Awakening...

Seeing and Not Seeing

A simple, direct, but fundamental shift in perception reveals that all there is - is liberation. But oneness does not become apparent through something gained, rather through something lost. Many will come across this rare and radical message and quickly shuffle back to that which they think they can know and do. But there are those with whom this communication will resonate . . . and there will be a sudden seeing and falling away of all seeking, even for that which they have called enlightenment.

All there is - is this. Oneness is being this . . . whatever is apparently happening . . . reading these words, breathing, blood coursing through the body, sounds being heard, thoughts coming and going and feelings in the body - the sense of sitting on a seat maybe. Here is oneness being aliveness as this.

No effort is needed for that aliveness to be. Nobody is doing aliveness. Is anybody doing sitting on a chair? Thinking is oneness thinking "I don't get where this is going", or "this is too simple". All is simply aliveness, oneness, being. It cannot be taght or achieved. Who is apart from being to achieve being? Who can lose or gain this when this is all there is? Resisting oneness is oneness resisting. Seeking oneness is oneness seeking itself.

Aliveness is oneness apparently happening. Aliveness is being alive. There is only being and the nature of that being is emptiness and fullness, nothing and everything, movement and repose.

In that wholeness arises the idea "I am a separate individual". This seems to be the beginning of a dream called "me being someone in a world with which I have to negotiate".

Here in this separation is the root of all fear and feeling of disquiet coming out of a sense of loss. Again it is the appearance of oneness, and in that appearance we embark on a journey in which we meet parents, teachers, maybe priests, bosses and lovers, and learn how to get what we think we want seemingly through personal choice and effort. The pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain generate transient experiences of gratification and disappointment. The whole manifestation that we call life is simply the drama of oneness looking for itself, for all desire is the longing for oneness.

For some the idea of enlightenment seems to offer the promise of fulfilment. However, the separate individual can only dream individuality. That is its function.

Inevitably in the search for enlightenment, the dream seeker is attracted to a dream teaching that promotes and reinforces the idea of individual choice and effort, which, through discipline and sacrifice, can lead to the promised ultimate experience of enlightenment. But this teaching reinforces the illusion that there is such a thing as an individual who has free will and the choice to become.

What is inseparable from the dream of individuality is the idea of ownership. "What is happening is happening to me. I have a lifecalled me and I can, or even should, do something with my life in the time allotted; I have to succeed; I am an individual and personal endeavour can bring me what I need." This misconception promotes the continuation of the dream of personal enlightenment.

The idea that presumes the possibility that dualistic practices can lead the apparent seeker to the non­dualistic perception is similar to the idea that with sufficient effort and determination you can teach a blind man to see. To quote "Doctrines, processes and progressive paths which seek enlightenment only exacerbate the problem they address by reinforcing the idea that the apparent self can find something it presu mes it has lost. It is that very effort, that investment in self­identity that continuously recreates the illusion of separation from oneness. This is the veil which we believe exists. It is the dream of individuality." (The Open Secret)

Out of all the many awakenings that have been described to me, it is continuously confirmed that one of the first realisations that arises is the seeing that no­one awakens. And yet we see that the majority of teachings, both traditional and contemporary, are constantly speaking to an apparent separate seeker (subject) and recommending that in order to attain enlightenment (object) they should choose to meditate, self­enquire, purify, cultivate understanding, still the mind and the ego, surrender, be honest, seek earnestly , give up seeking, do therapy, do nothing, be here now, and so on . . . the ideas are as endless and as complicated as the mind from where they are generated.

These recommendations arise from the belief that the "enlightenment" of the "teacher" has been attained or earned through the application of choice, effort, acceptance or surrender, an d that other seekers can be taught to do the same.

Of course there can be nothing right or wrong with earnest seeking, meditation, self enquiry, understanding and so on. They are simply what they appear to be. But who is it that is going to choose to make the effort? Where is the effort going to take the apparent chooser to? ­ where is there to go if there is only oneness? If there is no separate individu al there is no volition, and so how can an illusion dispel itself?

There is no person that becomes enlightened. No one awakens. Awakening is the absence of the illusion of individu ality. Already there is only awakeness, oneness, timeless being, radical aliveness. When the dream seeker is no more it is seen (by no­one) that there is nothing to seek and no­one to become liberated.

Here is oneness, the realisation of wholeness that cannot be attained or owned. This is the awakening in which the awareness of what is arises together with the dreaming of that which cannot be known. There can be a dance between dreaming and being, and in that dance there can be a retu rn to the fascination of personal ownership.

However, the realisation that the dream seeker is also oneness isliberation, the uncaused, impersonal, silent stillness which is the celebration of unconditional love. This is all there is.

There is no me or you , no seeker, no enlightenment, no disciple and no guru . There is no better or worse, no path or purpose, and nothing that has to be achieved.

All appearance is source. All that apparently manifests in the hypnotic dream of separation ­ the world, the life story, the search for home, is one appearing as two the nothing appearing as everything, the absolute appearing as the particular.

There is no separate intelligence weaving a destiny and no choice functioning at any level. Nothing is happening but this, as it is, invites the apparent seeker to rediscover that which is . . . the abiding, uncaused, unchanging, impersonal silence from which unconditional love overflows and celebrates. It is the wonderful mystery.

- Tony Parsons