eternity is always Now...

Francis Bennett:

"Christians all over the world often talk about their belief that the Christ will come again one day and transform the whole planet and create the kingdom of God "upon earth as it is in heaven". But my sense now is that whenever a person wakes up to the ever present presence of awareness as their very being itself, Christ "comes again" in that human life. They enter into eternity when they come to discover that eternity is always NOW. They come to know in their own, direct experience, that the kingdom of heaven is within them. The Christ has "risen again" in such as these. They are his hands and feet and eyes in this world as they walk about spreading the peace and love of Christ where ever they go, as they allow the risen Christ to look out upon the whole world with their own eyes of mercy and love! Happy Easter everyone! Christ is risen...He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

The Self of pure awareness is the only thing that is ultimately "real" because it is the one thing that is always present and never changes. All else, on an absolute level, is just a dream arising and passing away. Think of "this morning" right now. Dream-like huh? Now think of some imaginary, possible future scenario. Even MORE dream-like, huh? The only thing that is ultimately real is NOW, the living NOW. NOW =the Self and the Self= NOW. You ARE the NOW. What else could you possibly be when that is all that is real and alive? And you must be real and alive, right?


If you are drawn to an awakened teacher or saint, that is because there is enough conscious awareness in you to recognize the conscious awareness in them. Otherwise you wouldn't even notice them or be interested in them in the least. The love and light you see in a saint is within you. The holiness you feel in their presence is your holiness. They are not special at all, but are the very same Self that you are. They are the Self manifesting as a "teacher", seemingly "outside" of you. But in reality, they ARE you! And you are them! In loving them and feeling devotion toward them, you are loving and feeling devotion to your self.



We sometimes talk about enlightened people or unenlightened people. For the sake of discussion we use these terms. And, on a relative level, such people could be said to ‘exist’, but only on a relative level. On an absolute level there is no such thing as ‘enlightenment’ and there are no such animals as enlightened people or unenlightened people. Believing that these exist on an absolute level is to imply that you are lacking something right now that you need to ‘attain’ something that you don’t have. But there is really nothing wrong with you right now on an absolute level of being and you don’t need to attain anything on that absolute level. You are already complete and whole on that level. You always have been and always will be, perfect, on that level. What we call, enlightened people are simply noticing something that, what we call unenlightened people, are not. What is that which they are noticing? The people we think of as enlightened are noticing that simple awareness is the one reality that is ALWAYS present and never changes or leaves, ever. What we call an unenlightened person is failing to notice this fact. Otherwise, enlightened and unenlightened people are just the same. There is no essential difference between you and the most ‘enlightened’ person on the planet today. You both have all the same parts more or less, all the same human faculties, all the same possibilities and potentialities. It’s not at all that one has something that the other lacks. One is simply noticing this constant presence of awareness and the other is not. Noticing awareness is not an attainment of anything whatsoever. You do not attain awareness because you have ALWAYS been aware. How could you NOT be aware? Even if you are feeling very unaware right now, there is something/someone who is aware of that feeling! Is there not? Noticing awareness, becoming ‘enlightened’, is not a gaining of any quality or reality that you presently don’t have. It is a simple waking up to a fact that has always been true!

This seeming continuity that we normally take to be the static entity called, “me, myself and I”, is not a solid, static entity at all. It is more like a waterfall or a stream...very much in a constant state of change and flux, very ‘fluid’. That is why we can accurately say that we are empty of a self on one level. The “Self” that we REALLY are on the deepest, absolute level is unchanging and infinite. It actually is not in need of this body/mind construct we normally think of as “me”. It can exist without the body/mind, but the body/mind cannot exist without it! The “me” is just like the appearance of a wave in this vast, infinite Sea of Consciousness. The wave seems to be here for a moment and then suddenly, it’s gone back into the great sea. It’s taken another form or, one could more accurately say, it’s gone back into formlessness. ‘Where” does the wave go when it ‘dies’? Nowhere!

If something is relatively true and real it is also relatively untrue and unreal. In other words, it is “true or real” in a certain set of circumstances and settings and is untrue and unreal in others. We are all searching for a truth and reality that will remain always true, always real. The problem is when we look for this stable unchanging, true reality in all these temporary things we see around us. Such a search for permanency in the impermanent is bound to be frustrating. We are looking for something to give us what it never could. This is a sure recipe for unhappiness. It’s like that old definition of the word, “insanity”: We do the same thing over and over while expecting a different result!

Some teachers are erudite and very eloquent and some are inarticulate and simple in expression. But in either case, it is never the words of the teacher alone that bring illumination or clarity to the seeker. The silence and love that flow from the heart of a true teacher, these are themselves ‘the deepest teaching’. Without these, there is no teaching, no matter how profound one’s words may seem. Such words spoken not from silence and love are clanging gongs and crashing cymbals, so much empty noise, as Saint Paul called any teaching or action without love in 1st Corinthians chapter 13."