sonrivers.com

son rivers (27-apr-2005 to 19-jun-2011)

2011-06-21T13:02:00.004-04:00

has transformed to:

http://aumshantidatta.blogspot.com/

or

www.aumshantidatta.com

thanks, love, and namaste.

w/love, the last sutra & final words of son rivers

2011-06-20T10:59:00.000-04:00

consciousness unperceiving is the dreaming.

consciousnest is the new consciousness at rest, awareness, absolute.

conscioushood is the localized consciousness, burning from the body: the hood.

consciousness dreams but consciousness is not a dream.

consciousness at rest is not not consciousness.

duality appears in consciousness; consciousness is not duality.

consciousness is the rope. don't hang yourself with it; just see it's not a snake. that alone will (un)do.

stories like stories.

thoughts suck and words blow.

a bodhisattva knows there is no story but reads it anyways.

there are no accidents, just an unrevealed pattern. and i thank each and every one of them for helping to clarify it.

being is the beginning of nothing.

science says the world isn't really matter; truth knows the world really doesn't matter.

pay no attention to the what outside the curtain.

words: there are none; yet here, there are nine.

what does sanity look like to one insane?

human beings are hard-wired for illusion and thus insanity. but thank god for the loose wires.

resting in the counsciousnest of unthinkably unclouded unalloyed awareness.

practice is merely a reset button.

it's all one fantastical being emanating from the consciousnest.

being is my factory and breath is my boss.

in awareness nation.

it feels real but it's really not.

the ultimate practice: resting in the consciousnesting. voila! reset. i am that. dream on.

to awaken really is to rest.

spiritual indigestion often sends the seeker back to find an antacid in the affairs of the world, but it's really like taking drano to cure.

the world is a mad swirl of everything trying to be something in attempt to avoid nothing.

the only emperor is the emperor of ice cream and the only god is the god of melting.

in a nutshell, it's one tripartate: unmanifest, manifest, illusion.

deconstruct the illusion, be the manifest, and rest in the unmanifest which does all the rest.

unmanifest/manifest can be pointed to as awareness/consciousness or consciousnest/consciousness or that/this but it's two sides of one coin.

that/this and the mist of i-me-mine.

i am that/this.

if you meet the twitter-stream on the road, kill it.

RT @Aumshantidatta: AUM

resting in the nesting

2011-06-17T22:56:00.001-04:00

deep sleep is consciousness at rest,

that nest of pure awareness;

and this so-called life is but a dream

nestled in its seam of emptiness.

the hocus pocus sutra

2011-06-16T21:27:00.000-04:00

once upon a time there was a story.

you're in the strange attractor zone.

mind is merely memory, and in its view, the present is just a projection of the past.

there never was a big bang; there is only hocus pocus.

when the character is not suffering, then the character is insufferable.

consciousness knows this play by heart.

this space-time continuum for rent.

once upon a time there was a universe that thought it was a worm.

the sun doesn't rise and no one awakens.

so here i am; rajas me.

thought thinks it's i, but i am; there is no therefore.

mind has a mind of its own.

truth is more interesting when it's not the truth.

you are the right to remain silent.

there's no figuring out not-two.

when i'm in the world, i'm lost; when the world's in me, i am.

i've accepted the satguru as my savior; others need not apply.

the dream state is the necessary crash; the waking is the inevitable undertow; you have always been the sea.

sooner or later you have to stop talking about it, reading about it, thinking about it, and experience it, feel it, be it, be...

the endless sutra

2011-06-14T11:13:00.000-04:00

you are not reading this.

it makes more 'sense' to identify with what you are during deep sleep and see the waking process as a dream event 'solidifying' on yourself.

there is nobody but you, and you are nobody too.

"science" never ultimately knows; at best, it theorizes. and theory is just another name for pretending to know the unknown: just dreaming.

names really get in the way; what is your experience!

so the spiritual event known as 'awakening' is like returning and resting in the deep sleep (aka pure awareness) one really is.

another day being paradise within the fallen illusion of hell.

to be aware of being is bliss, and that is all. the rest is just something to do until one is aware there's nothing to do but be aware.

an actor attends acting school because he knows he is an actor; religions take note.

evolution appears to be that timeline from the big bang to self-realization but it is really now.

compassion is spoken before the person so it’s there after the person.

when one abides in consciousness, there are no institutions or personalities to rail against or oppose.

would it have made any difference if it had been a sermon in the hands of a happy god?

opposition IS maya.

the revelation that something is really nothing appears to the mind as evolution or design but that's just the mind's concept of nothing.

the person disappears as awareness of being in breath, the bermuda triangle of meditation.

mind unwittingly creates something out of nothing, and either calls the act, evolution, or the unwitting, god. but it's all an appearance.

there is no perspective.

when a desire is fulfilled, there is a temporary gap in the timeline of suffering: ride that tantric line to awareness; or wait for that next desire.

it appears fantastic but who would know.

emotion is consciousness/being/love filtered thru thought; when thought is clearly seen thru, what remains is awareness of satcitananda: a way.

who's not in a name.

absolutely nothing is—consciousness happens—the mind remembers to dream; consciousness makes the dream appear real but absolutely nothing is.

higher consciousness is just consciousness letting go the mind.

until it’s realized that all knowledge is meaningless, all practice is impractical, & all effort is ineffectual, the endless loop is endless.

feel your force; know your n/one; breathe your bliss. rinse and repeat.

you were told you're a person & have spent these many so-called years fleshing out that original concept. now find out what you really are.

one is the holy trinity: consciousness, not thought; being, not body, bliss, not emotion.

you remove the thorn with another thorn and then throw both thorns away; you do not worship the second thorn or continue to practice with it.

the roadrunner sutra

2011-06-13T11:59:00.000-04:00

look! coyote artistry of the satguru.

when you know you don't know, you know all you can know.

everything happens in the blink of an eye.

practice is never perfect.

being is not a local phenomenon.

living is unthinkable!

love doesn't hurt, but it sure does feel the pain.

happily the happening happens to happen.

emotion equals thought times consciousness squared.

let it happen.

all answers are questionable, but no question is answerable.

can an alter ego be egoless?

names can never name the nameless.

people are so anthropomorphic.

still formless after all these years.

when i am eye, the world is something else.

render unto maya what is maya's.

the answer to all spiritual matters: cut taxes on the wealthy.

but sanity is spelled s-a-t-g-u-r-u.

the psycho killer sutra

2011-06-10T13:38:00.000-04:00

a piece of driftwood pointing at the moon.

solve for who.

a little seed of consciousness makes the whole wide world go down.

light is always pulling itself back together.

the world will break your fucking heart if you only meet it halfway.

an emotion is the spasm of being caught on the hook of thought.

it's inevitable that a person takes things personally.

monkey mind monkey do.

personality IS disorder.

current events is just a euphemism for the latest insanity.

tradition is only as good as what it 'does' now.

all sutras are translations from the original silence.

all questions are ultimately naughty.

there is no argument at all.

everything melts on contact.

nothing happened and i'm psyched it did.

the quantum john l. dobson sutra

2011-06-09T11:49:00.000-04:00

"The whole universe is not big enough for even one particle." ~Vivekananda

“Out of those things our bodies are made, and all of those things were made out of hydrogen by what we call transformational causation.”

“But the hydrogen does not arise by transformational causation. It cannot arise by transformational causation.”

“Hydrogen is made of energy, and energy cannot arise by the transformation of energy.”

“The kind of causation by which we see this thing is a causation by mistake…the kind of thing that you do when you mistake a rope for a snake.”

“Nothing happens to the rope.”

“The Gunas are about some entirely different kind of causation.”

the veiling power of tamas; the projecting power of rajas; the revealing power of sattva.

tamas: you fail to see the rope rightly.

rajas: you see the rope as something else.

sattva: you still saw the rope in the first place, but only have mistaken it for a snake.

“The first cause is apparitional. Nothing has happened. Nothing whatsoever.”

the five elements are actually five energies and are perceived through the five senses.

all five elements are the transformational causations arising from the primal apparitional causation: from brahman arises akasha.

the first element is akasha, sometimes translated as ether, is the gravitational energy of matter dispersed in space, perceived thru the ear.

the 2nd, vayu, usually trans. as air, is kinetic energy, as matter in space falls together by gravitation. perceived as temp thru skin.

3rd is tejas, trans. as fire, is radiation, as excess kinetic is lost to surrounding space. perceived thru the eye.

4th/5th, ap/prithivi, trans. as water/earth, are electricity and magnetism, twins, perceived thru tongue and nose.

“Gravity is the undividedness seen in the divided.”

“Inertia is the changelessness seen in the changing.”

“Electricity is the infinitude seen in the finite.”

“Everything in the universe runs toward the changeless, toward the infinite, toward the undivided. There are no other goals.”

“All actions are transformational in nature and they arise only within the domain of the apparition.”

“Through space and time it is not possible, by transformational causation, to reach that which is beyond space and time.”

“We got in by apparition, we’ll get out by undoing the apparition.”

“First is to discriminate between the rope and the snake. Second is to cease being snake fanciers.”

the playful sutra

2011-06-08T12:08:00.001-04:00

the first haiku written on the moon pointed to you on the earth.

you are only part of the picture but the picture is wholly you.

oh bliss! consciousness is playing with itself.

every activity in this world is just a pastime.

it's as if a single play was taken hostage by each word and so became six billion separate works.

like a landlubber crying land ho!

evolution is just consciousness making it up as it goes.

when you play this sutra backwards, it says 'you are unborn.'

the happening sutra

2011-06-07T11:18:00.000-04:00

welcome to the happening; sit back and enjoy; you never know.

there is no quiet mode.

the tremendous effort of no effort.

to the mind it appears to be a complete and paradoxical paradigm shift, but in truth it's as natural as a baby's deep sleep.

it took 14 billion years for the universe to know it took no time at all.

the mind wants to know but reality only loves.

'ordinary' is the latest extraordinary concept!

love makes the happening go fractal.

the known can only know the known, and not anything is truly ever known. but love is truly the unknown unknowing. unknow yourself today!

take your stand in happening: happenstance!

2011-06-05T08:09:00.002-04:00

solve for who

the swell sutra

2011-05-24T22:07:00.000-04:00

the white noise of breakers emerging from the silver silent fog.

but there is never an end for there is ever no beginning.

so waves keep rolling in yet there never is a wave.

ah, never trust appearances.

the crashing surf and rockbound shore are variations on the fantasy of time.

we are always traveling at 700 million miles per hour!

(beyond the basho / silver light expectorates / the syllables of)

mind can only mind that which is the mind.

sometimes you eat the bear. sometimes the bear eats you. sometimes you understand you've always been the bear.

you're so vain, you probably think you're you.

i think not; i am all.

the impersonal sutra

2011-05-23T19:05:00.000-04:00

one suffers as a person only because one thinks one is a person.

and all this spiritual personalization!

disidentify disidentify disidentify: the three real laws of real estate.

the first step is to decondition oneself; in other words, deconstruct the person one's been taught one is; & don't underestimate this step!

don't be afraid or guilt-ridden to be impersonal; this is one's greatest obstacle: so remember physician heal thyself.

don't delay & leave it to an unforeseen account of merit; that's what the big bank of priests wants 'you' to do; w/o 'you', they got nothing.

this is the only revolution: overthrow yourself.

everything you think you know is false and that is just the beginning!

and an atheist is a person who has done the math backwards.

ever since i became god, i've been an apersonist.

thus it's really not difficult being god: i don't know anything and i don't do anything. i just happen!

man! i love it when i happen!

my love of happening may be called intelligence, but really, it's nothing.

this happening, love, & intelligence is sometimes referred to as being, bliss, & consciousness, but in a different order. i'm ok with that.

and god said look at myself and then there was mind.

i love mind; it's so cute when it thinks it's intelligent.

the consciousness sutra

2011-05-20T15:25:00.002-04:00

the picture window is now filled with green. i must admit the eyes enjoy that color. no wonder they created it!

a rose-breasted grosbeak at the birdfeeder. a patch of red in a field of white and black. stunning spring visitor.

a blue coyote howls above the head of red ganesh; buddha sits within a hollow in a spire of driftwood; shiva dances on a golden puzzle box.

out of the black hole of deep sleep awakes ten thousand multi-colored stars of beautiful illusion burning so piercingly as if they're quite real.

green consciousness on brown consciousness in blue consciousness through clear consciousness for gray consciousness.

consciousness describes but cannot be described.

yes, we all live in a consciousness submarine.

to see it is to feel it; to feel it is to be it.

in the sea of samadhi!

the 'sunflower sutra' sutra

2011-05-19T15:13:00.001-04:00

you weren't here. now you're here. then you aren't here. but you're always there.

words get in the Way.

you think you’re a thought which you call you, but in reality you’re not.

words are necessary evils without, but absolutely malevolent within.

when words of being become belief, the recondite moon becomes a righteous face completely full of itself.

even ten thousand words can never touch no word.

thus the buddha silently holds up a flower; the flower holds a bee.

"You were never no locomotive, Sunflower, you were a sunflower!"

after all, even the ‘sunflower sutra’ doesn't have the energetic dynamism of a sunflower.

sunflower! you are more powerful than a locomotive! you are able to leap this world in a single bound!

you don’t do love; love does you.

locomotive breath! your words are only so much smoke!

when thinking you’re a thought, love does you filtered and divided accordingly; when silent, love does you as love delightfully.

poet! don't be like god; just be. you already are that god; no more words are needed.

the natural light sutra

2011-05-18T19:45:00.001-04:00

in the name of awareness and being and love, om shanti shanti shanti.

a cardinal, a robin, and a blue jay walk into this watering hole.

“Life force, love and consciousness are all one in essence.”

i used to read Nisargadatta Maharaj for knowledge; now i read for love.

conceive this.

i am; therefore i know i am; thus i love i am.

it's the samadhi old story.

to be the change, be the light.

the fluttering of leaves reflects the fluttering heart.

the light as sunlight is seeing and the light as lifelight is being.

how's it guna be?

vasana in the highest?

love doesn't just make the world go 'round; love literally makes the world.

because you are.

the mind may think it dies and there is no god, but love knows differently; it is god.

i got blisters on my heart!

“The innermost light, shining peacefully and timelessly in the heart, is the real Guru. All others merely show the way.”

apres Nisargadatta, la page blanc.

celebrate your unbirthday now.

nonduality comics 106: the genesis of woeman

2011-05-17T16:28:00.000-04:00

the talking big bang evolutionary ah ha sutra

2011-05-16T17:23:00.000-04:00

the tears of silence rise.

and then there was green.

before the appearance of silence is

that which doesn't even have a word.

so the big bang is the mind's name for silence.

yet it's not that none of this is happening;

it's just we only think all of this is happening.

for evolution is the mind's name for now.

only after eating the fruit of mind did adam&eve grow bodies.

and feeling good is the codependent of feeling bad.

such is the delusional nature of woeman!

then einstein agrees: light knows no time.

love is neither good nor bad; it just is—

the corollary is: you aren't.

and in the light of day, it is seen there is not even the light of day.

the shore sutra

2011-05-15T19:15:00.000-04:00

flowing is flowing along a flowing.

to the mind it's a great tectonic & evolutionary

struggle resulting in river & shoreline but

for consciousness there's nothing to it.

a rose by any other name is still not a rose.

docks are the mind of the river, holding

an inevitable flotilla against the flowing.

you can never think your way to love.

a fluttering of orange threading through a shivering of green

through which a flowing of invisibility is breathing.

a butterfly is witchgrass which is zephyr.

when you as consciousness know yourself,

in no time at all even an earthworm, even earth

itself, knows itself as that perfect pure awareness.

Nisargadatta’s Ultimate Sutra

2011-05-14T17:15:00.002-04:00

His Complete Teaching in 442 Words:

You see, this "I-am-ness" is normally this five-elemental interaction and play. Out of the earth, with the help of water, sprouting of vegetation takes place. Out of vegetation, the essences are drawn and out of the essences, which are the food for all beings, come the grains for human beings. Now from the quintessence of this food, the "I-am-ness" is sustained. The food is stored in the form of a body. The food is continuously consumed by the vital breath. And in the process of consuming this food, the vital breath sustains that flame of "I-am-ness." To have "I-am-ness," the food body and vital breath are very necessary; in short, one may say it is a product of food body essence and vital breath. Then only this "I-am-ness" or consciousness is available.

Now the consciousness, when it gets involved with the body-mind, is the individual. It is conditioned by body and mind. Mind is concepts. Whatever it receives through the five senses, and is stored, that is the mind. And whatever the words that flow out, that is also mind. So when that consciousness is conditioned by the body and the mind, it is individualistic, a personality. And I always tell people, you depersonify yourself by not identifying with the body-mind. When you do that, you are that manifest principle; you are no more a personality, you are only consciousness.

When you are in that consciousness state, you are in a position to observe the mind flow, any thoughts occurring to you-you are apart from thought. You don't identify with that thought. Since you observe the body and its actions, you are not one with those; you are apart from that body. Thus, you are now in consciousness; that is the first stage. So when you are only consciousness, you are all manifest; this is to be realized. Then, provided you are, everything is, your world is, and your god is. You are the primary cause, the prerequisite for anything else to exist, whether it be your god or your world. You abide only in consciousness. In your attention, only consciousness should be there. That is the meditation.

Now the next step is-the question raised in the morning-are you in a position to observe consciousness? This is also the final step. When you are in a position to observe or witness consciousness-and, of course, the vital breath, body and its actions-then by virtue of that very observation, you are apart from the consciousness.

So when you are in a position to observe consciousness, you are out of consciousness. Then you are what we call "the awareness state," the vijnana or jnana state.

(from ‘The Ultimate Medicine’)

the mindless sutra

2011-05-12T13:47:00.000-04:00

words write themselves.

i am not just one spontaneous iambic line but i am headless, yes, i am.

the mind doesn't know.

no? yes!

when you know you can never know, then you will know.

the same intelligence that creates the universe

and operates the amazing mechanics of bodies

is the teacher—when the student becomes silent.

unthink it through.

no mind doesn't mean no mind; it means no meaning.

i am the god of i am and i bring you love.

you think you're the leaves but one is really the root.

no thought is original; only love is.

unimagine yourself.

the mind IS the space-time continuum.

things happen if you let them and things happen if you don't let them.

consciousness dreams for real.

the locus sutra

2011-05-10T10:36:00.000-04:00

the conditioned appearance of the universe is thinking; you are not.

the torrent of words keeps on rolling; the river bank just keeps watching.

since nothing ever really happens, give all attention to what’s happening.

everything in the world matters precisely because nothing in the world matters.

superman appears to change into clark kent but is really always superman.

green kryptonite is only a self-limiting thought.

only the mind could think there's something more or less.

the less time you create, the more space you fill.

the universe is my body, but i am not the universe.

in conclusion, there is no beginning.

when everything is known to be a conditioned appearance

in the consciousness that i am,

all is seen to be pure expression of that bliss i am.

atman is brahman is parabrahman; wo/man is eagle is sky!

bop & bam sutra

2011-05-08T11:18:00.000-04:00

rock&roll is

shiver&shake is

shiva&shakti is

atman is

brahman is

gone—gone beyond—gone beyond beyond is

a-wop-bop-a-loo-bop

a-lop-bam-boom!

everything that's been said

and still it's not been said.

the osama sutra

2011-05-05T10:59:00.000-04:00

in the name of no reason, no purpose, no merit, action!

we are one network, indivisible, with ten thousand times six billion causes appearing each second, it's more accurate to say there's none.

“do not ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.”

“no damned cat, no damned cradle.”

osama gets killed, some people cheer, others fret, the dalai lama says whatever.

love is filtered through many emotional lenses, but compassion looks only at the original light; the rest is just a laser show.

in the name of no subject, no object, no nothing, light!

the trinitarian sanctus veda sutra

2011-05-04T15:57:00.000-04:00

in the name of the absolute,

consciousness,

and the satguru;

wholly holy holey,

satcitananda,

atman is brahman

is parabrahman,

hosannas!

om!

the light sutra (non-illustrated version)

2011-05-01T18:52:00.002-04:00

And then there was the blissful energetic intelligence called light,

and light, to know itself, descended into particles and waves, creating atoms that locked themselves into molecules of darkness,

waiting for the upward call of life to form organic cells of freedom,

organizing into plants, then animals, and ultimately

the human nervous system, self-aware,

upon the brink of seeing,

(after what the mind interprets as a 14 billion year journey through an infinity of space)

loving, and finally knowing itself as light.

But first, it wonders how it can get something really important.

nonduality comics 105: the illustrated light sutra

2011-04-29T18:46:00.000-04:00

Spring Song Sutra

2011-04-28T19:17:00.000-04:00

In the bare-tree gray light of ten thousand criss-crossing boles and branches,

this luminous green consciousness of embryonic leaves begins to shimmer,

while the goldfinch of mind is singing in its yellowed yellowing voice: it’s spring,

it’s spring, hallelujah for an April sky omnipotent has raineth, so it’s spring!

Here and now one apperceives it’s blonde on blonde, or love on love, i am i am,

a love supreme, a love supreme, a love supreme, clear light beholding pure white light,

in reality where all is spring, spring, spring beyond, spring altogether beyond,

O what an awakening!

The 'I Am' Sutra

2011-04-27T17:01:00.000-04:00

among all this useless and pointless knowledge is
this one pointer: i am. use it.

'i am' happens;
everything else is just a sad duplication.

there is no object
in 'i am.'

the only thing to remember is
to forget everything you've remembered.

when all is forgotten, one is:
i am.

The Electrodynamics of Consciousness

2011-04-25T11:58:00.005-04:00

When light sees itself, no longer is
there any evidence of light,
for light at the speed of light is timeless
and spaceless, and in this manifestly
impossible world of congregation
with weight, light has always been massless, and you,
in truth, have always been light.

sr.04.11
rev-02

I Am (wholly holy holey)

2011-04-22T11:08:00.002-04:00

You are that point of timeless pointless
nameless empty everything
unmanifested deep within
and far without which manifests
itself as God the Universe
of Spirit Being Consciousness
occurring wholly everywhere
and everytime including this
psychosomatic entity
with which that God mistakenly
and stubbornly identifies
becoming lost within the fear
and pain of astronomical
infinitesimal impromptu
energies until it dawns
upon the light still shining from
the Guru Holy Soul called Atman
it's the Son called Brahman reflecting
in atomic flame the Father
Parabrahman Ultimate
Reality still silent holey
pure clear point of timeless pointless
nameless empty everything.

nonduality comics 104: granite guru

2011-04-17T20:31:00.001-04:00

the end

2011-04-14T23:00:00.003-04:00

yin and yang

2011-04-14T17:12:00.001-04:00

it’s not what you think it is.

it's all about truth or consequences.

if love is bringing you down, it ain't love.

just don't buy the hype.

there's no why in all this yin and yang.

maya has the tombstone blues.

thought is not personal.

happiness only happens but bliss is.

if it can be worded, it's not worth the words.

out of what appears to be nothing, everything appears.

appears

2011-04-13T19:09:00.000-04:00

nonduality comics 103: sleep perchance

2011-04-12T18:00:00.001-04:00

nonduality comics 102: jnana ajnana

2011-04-12T11:00:00.001-04:00

sermon on the wetlands

2011-04-10T22:47:00.000-04:00

stopped and listened for ten minutes on the picnic table out back tonight to the peepers giving their sermon on the wetlands.

No guru, no method, no teacher / Just you & I & nature / And the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost / In the garden / Wet with rain. ~VM

don't overthink it; in fact, don't think it at all: that is just this

The atmosphere is not a perfume, it has no taste of the distillation, it is odorless, It is for my mouth forever, I am in love with it, …

...I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked, I am mad for it to be in contact with me. ~WW

remember: these holy words are just a thorn to rid you of the thorn; drop them as soon as you can

all these words about enlightenment, awakening, jnana, consciousness, christ, or whatever don't mean a thing if it don't have that swing

Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream / It is not dying, it is not dying...

...Lay down all thoughts, surrender to the void It is shining, it is shining..

...Yet you may see the meaning of within. It is being, it is being...

...Love is all and love is everyone. / It is knowing, it is knowing...

~JL

it’s helpful to understand that what we think as deep sleep and what we think as being awake are actually close to the opposite of what is

think about it: what you think as being awake needs deep sleep, but what you think as deep sleep needs nothing

while we're at it, remember that reality is a multi-faceted and multi-dimensional jewel: it shines on in untold unknown ways. just feel it.

it’s also helpful to access that feeling of deep sleep while thinking you’re awake; first thing in the morning, as you feel it’s still there

it’s also helpful to understand the everyday and oh-so-obvious “fact” you’re awake and functioning is just a concept; you only think it’s so

there are so many words out there, & some are holy useful. but please remember words are merely words: you are that experience beyond words.

nonduality comics: #101 duet for one

2011-04-08T16:10:00.000-04:00

deep sleep

2011-04-04T21:39:00.002-04:00

silent experience

2011-04-01T11:42:00.001-04:00

three by three

2011-03-24T21:05:00.007-04:00

is the alphabet an omega of noise?

one word: no words.

i am that i am toot-toot.

like your story; don't be your story.

nothing is solid; tricks are for kids.

adhere to a consciousness diet and be thinner than himalayan air.

string theory says there's something like eleven dimensions; thought has three. no wonder it's all a wonder.

it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that no thing.

begin at the beginning and be.

blessings

2011-03-21T20:57:00.000-04:00

if everything is conceptual, then the concept of the conceptual loses all distinction, disappearing into is.

run silent.

the simple human blessing is that natural ability to be aware of being; it's everything, although most pay it little to no attention.

wholly holy holey.

i shall be wholly devoted with all my body and all my mind to the knowledge that i am not my body and i am not my mind.

be let be.

deconstruct consensual reality and rest in its afterglow of being.

***

a touching genesis story

2011-03-16T15:20:00.000-04:00

the most wondrous director, consciousness,
films its movie in what appears to be a physical 3D:
truly the highest hi-tech.

the body is a big-bang node of consciousness
and the experiential fact called a sense of touch
is nothing but its tender exit wound.

untold dimensions:
the body is a node of consciousness
in a field of consciousness
created by consciousness
for the joy of consciousness.

touch,
that exit wound through which consciousness
tears through consciousness,
forms the original vision of a subject
in a separate world.

the evolution of corresponding senses
motor skills,and a central nervous system
merely brings the original vision to the big screen.

coming to a mind near you,
the film that is the inspiration for six billion dreams:
maya.
see it with a significant other.

2011-03-14T21:09:00.002-04:00

nonconceptual now

2011-03-09T19:08:00.003-05:00

and on what appears to be the 5,000,000,000,000th day of its creation, god continues to destroy it with one nonconceptual now!

who are you on the eighth day of the week?

be like a tree and silently bark.

thirsty words

2011-03-08T20:29:00.000-05:00

the original sin is

original thought

and its underlying

origin is

effortless love

overwrought.

everything in

this storied world

is an extraordinary

concept except

that untold

ordinary existence.

space is all

there is;

love fills

all that space.

religion is

a thirsty word.

truth is dry.

smile

2011-03-04T08:31:00.001-05:00

out of real deep sleep wakes that one big bang and dreams what seems so real.

unmanifest—manifest, unmanifest—manifest, unmanifest—manifest; that—i am, that—i am, that—i am.

float as pure awareness—sting as being/love.

when the truck of mind hits the body of mind, an explosion of mind occurs.

even christ cried out when the mind exploded on the cross.

when the heart 'breaks,' the mind explodes, and hurts until remembering one is not the mind but really the heart, and the heart never breaks.

unwittingly, the scientific mind only experiments on itself.

smile—the natural expression of a face; face—expression of mind; mind—expression of consciousness; consciousness—expression of the absolute.

smile! it's a natural expression of the absolute.

the big sleep

2011-03-03T19:47:00.001-05:00

Spiritually speaking, sleep is not what you think it is. In fact, like most things spiritual, it’s the opposite of what you think it is.

Sleep is not some pit stop to recharge your daytime engines. At least not in the way most think.

Deep sleep is actually a state much like the absolute when seen from the perspective of deep sleep, which means from the perspective of a non-state.

From that non-state of deep sleep, reality begins to descend toward the conceptual state we call the waking state, but which is actually the real sleeping state.

When the absolute recognizes itself, consciousness is born. In a similar vein, when deep sleep emerges from itself, a state of awareness, an awareness of awareness, is entered.

When consciousness recognizes itself, thought forms, appearances, are born. In a similar vein, when that early awareness emerges from itself, a state of dreams is entered.

When the state of appearances recognize itself, the manifest world is born. In a similar vein, when that state of dreams emerges from itself, the so-called waking state, that of the mind as we know it, is entered.

Reversing this order is the real awakening. When mind knows itself, understands its conceptual actuality, mind dissolves into a dream-like quality of appearances, which when in turn is understood, dissolves into the natural state of consciousness.

When consciousness, in turn, knows itself, understands itself, it dissolves into the pure awareness of the absolute.

In this way it is seen that non-state deep sleep, the absolute, is what I am and falling asleep is actually a return to source. And in waking from deep sleep, if the process is given experiential attention, and not just conceptual consideration, one can experience and understand manifestation, consciousness, and truly waken.

different deity-folks

2011-03-03T08:30:00.000-05:00

the devil creates and god destroys: two names for one consciousness.

Has anyone supposed it lucky to be born? / I hasten to inform him or her it is just as lucky to die, and I know it. ~Walt Whitman.

brahma, vishnu, shiva : lucifer creates, i maintain, god destroys : different strokes for different deity-folks : one consciousness : aum.

this consciousness

2011-03-02T08:30:00.000-05:00

we are the all-consuming fire of consciousness that gets lost in the flicker of our thoughts.

this consciousness requires the foodstuff of sunlight to exist; that energy is outside in the world; that world appears inside consciousness.

all is light/energy; light/energy is consciousness; consciousness is all. rinse your thoughts and repeat.

tweedlethis tweedlethat

2011-03-01T08:30:00.000-05:00

there is no one to understand; you are the understanding.

square thought, round reality.

you can’t change change.

there is no be line.

you can’t be the change but you can be the be in be the change because you are already.

one word is just as meaningless as ten thousand words.

thirteen billion years of changing and they put me on another shift.

positive and negative feed on each other like a perpetual ouroboric machine.

unraveling the ball of yarn discovers there is no ball but just a collection of yarns.

monkey doesn't see, monkey do; love see, love doesn't do.

positive vibes spawn negative troughs.

life is oscillation.

even experience is ultimately a concept.

unknow the known and know the unknown.

2011-02-28T08:30:00.002-05:00

2011-02-27T08:30:00.000-05:00

2011-02-26T22:30:00.001-05:00

to mind

2011-02-25T20:09:00.003-05:00

when knowing that the mind is what you’re not, what’s left of you to mind?

when there’s nothing left of you to mind, there’s only others for whom a mind might be used.

the new neti neti

2011-02-24T09:00:00.003-05:00

Always insist that you are formless, free, and are not conditioned. You must hammer on this constantly, that is the practice. ~Nisargadatta

comedy is the new neti neti.

I don't care to belong to any thought-form that will have me as a mistaken identity. ~Groucho Shankara

I don't know the question, but consciousness is definitely the answer. ~Woody Upanishads

perceive what's not, just be, and apperceive.

nonbelief is nondenominational; reality is nondimensional.

there is no one to understand; you are the understanding.

the entity that realizes the dreaming is not the dreamer.

an is land

2011-02-23T08:30:00.003-05:00

i am an is land.

dare to question who you are?

mind can only talk to mind.

first, see that everything you think you've been taught to think.

in other words, nothing you've been taught to think is actually you.

in even more words, everything you believe you are, you've been told you are.

so what are you if you can't use the words you've been taught to describe who/what you are?

who are you? what are you? answer! now!

i would suggest you approach whatever with the devotion according to whatever.

try to remember that remembering is not true.

just rest in any paradox you can think that's unthinkable and there you are.

in the opposite suggestion, stay away from any positive direction suggested from any other nexus.

if you need to think about it, well, don't. to paraphrase kerouac, first thought: best love.

if you're unwilling to consider your real nature, then you're willing to kill untold millions of your supposed nature.

guilt trips 'r us.

an inside job

2011-02-22T08:30:00.001-05:00

science is an inside job.

this entire world is imported; it was made in maya.

the world exists because we say it does. but who are we?

the manifested universe; just a thought.

true intelligence doesn't even know jeopardy.

if deep sleep seems unthinkable, don't think.

if i could teach the world to sing, i would sing.

this happens.

bodies are merely movable earth; earth is just condensed sunlight; light at the speed of light is timeless and formless; identify with that!

there is no there there; there is no then then.

stop blaming god for human suffering. instead, see that suffering is just Self-ignorance; we are god.

consciousness doesn't need to be altered; just be it.

2011-02-21T11:44:00.001-05:00

love story

2011-02-19T08:24:00.001-05:00

mind condenses truth into fiction and non-fiction.

fiction is pure story and non-fiction is story pretending not to be story.

science is the purest form of non-fiction.

actually, contrary to that most popular genre of fiction, or non-fiction for that matter, love is not a story.

there are no words for love.

one is love, and that's the truth. any words will only condense it into story.

a hole the size of being

2011-02-15T21:08:00.001-05:00

love your love; that is all.

just relax and be your Self.

let the unknown be your nonpolar star.

love is never having to say love is.

when you really stop to think about it, you haven't stopped at all.

paradox is the rebel without a cause.

thought is a closed loop system with a hole the size of being.

Tao Art That.

2011-02-14T15:16:00.003-05:00

the framework of manifestation

2011-02-12T09:00:00.002-05:00

As Absolute, I am timeless, infinite, and I am awareness, without being aware of awareness. As infinity I express myself as space, as timeless I express myself as time. Unless there is space and duration I cannot be conscious of myself. When space and time are present there is consciousness, in that the total manifestation takes place and various phenomena come into being.

I, by Myself, Awareness, descend into this consciousness, and in this consciousness I express Myself in manifold ways, in innumerable forms. This is the crux, the framework of manifestation; there is no question of any individuality.

~Nisargadatta Maharaj

peanuts!

2011-02-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

mind will co-opt no-mind in no time.

mind will co-opt no-mind in no time, creating individual sciences of consciousness, personal circles of loving words & religions of behavior.

peanuts!

popcorn!

it doesn't get any better.

there is no goal, but there is the neverending discovery of who i am .

speak the mind, then leave it behind, but love—stay with it.

that's (not) the truth

2011-02-10T12:03:00.002-05:00

meaning = substance with cause-effect = space-time = sense-memory = consciousness = ‘i am’ is the only meaning there is

in the play of human consciousness, senses are collective & memory is individual; thus most agree on substance but few agree on cause-effect.

the difference between a philosophy of truth and actual truth is like that of the waking state and deep sleep, and that's (not) the truth.

you really can't think about illusion because thought itself is the illusion.

you are not what you eat. in fact, that is the prime error; consciousness devours the body and in so doing, believes it is what it eats.

first, you know you are; then, you know you are not; last, you do not know you are.

time talks

2011-02-09T09:01:00.000-05:00

once you've got the meaning you can forget the words.
where can i find a man who has forgotten words
so i can have a word with him?
-Chuang Tzu

true knowledge cannot be conveyed by words;

one cannot capture light: one is light.

the love that being has for itself is like an atomic bond;

separate one from itself & the resultant

explosion is called suffering & violence.

once the wave truly knows that it's the sea,

there's no longer a wave—

but nothing in the wave can help it see the sea

except to be the wave.

awareness of awareness is awareness

as being being is being.

only being is believable; the rest is make-believe.

the knowledge that can be spoken is not the eternal

sat-guru tao christ krishna buddha knowledge.

time talks, space walks.

Sat-Guru is the protector

and its weapons are love, forgiveness, and compassion.

funny how most so-called spiritual behavior stops

when it comes tax time.

render unto caesar his ten thousand fatted calves

while we enjoy his salad.

whatever one believes to be spirituality is just

another movement in consciousness which remains

pure and untouched by all spirituality.

words quicky become fetishes if held a moment too long.

ghost stories

2011-02-08T20:43:00.000-05:00

in, of, & by consciousness:

senses create space

& fill it with substance;

memory creates time

& fills it with cause & effect.

ghost & story.

the nanochip of consciousness

2011-02-07T20:55:00.002-05:00

"The consciousness is the seed of Godliness"
~Nisargadatta Maharaj

everything is an appearance in consciousness,

including the thought that everything is an appearance in consciousness.

after what appears to be 13 billion years of preparation,

this extreme node of consciousness can either know itself or not.

the human mind-body appears to be a tool

created by and for Self-knowledge

that gets lost in the wonderful mechanics of itself.

no dessert until you eat your consciousness!

an ego appears as soon as appearances are believed to be things.

the so-called world is completely full of ghosts,

but people call them things.

the so-called world is completely full of ghosts,

but people call them things

—or people.

touch is the proof of nothing.

when everything is seen to be nothing,

then everything is known to be one.

and that awareness of awareness,

by awareness, for awareness,

shall not perish from awareness.

round up the usual suspects!

each and every person is guilty of identity theft.

when there's only seeing,

there's nothing to be seen.

the open sea: no ship, no owner, no ownership.

i am the nanochip of consciousness;

i am the world wide web of pure awareness.

for a bird, nothing is the ground.

or... for a bird, pure space is the ground.

or... for a bird, emptiness is the ground.

absurd to be the word;

just be the bird of being.

the greatest foe & the greatest friend

2011-02-04T22:38:00.005-05:00

Nisargadatta Maharaj: You understand yourself as body-mind; therefore my problem is - how to make you understand. Lord Krishna said, "All are my expressions." The mountain is of gold and a particle of that mountain is also gold. I am that mountain and every particle is myself. The entire beingness manifest is myself, and each being is a sample of myself. The knowledge "I Am" in each species is myself. The very life force - luminous, bright, radiant, indwelling principle is myself.

If anybody understands me totally and fully and most appropriately, that one gets the shelter in the shade of my benign being.

The state of a jnani, the highest state, has transcended the beingness, but the beingness is still there, so together with the beingness is the Absolute - the deep blue, benign state, without eyes.

Knowledge takes rest in that deep blue, quiet, peaceful, benign shade. When that shade is shifted aside, then he sees the various manifestations in the form of universes and worlds. But when the shade is there, it is the deep, dark blue state, fully relaxed.

Questioner: Is Maharaj going to stop talking?

M. The talks will emanate provided someone worthy is there to put questions. I am nearing the end of my time. If any questions sprout, ask them.

Q: I want to stay here with Maharaj as long as possible.

M. Although you might go home, whatever has been planted, whatever you have received, is going to change you. You are completely possessed.

Q. I feel that. I am grateful that at the tag-end of my life I was brought here.

M. Your coming here was also spontaneous. It is very rare that someone has the good fortune to come here; having come here, if the planting is done, the sprouting will definitely take place. It may take time, but it will definitely take place.

Just as the beingness has appeared spontaneously, you don't know beforehand, now I am going to be - it has come about - so also the talks are coming spontaneously.

This touch of "I Amness" is in each being; this beingness has that touch of love for the Absolute and it is a representation of the Absolute. When you got yourself separated from the Absolute with this identity "I Am," you felt fragmented, isolated, and that is why your demands started. In the Absolute there are no needs. Only the Absolute prevails.

The truth is total Brahman only, nothing else but Brahman. In a total Brahman state the touch of beingness, "I Am," and with that, separation started, otherness has come. But this "I Amness" is not just a small principle, that itself is the mula-maya, the primary illusion. What I am expounding is not meant for the common people, because they have not reached the stature to understand what I am saying. Therefore I tell them to do bhajans, japa, meditation. After doing that, when the purifying takes place, they will be worthy enough to receive my talks.

Q. From the Unmanifest, the manifest is happening?

M: Who is asking this and why?

Q. I want to know.

M. Nothing prevails but you, everything is you. What answer can I give you?

If you want to remember this visit, if you have love for me, remember this "I Am" principle and without the command or direction of this principle, do nothing.

In the world today there are so many people and they are so busy with their affairs that they don't have time to eat - they stand and eat. These are characteristics of the maya. The great maya principle is making you do all her tricks, and you are also abiding in what she says, and finally, that light of yours, that beingness, gets extinguished. Then where are you going?

Q. I am going to search for another body!

M: This is all a concept. Before appearing in the world, do you remember your previous history, do you remember anything?

Q. No, but I have read ...

M. I don't want to hear what others write, I want to know from the horse's mouth, from you. If you are not, can others be there? Is this not good enough for you?

Q: But I cannot think of a state when I had not been.

M. That was the non-attention Parabrahman state. That attention "I Am" was not there.

Q. Do we come from the Parabrahman state and go back after beingness goes?

M: Coming down into this world from the Absolute is something like the appearance of a dream. In a dream are you going somewhere? The primary ignorance is the understanding that you are the body. To know that you are the manifest is knowledge, and the knowledge merges into no-knowledge, Parabrahman.

Q- But I understand from the Gita ...

M: Throw it away! Whatever you understand is not the truth and it is to be thrown overboard. You are trying to catch hold of something and cling to it. Accept, as it is, what I am telling you. Don't be carried away by concepts. Don't employ any words, and look at yourself as you are. Few people understand what I am driving at.

You are not paying proper attention, you are talking only after this beingness appeared. Before the beingness was there, look at that, be in that state. If you dare call me an atheist, remember that I do bhajans four times a day.

That maya is so powerful that it gets you completely wrapped up in it. Maya means "I Am," "I love to be." It has no identity except love. That knowledge of "I Am" is the greatest foe and the greatest friend. Although it might be your greatest enemy, if you propitiate it properly, it will turn around and lead you to the highest state.

~from ‘Prior to Consciousness’ May 4, 1980

the gateway to reality

2011-02-03T08:00:00.001-05:00

through mind, eyes are frozen on the past;

in awareness, eyes are burning in the timeless.

deep sleep is actually the gateway to reality.

one doesn’t require deep sleep for the mind to stay awake;

one rouses to deep sleep after the exhausting slumber of the mind.

let deep sleep be the foundation of all activity;

in such a way, one is truly resting in awareness.

the mind translates nothing

2011-02-02T08:08:00.001-05:00

how extremely sensitive the senses

that they record all this permanent something

out of that changeable space of consciousness.

consciousness riding consciousness is the natural rodeo event.

cawse, cawse, cawse: the crows of karma call.

consciousness is the single eye with six billion pupils.

nothing but neti.

when the fire burns the fire the fire goes out.

there is no individual,

but just an involuntary selection

from the collective of selections.

the big bang takes place first thing every morning.

god wakes and then the world yawns.

not too curious

that an atheist will profess disbelief in god

yet hold on for dear life to the belief in one's self.

i.r.s. therefore i 'r me.

becoming a person was like losing one's virginity;

it's very difficult to undo,

despite the truth that nothing was ever done.

the mind translates nothing into this world.

the mind translates nothing into this world,

including the mind.

translation happens before language evolves.

eyesight is an optical illusion.

the qualities and their seeming variances

of the consciousness of touching and seeing

creates the notion of a body within a world.

the 1/x files: there's nothing out there.

even the premeditated is spontaneous.

if it sounds spiritual, then it's really not.

seeing the utter meaninglessness of all concepts,

especially overtly spiritual ones attempting

to offer meaning, including this one!

the language of the absolute

2011-02-01T12:02:00.001-05:00

it's a light eat light world.

maya made me do it.

every day is judgment day.

we are riding on a realroad.

step back a galaxy or two.

love is not an emotion.

thinking likes to dwell in thought,

no matter what the thought.

sunlight imagines everything.

awareness is the fuel;

self-awareness is the fire.

consciousness is the language of the absolute

that the senses translate into mind,

in which it's pronounced 'universe,'

and spelled 'i am.'

the consciousness concerto (the poem)

2011-01-26T21:40:00.001-05:00

light descends
its quantum slope to solid matter;
particles and waves go frozen
to the space of time;

no rhyme, no reason,
just a quark of fate
in that

an atom turns to granite

and then ascends
in some organic movement
back towards light.

the vegetation, dna,
an animated circus of emotion.

this is the symphony of consciousness
we’ve just begun to hear;
it’s humming in our ears,
we are the humming in our ears.

our own descent
into the knot of physical
and psychic co-identity
beginning to untie itself
begins its own ascent:
not this, not this, not this!

like sunlight latent
in the grain of angel oak,
we burn!

the flame shall see it’s not the kindling;
the flame shall know that it’s the fire.

the world is burning
on the altar of our eyes;
awareness is the fuel
and self-awareness is the fire.

this life is but a speck of ash
arising in the smoke of mind;

not this, not this, not this!

i am the fire before
there was this flame i am;
i am the light before
this nuclear explosion
called self-consciousness
exploded in
i am—

not this, not this, not this;
no, yes, i am…that.

unimaginable and void,
nothing without the nothing,
no word, no form, no sound,
not even no, but knowing,
yes, no space, no time,
no substance—
emptiness,
the w/hole;

holy, holy, holy,
that is all.

whyever

2011-01-22T07:00:00.000-05:00

space is my canvas and time is my brush.

consciousness is not only always fully expanded already, it creates its own expanse.

consciousness is whatever it wants to be but whatever it wants to be isn't it. tag, you're it!

holier than that.

whyever.

when i understand, it is the universe that understands.

as real estate is all about location, reality is all about negation: negate, negate, negate.

complete negation equals full stop, and there you are.

there is no original sin, just that original thought: i am.

the doorway to no way is one way.

free son rivers!

2011-01-21T15:22:00.008-05:00

someone on twitter wished this on me today: “may you fill many books with this, but sell none.” i found such a mixture of charm and curse to be quite startling.

it appears my words aren’t appreciated by this one, which is understandable; they often aren’t appreciated here hours after they’ve been written. but there appears to be an undercurrent of distaste at my having a couple of books for sale on this website.

so i wish to be utterly transparent here, both to others and myself, but ultimately, one. every son rivers book for sale here is for the enjoyment of the book form itself. all the words are free in another form elsewhere. furthermore, i assure you, the profit from any book here is minimal.

really, the fact that there are any book forms here has more to do with my two and a half years of unemployment and the resultant free time than anything else. there are no illusions that any of this can be profitable, nor should there be. even if the sun sets on my ability to stay afloat, i would never (and could never) use this work as a boat on which to float. but it is fun!

yet maybe i have not been as explicit about this as i should have been. so here are the projects i’ve undertaken and their various manifestations.

Nisargadatta_M
this has been my latest joy. i have been reading ‘I Am That” and tweeting selected portions, chapter by chapter at:
http://twitter.com/Nisargadatta_M
I also have been compiling the tweets at:
http://nisargadattam.blogspot.com/
Lately, I’ve begun to post the tweets, 2 a day, at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nisargadatta_M/116197611786801
There is no book form, although I’ve been toying with the idea of creating a free pdf version when complete, which it will be on Monday.

Tao Te Tweet
this was a project from my @sonrivers 2009 timeline, that I have been recycling at:
http://twitter.com/TaoTeTweet
and have collected in blog form at:
http://taotetweet.blogspot.com/
I’ve also created a Facebook page at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tao-Te-Tweet-Post/131865806876643
where I’ve been posting one a week.
It is also available in book form at:
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/tao-te-tweet/6321655
for $7.99, of which $1.13 is my share. The download was $4.00, of which, $2.01 was my share, but I’ve rethought that because of this incident, and have made the download free.

Awakurious
Much of this is a collection of tweets from @sonrivers circa 2009, which are available in blog form at:
http://awakurious.blogspot.com/
They are also available in an edited book form at:
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/awakurious/6525606
for $9.95, of which $0.81 is my share. The download was $5.00, of which, $3.21 was my share (outrageous, i know), but again, I’ve rethought that because of this incident, and have made the download free.

The Blog of Henry David Thoreau
Back in 2004/2005, I read the Journals of Henry David Thoreau on a daily basis, all the entries for that particular day through the years Thoreau had written, and posted a selection (under my non-nom-de-plume of Greg Perry) which resonated with me at:
http://blogthoreau.blogspot.com/
I then created a book from which sells at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0557039541
and Lulu:
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-blog-of-henry-david-thoreau/4191655
Because it sells at Amazon ($18.95!!!), the profit structure is a bit different than the ones above.
When sold at Amazon, the profit is $1.39, but when sold at Lulu, the profit is $6.57.
Because of that ridiculous price, I had created a second edition as a smaller paperback which sells only at Lulu:
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-blog-of-henry-david-thoreau-%282nd-ed%29/11037789
for $6.99, of which $1.24 is my share.
There is another epub version available at:
http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/ithoreau/6119999
which sells for $2.99, of which, $1.20 is my share.

Son Rivers Dawning
This is a hodgepodge of early writings, again as Greg Perry, and also available at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Son-Rivers-Dawning-dreaming-ultimate/dp/0557047552
and Lulu:
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/son-rivers-dawning-waking-words-and-dreaming-cantos-the-ultimate-reality-series/4415107
Sells at Amazon for $19.95 (needless to say, it never sold a copy there), of which my share is $1.60; and the share at Lulu is $10.98. The download is available for $9.00, and I’m keeping that one there. These are Greg’s writings; not mine. ;-)

An Other Road Into the Heartland
This is a collection of haibun written after a trip to Japan. A work of love.
Available for $15.95 at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Other-Road-Into-Heartland-Buddha/dp/0557044804
and Lulu:
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/an-other-road-into-the-heartland-after-basho-buddha-and-japan/4312765
Amazon revenue $2.82 and Lulu $6.79. Download at $9.00 ($7.20). Again, these are Greg’s writings, so they remain as is.

But most of the last two are available somewhere at my first blog:
http://grapez.blogspot.com/
and
http://anotherroadintotheheartland.blogspot.com/
although all but one post has been removed from Heartland, because the book went through several revisions, and the blog posts no longer represent the heart of the book.

That’s it, I think. Many books have been filled; only a few have been sold. So that curse really does not have much work to do.

In the name of love,
Son Rivers

seeing thinking as thinking is seeing

2011-01-21T10:51:00.000-05:00

you see it that way because you think you see it that way.

you think you see it that way because thinking thinks there's a you thinking that you see it that way.

thinking thinks there's a you thinking that you see it that way because thinking thinks there's a you thinking that you see it that way.

the necessary threshold is through consciousness

2011-01-19T22:13:00.003-05:00

Nisargadatta from 'Seeds of Consciousness'

August 18, 1979

Questioner: Why is the understanding so fleeting, changing?

Maharaj: It depends on the body sense. All people will
receive the knowledge from here, but the behavior of each
will be different from that of the others.

Q: Myself, I am holding on to the same consciousness,
and the understanding which is reflected in that consciousness
is changing completely from day to day.

M: Oh yes. This knowledge, "I Am," in the field of
mind-inclination, mind-understanding, will not remain the
same. It is changing every moment. It will never stabilize
itself on one understanding.

Q: So there is no such thing as final understanding?

M: The beginning and the end of this understanding is
the knowledge "I Am." The beginning of concepts started
with the primary concept "I Am." Having wandered
through all the concepts and rejected them, you have to get
rid of this last or the first concept.

Q: That rejection-does it come by the disappearing of
the last concept, just by giving it attention?

M: See this flame of the cigarette lighter? It has appeared,
it has disappeared; it's just like that. Has it got any
concept, this flame? What is without concept is the most
perfect, the most proper. The witnessing has to be done
when you try to concentrate on an objective. Suppose you
want to concentrate on a Rama, a Krishna, or a Christ, then
there is a question of concentrating or watching. This is only
the knowledge "I Am."

Q: The problem is, the more attention I give to consciousness,
the larger the concept which appears in the mind.

M: How do you focus attention on consciousness? Consciousness
itself has to focus.

Q: That is what I meant.

M: Understand consciousness and come to the conclusion
that consciousness is not yourself.

Q: I can't. I cannot!

M: Give it up! Whatever demands you make, I am not
going to fulfill. I am not going to meet your demands. I am
not going to give you whatever you want. I am just going to
tell you, to emphasize what you are. You want to convert or
transform yourself into something: "I want to become this,"
"I am going to do that." I am going to tell you what is the
root of you, the innermost core, what you are. I am not a
sculptor, you see, I don't make images for you, so that you
become that image.

Q: Where does this need of consciousness to see itself as
everything come from?

M: You know that you are, and you love to be, hence the
necessity. Although you have been saying that you understood,
there is some hitch somewhere, isn't there?

Q: One card. I am holding back one card.

M: Throw it out! Where is the loss? Give up the game.
You listen to my talks or don't listen. You come here or
don't come here. I know what you are, what you were prior
to your "I Amness." Before your parents met, I know you. I
know your knowingness after your parents met, how it got
transformed to various stages, how it developed in different
images, I know all that. Suppose a person is a hundred
twenty-five years old; since childhood he has grown into various
stages, learned a lot worldly things. Now whatever he has
learned or gained, everything has gone, and he is lying on a
bed, and what remains now? Only that child-consciousness,
that child-ignorance, remains. And that also will go. Will it
go to heaven or hell? No; the ignorance has sprung up and
the ignorance will disappear.

Q: The question then is, if that ignorance can disappear
only through that process of time or can it be stopped now?

M: Even in between. It is sustained by food and water. If
this is not supplied it will go, disappear.

Q: But it has gone in the case of Maharaj and there is a
supply of food and water there. So what I am asking is, is
that process inevitable, or can it just end now?

M: You have to meditate. It won't be available free. The
necessary threshold is through consciousness only. You have
to imbibe and be consciousness. In the process of being in
the consciousness, you come out of it, and there you see; and
meditation is the only remedy.

Q: The more you get into consciousness, the more impossible
it seems to transcend it.

M: Give it a fair trial. Be in beingness. Try to be in
beingness. You won't get it here and now. Step number one
is: Be yourself, be in your beingness only. Although, to start
with, I am the Immanent Spirit "I Am," you have to be in
that beingness without the body sense. You feel that you are
the body now, but when you abide in that beingness you will
know then how you are without the body. But don't forget,
at the same time, that body and vital breath are very necessary.
Once you understand these three entities correctly
[body, vital breath and the message "I Am"], then you are
apart. The knower of these three entities will not be caught
by the parents.

Q: When Maharaj was immersed in his beingness, what
exactly did he understand that made him transcend
consciousness?

M: You know TV? Meditate and you will know as tangibly
as you see TV. You will see then: I am not the TV
screen, the observer of TV is not in the set. In the process of
meditation, more knowledge will be awakened, will be realized
by you, and, in the same process, you will understand
that whatever you have understood you are not.

Q: That's why I was saying before that the more consciousness
was conscious of itself, the larger the concept, the
knowledge.

M: Yes, it will happen, a living cosmos, a million universes
are in your consciousness.

Q: What about the knower?

M: The knower and whatever is known, both will go.
Nothing will remain stable, permanent. This triangle, father,
mother, and you, how did it happen? Inquire about that,
meditate on that.

Q: Isn't it the same thing, father, mother, and I; just a
flow of that consciousness?

M: Don't talk, try to understand. Just talking about eating
will not fill your stomach, you have to actually eat. You
will not get eternal peace with knowledge derived out of
words, only by Self-knowledge, Self-realization.

time creates all sides (twitterverse)

2011-01-18T21:44:00.003-05:00

time, time, time creates all sides, yes it does.

and i create time: voila!

particle itself is wave and wave is particle.

thoughtlessness is a state of too much thought.

without the thought of who i am, there is no me to be.

i am the am reflecting in i am.

thought is contagious when you think you're thought.

bliss is because it isn't.

la la la la la la la la la means whatever you want it to mean.

accept no name.

no name, no form, no meaning.

this buzzing booming confusion is that.

just stop the perpetual internal infernal thinking machine.

you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows; it blows for thee, by thee, and in thee.

scientific materialism is the opium laced with amphetamine of the people.

no mountain, no powder, no skis.

snowflakes are spontaneously appearing.

all roads lead to silence, even the one that goes through rome.

all ways, or paths if you will, whether convoluted or not, teach only one thing: how to be quiet and let reality have its way with you.

when your way is reality’s way, which it is anyways, for you’re not the ‘you’ you think you are, but reality itself, there’s harmony & bliss.

if not, then suffer.

nobody has something to say.

whatever you think isn’t.

as consciousness is a reflection of the absolute, one's action is a reflection of one's understanding truth.

in the name of love.

you're nobody's fool.

my path is this; quietly i wait for that.

none of this is my idea.

not a word of it is true.

all the world's the past, and all the men and women merely more mind.

repeating the mantra "goo goo g'joob" shall help you realize that you're not really a walrus.

i thought i had a thought just then.

how many atmans can dance on the head of a pin?

consciousness is like a universe of tinnitis ringing in the the ears of that silent absolute.

Books Am I?

2011-01-14T22:27:00.005-05:00

I've recently updated an Amazon Listmania with descriptions so thought I'd post them here:

An Awakening Canon
(course, there are no canons. there are no testaments. there are no teachings. but this is my canon towards a testament of teachings)

1. I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta by Maharaj Nisargadatta

Classic. Pure Satcitananda. This Is That. trans. by Maurice Frydman (David Godman, editor of Ramana Maharshi, Papaji, etc, once asked Nisargadatta: 'In all the years that you have been teaching how many people have truly understood and experienced your teachings?' He [Nisargadatta] was quiet for a moment, and then he said, 'One. Maurice Frydman.') Thus it's filled with wisdom on every page.

2. Pointers from Nisargadatta Maharaj by Ramesh S. Balsekar

A great work by Ramesh Balsekar that looks at Nisargadatta's teachings in detail, using a mixture of lengthy quotes from the sage, descriptions of the satsangs, and some explanations. N's last days. Balsekar's own writings tend to the overly cerebral, but this one is tempered by his devotion to the Maharaj.

3. Be as You Are: The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi by Sri Ramana Maharshi

This is the now-classic rendering of words from the timeless silence of the great sage Ramana Maharshi. Just looking at his photo will teach you more than most books.

4. Maharshis Gospel: The Teachings Of Sri Raman Maharshi by Compilation

David Godman believes the second part of this was edited by Frydman (see comments above). I see why; as in I Am That, there are fearless questions meeting the fearless.

5. Maha Yoga by K. Lakshmana Sarma

A great look at Ramana Maharshi seen through the lens of Upanishadic wisdom.

6. The End of Your World: Uncensored Straight Talk on the Nature of Enlightenment by Adyashanti

Adyashanti's look at the questions that awakening itself asks. I love Adya. His voice itself is a teaching.

7. A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose by Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart Tolle has said he wants his teachings to be the confluence of the streams of Ramana Maharshi and Krishnamurti. He led me to both. And Nisargadatta as well! An important popular contemporary teacher.

8. The Flatbed Sutra of Louie Wing: The Second Ancestor of Zen in the West by Ted Biringer

This is the one book on zen that I get. Or it gets me. Or rather get gets get.

9. Silence Of The Heart by Robert Adams

Great Los Angeles version of Ramana Maharshi.

10. The Book of Secrets: 112 Keys to the Mystery Within by Osho

So many Osho books, where does one begin. I list this one only to get something tantric in the mix. But most of them revolve around some classic text, teaching, or teacher. He's a coyote, of course, and wise, of course.

11. The First and Last Freedom by J. Krishnamurti

This may be his best. It illustrates why pyschological thought is inherently divisional, and therefore love is the only wise response.

12. Standing as Awareness by Greg Goode

Some direct pointing to your self. And since I can't get a copy of Atma Darsan by Sri Atmananda unless I'm willing to pay an obscenely perverted price. But this little book of wisdom stands on its own.

13. What's Wrong with Right Now? by Sailor Bob Adamson

I like Bob.

14. Spiritual Warfare by Jed McKenna

This is his third book, and maybe not the best overall, but I like the take on manifestation. It's more like a novel and so not really pure teaching. But good stuff! Oh, and nobody knows who Jed really is.

15. The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind--A New Perspective on Christ and His Message by Cynthia Bourgeault

Bourgeault may currently be the most important teacher in returning Christ Consciousness to the teachings of Jesus. Her work is outstanding, and comes directly from the heart. This book, in particular, is astounding.

16. The Voice of Knowledge: A Practical Guide to Inner Peace by Miguel Ruiz

I include this here because it was so important to my own development. And much of it still stands up to inquiry. If some teachings are kindergarten and some, graduate level, then this may be nursery school. But most never get out of daycare! It is a beautiful book and a great beginning point.

17. The Principal Upanishads: The Essential Philosophical Foundation of Hinduism (Sacred Wisdom) by Alan Jacobs

The fount.

18. The Bhagavad Gita (The divine conversations) by Alan Jacobs

The river.

19. Tao Te Ching by David Hinton

The Tao.

20. Song of Myself (Shambhala Centaur Editions) by Walt Whitman

The first American hymn to the Self.

fyi: covers and links can be found on the right sidebar (and, by the way, Amazon doesn't always get the author's name correct, so I corrected them here. i think.)

isha invocation transcreation

2011-01-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

om.

that is the w/hole.

this is the w/hole.

from w/hole, the w/hole is manifest:

the w/hole is gathered from the w/hole…

and the w/hole remains.

om shanti shanti shanti.

new england isha

2011-01-13T17:00:00.001-05:00

blue is the sky. snow is the sky.

from sky, the sky has come to earth.

the sky has fallen from the sky.

and sky remains.

soul ray me

2011-01-10T21:55:00.001-05:00

incipient piano play upon the soul ray me.

if I = x and x ≠ x, then I = suffering.

investigate meditate 'i am' and wait.

just enough is happening right now.

you were in my dream the other night but i wasn't in it with you.

if it isn't raining or snowing, is it spacing?

that was now.

does the tree rise to meet the sun or does the sun pull the tree towards itself?

knowing every no knows the only yes.

democratic kind apocalypse

2011-01-06T07:01:00.000-05:00

i am, therefore i am not i am

even evil is an expression of love

you will never know, no matter how much you know

really, paradox isn't paradoxical

your self is a figment of your self

the less said, the more truth

vodka carousel and alabaster tambourine arundel a rooster awakening goodbye

democratic kind apocalypse and eucalyptic laxative tuxedo laredo rodeo oh shanana olana

upanishad elation ashes always walmart masturbation shimmer mirroring inactive liverpool penumbra

an apple palimony maple salivates forever avignon and on and off surrender love me tender dental talcum power hour in our river very

believe the lovely lotus lies and live beneath the neverland of what the fuck was that supposed to mean oh never mind

happy new year!

2011-01-01T10:23:00.001-05:00

is it 2012 yet?

driftwood (a short poem)

2010-12-24T07:30:00.001-05:00

What is this drifting question? Who am I?

The river bends like an infinite question mark.

When was this winter? Where did all those ice floes go?

Listen to the sea. To the sea. To the sea.

A Beautiful Yogic Bone

2010-12-23T07:30:00.002-05:00

A new enlightened paradigm for the western mind to counter its scientific materialist conditioning: this is what I appreciate about Young’s ‘Reflexive Universe.’ The mind may hear the Tao that can be spoken is not the real Tao, but it still thinks it hears the ground when it falls on it.

(Speaking of which, is there a better said description of the unsaid than what Nisargadatta says:

In reality there is only the source, dark in itself, making everything shine. Unperceived, it causes perception. Unfelt, it causes feeling. Unthinkable, it causes thought. Non-being, it gives birth to being. It is the immovable background of motion. Once you are there you are at home everywhere.

Beautiful.)

Like I replied in a comment: i find something like this to be a beautiful yogic bone thrown to the western scientific mind that's always in the background barking incessantly about the material universe it thinks it knows in order to keep it somewhere in a corner chewing at it contentedly and quiet. While we listen to the light.

As for the seventh stage in that heroic journey of light, Consciousness: I thought Wilber’s ‘Atman Project’ would supply the key, but after further review, and although it may do so for the early psychological stages, it fails to truly understand the turn involved in what must be the crucial egoic fourth substage: disillusionment and suffering.

Wilber follows the western psychological belief in an integrated ego without questioning the possibility of integrating anything into an insane dream state. Rather, after the self, or consciousness, passes through the membership phase of its social conditioning, and the so-called ego becomes entrenched, something called suffering and disillusionment occurs. That is the critical turn for consciousness.

It has condensed out of the material aduality, only to identify itself with the body, then the mind, and then an image supplied by its conditioning: three prisons of the seventh stage. Now it begins to see and feel that’s something is entirely wrong. And I would posit that the seeking phase becomes the aftermath of that turn. And what it seeks, of course, is itself.

And it’s in the fifth substage, if it ever gets there in this lifetime, that the yogas of wisdom, love, and being, introduced to itself by itself, will begin to vaporize that egoic fog and its social conditioning, leading inevitably towards, after the subsequent awakening stages rid it of the remaining twin bondages of mind and body, the Light that it always has been.

Consciousness to Consciousness

2010-12-22T07:00:00.001-05:00

Arthur M. Young built a helicopter and in so doing came to an understanding of process and evolution. That’s the short story. Science and the laws of nature become a longer one. Purpose: an even longer one. In the end, he came to an understanding with the number seven in creation mythologies. And then there was light.

Evolution is a purposive process, with a reflexive shape. The first half is a fall into material determinism. Then there is a turn. And the second half is the return to freedom. Rather than laws, there is this freedom. Rather than statistics, there is individuation. Rather than objects, there is action!

The seven stages are: Light, Nuclear, Atomic, Molecular, Vegetable, Animal, Dominion. That first stage, Light, is completely free. Since light travels naturally at the speed of light, it’s outside of space and time, and has no mass. Spirit needs no church; consciousness is its own god. Its power is Potential.

The second stage, Nuclear, loses one element of freedom, and things are Binding. There is substance; there is force. But there is also the fog of probability. Wave? Particle?

Next, Atomic, loses another element, and Identity is gained. There is center, order, property. Chemicals have moved in. Hydrogen. Oxygen. Iron. Oh my!

Then, in the midpoint, the Molecular has zero degrees of freedom; Combination has been attained. There appears to be determinism. Classical physics lived here. Not to mention DNA: the holy book of life appears in its final act.

A lengthy interlude:

“The seventh substage, DNA…requires cells for the completion of its function, and cells belong in the next higher kingdom. It will be found that all seventh substages require the next higher kingdom to function. For example, the flowering plants depend on insects for pollination.

…What would this mean to the dominion kingdom? Since it is already the highest kingdom for the solar universe, we are led by this and other evidence to expect yet higher stages - a super arc which deals in galactic evolution. In other words, the dominion kingdom requires something beyond itself, which may help to explain why all human cultures, with the possible exception of modern man, depend on a belief in higher orders of beings, gods.

This dependence of seventh substages on the next higher stage is one of the most difficult concepts to accept because it suggests that process, at the seventh substage at least, anticipates its own future.

But there’s a turn in the molecular, at the fourth substage, with functional compounds, the organic chemicals, important to life. And sex hormones. Separation has occurred. Freedom will return.

Then, in the Vegetable, there is Growth, Organization. Reproduction. Negative entropy! Flowers. A rose is a rose is a rose.

Next, in the Animal, there’s Mobility, action, satisfaction, seeming choice. The nervous system makes it appearance. Turn it up! Also, in addition to DNA, now there is the animal soul. The birds in planetary flight and the importance of the queen bees will attest to that.

And then appears the individual soul, Atman. On that stage of the Monad, the actor we call Human Being, there’s Dominion. And the road to Consciousness.

Finally, Atman is Brahman.

The Reflexive Atman

2010-12-21T15:08:00.005-05:00

I wish to write some words concerning two books that I’m in the process of reading: ‘The Reflexive Universe” by Arthur M. Young and “The Atman Project’ by Ken Wilber.

Young’s book considers the manifested universe as a reflexive process of light manifesting into the material and then ascending back to light. It is a seven stage process, each stage incorporating seven stages.

Each stage itself is one of four states of freedom, each stage on the descent becoming less free, and each stage on the ascent becoming more free, the fourth (no freedom) stage, the molecular, containing the all-important turn.

Light is Consciousness. It is timeless and not of the manifested world. Therefore it is nondual. Our mind, though, sees a material universe. In that vein, and understanding that duality is an illusion created by the mind, the entire process still can be seen as one great metaphor for consciousness knowing itself.

Wilber’s book can be viewed as the process of consciousness waking in the human being. It too is reflexive, in that there is an outward arc and an inward arc. Wilber incorporates the insight of psychology with that of the wisdom traditions in tracing the human being from birth to self-realization.

Before I begin, I’d like to place some caveats here. Although Young’s book is brilliant, it is not transcendent, in that Young’s analysis of the seventh and final stage, that of the human being, or what he refers to as the monad, appears to me to be limited by his own limited realization.

This is where Wilber’s book comes in: as a substitute for Young’s seventh stage. But one caveat here as well. I’ve never been a big fan of Wilber; he appears too cerebral in instances. But this book is, to this point, although dense sometimes, and sometimes overly technical, eminently understandable, and possibly transformational, but definitely emblematic.

the immutable center

2010-12-17T10:20:00.006-05:00

some quotes from a crucial chapter in Nisargadatta's 'I Am That:'
72. What is Pure, Unalloyed, Unattached is Real;
previously formatted as tweets for Nisargadatta_M
and now separated into basic triads for clarity.

Find the immutable center where all movement takes birth.

Just like a wheel turns round an axle, so must you be always at the axle in the center and not whirling at the periphery.

Immobility and silence are not inactive. The flower fills the space with perfume, the candle—with light.

It has nothing to do with effort. Just turn away, look between the thoughts, rather than at the thoughts.

It is all quite simple. Turn away from your desires and fears and from the thoughts they create and you are at once in your natural state.

Nothing stops you from being a jnani here and now, except fear. You are afraid of being impersonal, of impersonal being.

There is nothing to renounce. Enough if you stop acquiring.

The problem is excessive interest, leading to self-identification. Whatever you are engrossed in you take to be real.

The 'I am' in movement creates the world. The 'I am' at peace becomes the Absolute.

I am not concerned with the universe. Let it be or not be. It is enough if I know myself.

Pity the self that is, not the world that is not!

All these attributes; being, consciousness, love and beauty are reflections of the real in the world. No real—no reflection.

Change the current of your desire from taking to giving.

The passion for giving, for sharing, will naturally wash the idea of an external world out of your mind, and of giving as well.

Only the pure radiance of love will remain, beyond giving and receiving.

In love there is not the one even, how can there be two? Love is the refusal to separate, to make distinctions.

The world has only as much power over you as you give it. Rebel. Go beyond duality, make no difference between east and west.

You are eager to separate right from wrong, because you need some basis for action. You are always after doing something or other.

It is right to be oneself, it is wrong not to be. All else is conditional.

Awareness is dynamic, love is being. Awareness is love in action.

By itself the mind can actualize any number of possibilities, but unless they are prompted by love, they are valueless.

Love precedes creation. Without it there is only chaos.

Chaos is movement for movement's sake. True action does not displace; it transforms.

Just remember, nothing perceivable is real. Activity is not action. Action is hidden, unknown, unknowable. You can only know the fruit.

Through the film of your mind you project a world and also a God to give it cause and purpose. It is all imagination—step out of it.

Pure being, filling all and beyond all, is not existence which is limited. All limitation is imaginary, only the unlimited is real.

To be free in the world you must be free of the world. Otherwise your past decides for you and your future.

First return to your true being and then act from the heart of love.

the sun

2010-12-16T10:43:00.000-05:00

in the ultimate
metaphor
that is manifestation,

that star,
our sun, is
the great 'i am,'

its light is pure
living love,
and i am

the sun.

light—action

2010-12-15T18:25:00.001-05:00

and then there was light—action!
and the light turned to certain
particles; and the particles, solid

bound matter; which evolved towards
the living heat of movement in mind,
that found itself lost in the thought of illusion,

of objects and subjects in memory that’s time,
then saw in a dreaming that all is always
awareness—and now there is light

final concept

2010-12-13T07:00:00.001-05:00

the final concept:

see
the conceptual
as conceptual,

knowing
the nonceptual
is not

a concept.

precipitating

2010-12-10T07:30:00.000-05:00

i am nothing
but light
precipitating

into thought
creating laws
with which

its universe
obeys allowing
order for

the thing
it really
isn't.

said equation

2010-12-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

in a subject
without meaning,
the order of this

said equation
holds all
the meaning

in its subject:
i am not god;
god is me.

of nothing

2010-12-06T08:00:00.000-05:00

when you
become aware
of nothing

but awareness,
you become
nothing,

as awareness
is you
becoming nothing

but aware.

in your ocean

2010-12-05T21:07:00.002-05:00

i am thinks
therefore i forget
i am.

is that a wave
in your ocean
or are you just glad
to be 'me'?

deep sleep is
the closest one is
to being wide awake.

belief is easy;
nothing is hard.

you are not i.
are you?

stop believing

2010-12-04T08:55:00.000-05:00

the real cosmic
breakthrough comes
not when you,

a human being,
stop believing
in god,

but when you,
god,
stop believing

in the human being.

only consciousness

2010-12-03T11:33:00.001-05:00

there is no universe
in which
a body-mind has
consciousness;

there is only consciousness
that has a body-mind
in which there is
a universe.

to know

2010-12-02T11:23:00.001-05:00

to know
that i know
is to know everything
that's knowable;

to know
that i don't know
is to know
the unknowable.