbeing.blogspot.com/

~

Awareness doesn't say a thing.

Every day I wake up in the middle of the same old mind-clutter:  should do this, should do that, don't want to do this, don't want to do that (exercise, diet, clean house, give non-stop unconditional love and attention to everyone, save the world, conserve energy, recycle, etc.).

The mental landscape reconstitutes daily.

Fighting it is the trap of becoming more entangled in it.

Let it be.   Let the mind machine do what it does, which is to play out endless internal conflicts.

Yet the magic of awareness is here all the time.   Awareness doesn't say a thing.   It sees, sees, sees.  It is the rays of light that shine away the mind-fog.


~

"How my son ruined my life!"

I came across this You Tube video by a 91 year-old woman who underwent a transformation of heart at age 89. There is also an excellent article on the Huffington Post written by the son that includes a poem written by the mother. Below are links to both, which I have also shared with Greg, Mary, and Jack. Hope you enjoy as we did. We have agreed to say that little word "AND..." each time one of us gets caught up in some mind-made misery.

Link to Huffington Post article about woman at age 89 and 90:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-baraz/frame-it-with-gratitude_b_484722.html



Note: I looked up the word "JewBu" which is said in the video. A JewBu is someone who is raised Jewish and becomes Buddhist, or has leanings toward Buddhism.

Thank you to Alton Slater of Illuminations blogspot, where I first found this video.

Life Itself

"Right now there is no one living a life.  There is only Life itself.  Life breathing.  Life looking.  Life thinking.  Life speaking.  Life sitting..."

Unmani Liza Hyde

http://www.not-knowing.com/writings-articles.htm

~
(Thank you to Sharon Ebert for art work, "Breathing Room.")

Seeing through the veil of the mind

The mind is a wondrous instrument, like a glass to focus the rays of consciousness.  But when the mind is seen not as an instrument but as "self", then confusion and suffering result.  This was brought home to me today as I read  a wonderful book, Only That: the life and teaching of Sailor Bob Adamson, by Kalayani Lawry.

Bob had spent 17 years as an alcoholic, frequently getting into brawls, and, by his own admission,  filled with feelings of resentment and self-pity.  Bob spent time with Nisargadatta in 1976-77.

Here is a passage from the book:

" 'What Nisargadatta was saying and continually pointing out was that...the images, ideas and imaginings that I had about myself weren't the truth.'

"Bob realized the essence of what Nisargadatta was saying...He understood the mind was the problem and in clearly seeing it he thought he'd never get hooked in again.  Then at the end of the session, when he walked out the door and into the street, he immediately got caught up in the mind.  It was different, though, because having seen that the problem was the mind, when he'd seemingly get hooked in, he'd say to himself, 'Hey, wait a minute.  This was seen through the other day; what's this about?'  It would pull him up and he'd have another look and see that it was 'just more of the same old mind crap.'

" 'Those old habit patterns had been there for years and did not immediately stop,' he said. 'When the chatter of self-pity and resentment started up again, there was a remembering that actually there was nothing there and so it wouldn't last.'  Each time Bob saw the falsity, it would lose its intensity and the suffering began to ease off."  (p.41)

Everyday I find there is a continual process of getting lost in mind stories, and then waking up from those mind stories.  Little stories like, "I wish I were somewhere else right now."  That's a kind of story based on an unquestioned assumption that something is lacking in this moment.  All the little grumblings of the mind are an invitation to awareness to see through the thought-stories.  The density of thought is thinned by the energy of awareness.  There's an influx of consciousness as the stories of the mind are seen to be thoughts and not reality.

The mind is a wondrous instrument, but the capacity to see the mind is even more wondrous.

What sees the mind, what is aware of thoughts?  Who knows?  Call it presence, call it higher consciousness, call it Timbuktu...There is a capacity to see through the veil of thought, and to rest in this seeing/being.

Mary, Jack, and I are running out the door to attend an end-of-the-school year party at Chris's school.  Whoever you are, wherever you are, I send you all good will, as we together enjoy seeing through the veil of mind.

The book Only That is available here:
http://www.non-dualitypress.com/
Nisargadatta website is here:
http://www.nisargadatta.net/
Sailor Bob Adamson website is here:
:http://members.iinet.net.au/~adamson7/index.html

Empty cup

Relaxed attention

is the empty cup

that receives

the infinite good

of This Moment.

~

The pain of mistaken identity

Pain comes from mistaken identity.

Joy comes from true identity (which some might call no-identity or freedom from all identities, but don't get snagged on the imperfection of words).


No one can tell you your true identity.  I looked everywhere for someone to tell me.  That was fun, but became a way to avoid myself.


True identity is not something to be memorized in the head, it is felt freshly in this very instant as life itself.


~