No matter what’s going on, you are here, and you are not affected by anything. Can you notice that? When pain is here, you are the same, when pain is gone, you are the same. No matter what else is going on, underneath it all is you, silent, unchanging, here, and absolutely certain that you are here.

If you will just look at that whenever you can, the idea that anything is at stake in this drama of your life will vanish. Maybe the drama will continue, but who cares. If you see a drama in the movies, no matter how skillfully it’s presented to you, no matter how evocative it is, or how well it creates terror and sorrow and so on, there’s never ever the sense that you are at stake in it.

Now look, you’re here. Just look at that every chance you get. Just look at the fact that you’re here. If you do that you will see that over time even though all kinds of drama may be going on, none of it will affect you; it gives you the revelation of eternal, permanent happiness that has actually always been here. If you get stuck, that’s ok because you’re still here whether you’re stuck or not. Nothing that happens within the dream can hurt or help you in any way whatsoever. Now, isn’t it sweet to be here? And you’re always here, regardless of anything.

So what we do is look at the reality of what we are, instead of trying to fix believing we’re something we are not. Stop and look at this feeling of presence that’s always here, but that is too subtle to speak about, that is never absent, that is always the same, and never changes. What does that feel like? Just look at what this presence feels like, and everything else will be taken care of. It is the secret to eternal happiness. And everything then becomes easy, falling-out-of-bed easy.

But if, instead of directly experiencing the truth about what you are as presence, you instead stay mesmerized within the belief that what you are is your life story. If instead of knowing you’re presence, you believe you’re your life, you plunge yourself into all the immense problems that life stories present to us.

Just notice what happens when you believe you’re your life story instead of your presence. You become obsessed with all kinds of things you want and don’t want. You have to work very hard and make all this effort to be good and true. You have to choose wisely, and avoid the temptation to deviate. You have to struggle for enlightenment with strenuous effort. You have to be very careful that you do the right thing. You have to be very careful that you avoid deception. You have to be very careful that you don’t deviate from the path or you’ll get into trouble. You have to choose well and stick to what you’ve chosen. And the list goes on.

Now what is all of that about? All of that is the total nonsense of a false self. Abject foolishness. Stupidity with which we beat ourselves. The only thing that gives rise to the dream is the idea that you’re the story about your life. The only thing that gives rise to misery and suffering is the belief that you are that story.

And that belief becomes the very lens through which you see everything, through which you see the story and the picture of you that you can relate to and understand and do something about. So you go on about your business of doing something about this story of yourself, this history and conglomeration of thought, trying to understand it, fix it, ignore it, accept it, get rid of it; trying to do something, trying to do anything; anything but hear that there is nothing to do.

Already, in this moment, just as you are, you are eternal freedom itself, permanent, untouched, untouchable, reality itself, no matter what the state of your story might be. Right now in this moment, in the midst of all the craziness, even in the midst of powerful feelings of being separate or alone or worthless, you are free, you are reality itself; and the totality of the story, the good, the bad, all of it, is utterly irrelevant, utterly bullshit. That’s precisely what the false belief is – utter bullshit. That’s what the word bullshit means – something that’s false. Ok, notice how clear it is now that the only solution has to be knowing the truth of what you are; with all the rest just being a story about yourself that’s totally irrelevant.

Much Love,

Ben

(If you want, you can learn more about this at http://www.riverganga.org)

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Vichara_Conversation/

“It doesn’t surprise me that spiritual people would reject this that we are offering and turn from it. This doesn’t mean that it doesn’t penetrate. It has nothing to say about the ultimate outcome in their own minds in regard to this. It is the natural movement of defense of the identity to reject this, especially you have a deep investment in spiritual understanding, spiritual practice and spiritual aspiration.” John Sherman

http://www.johnsherman.org/john_sherman_videos/page/2/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Vichara_Conversation/