Things happen, and there is only seeing.
Waking took place at 3:20 AM this morning. Rising happened. Using the toilet happened. It (this organism) went outside. It looked to the sky. Seeing happened. Jogging happened. Bathing happened. Eating happened. There was no effort involved.
Effort can only occur in a mind that is shattered through thought. A mind that is broken apart by beliefs, shoulds, and the need for the “self” to dominate over all of the other fragments. All effort takes us away from what we seek. The peace of mind we believe to be elsewhere, is already present and alive.
The driving engine behind our effort and our suffering is the search. And the search keeps the mind fragmented.
There is no effort if there is no search; if there is no search, there is no searcher; and if there is no searcher, the mind is whole. Then there is no “I” that is doing; there is only doing.
When I speak of effort, I do not mean physical work. I mean the effort of the mind to project what it wants on top of what actually is. If your perception is, “I am here, but I need to be over there,” that is effort. The reality is, you do not need to be anywhere other than where you are. If you needed to be there, you would be there. It is that simple.
You might say, “It takes effort to jog. How can you go jogging without effort?” There is no effort. There is only jogging. The body jogs until it stops. That is all there is. No effort is involved. The effort of the mind is more strenuous than any physical endeavor you can imagine.
The effort of the mind is detrimental to humanity. In that effort there is violence, hate, greed, and all of the horrors of war and the tyranny of ideals. In war there is effort; in peace there is none.
It is this mind that humanity has shared since its long forgotten inception. The eternal struggle of belief, wanting to be something, and the push of self-centered activity are the extreme efforts that have kept our minds dull and unforgiving. There is no effort in be-ing; there is only being. Nothing more.
There was no decision to do what i did this morning. There was only “doing.” Not “I” am doing; just doing. The alarm went off, and waking happened. Someone had to set the alarm, though. Otherwise it would not have gone off. But it wasn’t, “I set the alarm,” but, setting the alarm happened. I wonder if this is being communicated clearly.
“I” am not seeing, “I” am not waking, “I” am not jogging, because the “I” is blind. The self can only see what it projects. It can only see its concepts of the world. It is incapable of projecting what is real. The real can never be projected.
You might ask, “How did you make the decisions necessary to do those things? Setting the alarm, going outside, etc. Surely ‘you’ must be present to decide what to do, right?” No. There is no decision because there is no entity that decides. Please try to see this. Even though things are being done, there is no one doing them. There is only doing. Nothing more. If “I” am doing something, it is either a reaction, or an attempt to get something.
Reaction is not action. It is violence. A violent mind reacts; an aware mind simply is. A violent mind reacts to protect the integrity of the self. But if one is aware, if no self exists, then there is nothing to protect or be protected from. There is only doing, or action. There is only whatever is happening.
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This is one of the hardest things for me to “see”; the fact that there’s no “I” doing anything. It just goes against everything I know. For instance…
This morning I woke up to the sound of the alarm clock which I set last night before I went to bed. I was there for all of that… I did those things I claim I did. I worked out after waking up, then I took a shower, got dressed, and went for my annual physical. Same I, me, was there, doing all of that, too.
I guess if I took a step back and looked at it from a world(ish) view, then maybe I could say that alarm setting happened, awakening happened, working out happened, but it wouldn’t be from my perspective. You’re perspective, however, is intriguing to me, and I’d love to see what you see.
You were awakened on 12/1/06, or awakening happened. I’ve read others’ accounts of their awakenings, but yours, from what I’ve gathered so far, happened abruptly, unexpectedly, and explosively. I’d love to read the account, but haven’t found it yet. I want to do something to get what you’ve got, but I know, or so I’ve been told, that there’s nothing to do. Then, like you say, there’s no one to do it anyway.
Mike,
This is an important function – all of this doing – because we do live in a physical world. And in order to get from one place to another we may need to plan and prepare. But this, on its own, is not really an impediment to anything.
This may in fact be true; that things just happen. (I say may be because many people are now well-read in this terminology. We must see if we actually live it, or if it is just another idea.) But don’t fall into the trap of trying to see what is happening.
When a guru says something like, “All of this is just happening,” or, “Watch what happens,” the listener translates that into a person that watches, or “I am seeing these things happen.” But if one really ‘sees’ what is happening, there will be no awareness of what is happening.
Let’s put it another way; the listener sees things happening as a sequence; this happens, then this, then this, and so on. But it is not as if this happens, then it switches to the next thing, then the next; it is not a sequence of events happening in time, it is one constant, never-ending event. There is no ‘next’ thing. No beginning or end. No sequence.
The one seeing the sequence is the same one that created the sequence in time. It is still a step by step movement in an attempt to attain something.
We have an image for everything, you see. So when we exert ourselves and attempt to see what is happening, we just shift from one image to the next, in whatever sequence that fits the apparent physical circumstances.
If one is beyond the image, nothing will happen, and there will be no one that sees anything. Do you understand what I mean?
I’ve actually posted more than one version of that story here, but I always end up deleting them. I just have not found the right way to express that event.
I guess by reading certain posts, and especially certain discussion on this site, it can be pieced together.
But I will write a page about it sometime in the near future. I have actually been thinking on this recently. Thanks for reminding me!
Don’t take my word for it.
If you really want freedom, no one can give it to you. But you’ll have to discard even ‘no one can give it to you,’ in order to approach this thing.
All of this stuff…it may be true. But accepting it as the truth, without ever having seen it on your own, will mean nothing.
And when I say ‘freedom,’ I mean complete and total freedom. Even the path you have chosen for yourself will not survive.
Good luck to you, my friend.
“The effort of the mind is detrimental to humanity. In that effort there is violence, hate, greed, and all of the horrors of war and the tyranny of ideals. ”
so why is it like this? any idea?
Hi Tom, and thank you very much.
D0 you mean why is it detrimental, or why does it go on like this?
i see how the attachment to thoughts create a false self and that leads to the fear, insecurity and how all that leads to our current state of the world. but why? some say it’s meaningless entertainment for the Self. what else to do but “lose” and “find” yourself again and again.
Thanks, Tom.
For many, it does go on as you’ve described; the losing and the finding. And these same people may see intellectually how this all came about. But that does not seem to be enough for them.
These things to go on because we allow them to go on. There is not really any other reason. We can get into why this happens; if it is a matter of security for the self and so on; but it goes on because we allow it.
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