Thought
For Food

You Are As You Think

What I suggest is a radical notion that we should UNattach ourselves to the various highs and lows of our emotions and conditionings, for they are the Causes of our Sadness. I suggest that we Observe the highs and lows of any given Moment we are IN, do what we must do as participants IN that Moment, smiling all the while, not emotionally attached, then go about our happy way -- Understanding that regardless of the sadness that we encountered IN that Moment, that we added some happiness to it. I do not say it is easy, but rather that it is what we should do -- and do it NOW. It is all IN a state of BEing, and a state of Awakening. "As a man thinketh, so is he". If he does not think sadness, well..................

Yet though the cyclic rise and fall of various forms of manifestation will dissolve all Illusion in their demise, it will not dissolve the Illusions that we have contrived ourselves at the time we believe them to be True. And so our Inner or Spiritual Growth or Unfoldment of Awakening is for naught, in that we were controlled and manipulation by our conditioned Illusions. As any form evolves physically, it has then the ever increasing ability of involving and thereby able to Work on it's own Total BEing. When we interfere with this Natural process of Evolution/Involution by contriving a conditioned perception, viewing our particular perception or belief or discipline superior is some way to another perception or belief or discipline, we establish a wall between us and our Awakening. Or rather a wall between us and Truth. Present company excluded from such judgmental perception, but it is the perception of the vast norm. Awakening is IN the Direct Experience of the Moment from Moment to Moment without projecting our conditioned ideas and images and meanings into/onto that Moment. So may I offer that any Tree that stands in the way of our Seeing the Forest, should be sent to the Mill. That is, any Cause of our Suffering, any Illusion of our programmed state of mind, should be discarded so that such defilements do not get in the way of us Realizing Truth.

No one Saves us but ourselves, no one can and no one may, others can Point to the Path, but we ourselves must Walk the Way. When one really begins to investigate beliefs, one discovers that the 'me' who 'I' think 'I' am, is nothing more than a 'program', laid over instincts of fear, aggression, and the desires that one is conditioned with. So to question beliefs is to question one's very 'self' -- 'my' social identity and sense of 'self'. Only by challenging the very act of believing itself, can one actively dismantle and eliminate all of the beliefs that 'I' hold so dearly. To replace beliefs with Facts, with Truth, is to eliminate one's 'self' and to penetrate into the 'Mystery of True Life' . The Universe is quite simply What-IS, perfect, pure, infinite, and happening this very Moment. It requires no belief, faith, hope or trust to be here NOW.

I would only offer further, that perhaps the Train for which we wait may not run by the Station at which we wait. And in the limitations of our conditioned thinking and behavior, as we run toward the *Light at he end of the Tunnel*, that Light could be a Train.

May I offer that we reserve *judgement* for gambling. That is, judging which cards to throw away and which cards to keep. Judgements and beliefs go hand in hand. For IN Awakening there is little use for judgement. IN Awakening there is Right Understanding, Right Awareness, Right Recognition, right Realization. Not opposed to wrong, but rather indicating *Correct*. Correct in that it is without the defilements of conditioned ideas and images and meanings and notions of all sorts. Sleeping we are conditioned to *believe* Sleeping is Right and Awakening is Wrong, though the Sleeping profess Awakening. Awakening we discard clinging to our conditioned notions and Directly Experience that which IS What-IS.

All beliefs are the same -- destructive. I am not seeking to change them, rather to extinguish them. It is taking a while to admit that we own particular cherished views, our 'my' truth and understandings have been naught but beliefs and that different beliefs are the source of confusion, confrontation, conflict, persecution and warfare. All those conflicts fought over religious, spiritual, tribal, ethics, morals and politics are but dearly held beliefs ! Always it is, 'I' am right and others are wrong. That people actually kill each other and sacrifice their lives for their beliefs makes investigation of their value imperative.

To believe means 'fervently to wish to be true'. A belief is conviction of the truth or reality of a thing, based on insufficient grounds to afford indisputable knowledge. A belief is an assumption, a notion, an idea, an emotion-backed thought that requires faith. Beliefs are misconceptions that require active scrutiny and intelligent investigation by anyone who sincerely wants to become free of the human condition. Many beliefs masquerade as 'truths'. Most people value belief over fact and the human condition over freedom.

It is extremely important for us at the moment to look into what constitutes a belief and what constitutes a fact. We must discover that simply because everybody believes something to be true does not make it a fact. Most people have absolutely no idea of the difference between a belief and a fact. A fact is a fact, as in tangible, corporeal, material, definitive, present, obvious, evident, current, substantial, physical and palpable. A fact is demonstratively evident to all that it is actual and or that it works. We used to believe the sun went around the earth and that the earth was flat, but both turned out to be mere beliefs. When one is not interpreting through belief systems it becomes obvious what is really happening rather than the 'I's theories, a Truth is Realized by Direct Experience or Observation.

When one really begins to investigate beliefs, one discovers that the 'me' who 'I' think 'I' am, is nothing more than a 'program', laid over instincts of fear, aggression, and the desires that one is born with. So to question beliefs is to question one's very 'self' or 'my' social identity and sense of 'self'. Only by challenging the very act of believing itself, can one actively dismantle and eliminate all of the beliefs that 'I' hold so dearly. To replace beliefs with facts is to eliminate one's 'self' and to penetrate into the 'Mystery of True Life' .

Indeed, language is an incumbering medium when True communication is the intended result. 2,500 years ago a young Sage said that we must establish Right Actions and Right Speech and Right Thinking and so on. What he meant was that we must establish Correct Actions and Correct Speech and Correct Thinking and so on. Correctly in tune with all manifest form. 2,000 years ago another young Sage said that we must BE Perfect. What he meant was that we must BE Correct. Correctly in tune with all manifest form. Then, I am sure, as well as today, those words, Right and Perfect, were and are loosely used to apply to just about anything by most people. The Key being, who said them and what they meant by the use of those words. For what is in a word other than the intent of the use of such word ? The question might raise as to why a young Sage would use a generally loosely used word to mean something "special" ? Something Arcane ? Something of Wisdom ? Perhaps they were trying to let people know that they should use words that say what they mean and mean what they say, rather than use any old word to apply to any old thing.

I offer no new revelations, new messages from God, new Insights into the awesome mechanism of the Cosmos, any more than any of the most profound of Scriptures or any Wise Sage has offered for even they were not *new*. Truth and Reality and What-IS is right there under our nose, so to speak, but we are to much into Sleeping to Realize it. Sleeping, we keep our arms outstretched trying to grasp that for which we seek. Awakening, we Realize that there is nothing out there to grasp onto, and so we turn our Attention Within. When we shift our Attention Within, and seek to Understand ourselves, we find not only ourselves but we also find God. We soon Realize that when we search for God we find a collection plate in a church, but when we search for ourselves we find God. An interesting turn of events, I would say.

The simple *ah ha* is a most quantum leap for the vast norm. The first *ah ha* was no doubt viewed as instant Enlightenment, yet the more common the *ah ha* the less Enlightening they seem. Yet each one is a step along the Path of Awakening. And yes, meditation is a wondrous tool to clear the chatter of the conditioned mind and Dwell IN the Moment of Awakening and manifest those Insights into every aspect of our lives.

May I offer that *getting there is all the fun*, for there is no *there*. The Journey IS the Goal. There is not really a *beginning* in our Awakening, but by the same token there is not really an *end* either. We do not Awaken, but rather ARE Awakening.

Indeed, our Salvation IS Living Life Fully -- AS it IS, without projecting any of our conditioned ideas and images and meanings into/onto it. Our failing is that we are always trying to control and manipulate What-IS, and in doing so we ourselves are controlled and manipulated by our endeavors. BE Life, BE What-IS, BE Reality, and IN that BEing all of the seeming *secrets* of existence will be readily Open to you. For IN Awakening, we are humbled by the awesome wonder of even a grain of sand.

The original dead Sea Scrolls as well as the original Biblical texts, and all original True Scriptures for that matter, ARE the records of those who have started Awakening and wanted to pass that information on to future generations to be used as a Tool in their Awakening as well. Yet, no Wisdom is any more Helpful, or of any more use as a Tool, than the interpretations of those who interpret that Wisdom. That is, True Wisdom interpreted via a conditioned mind offers only Illusion -- the Wisdom is still Wisdom, but the interpretation no longer is. The original Dead Sea Scrolls = Wisdom, the original Biblical texts = Wisdom -- yet after redaction (re-writing to one's particular bent) and/or interpreting, both are little more than good humor. May I offer, that Wisdom can only be Realized Directly AS we Experience it without projecting any of our conditioned ideas and images and meaning into/onto it. Interpretations and redactions only cloud our being able to Realize or even Recognize True Wisdom.

Has humanity been duped by organizations seeking to control and manipulate his thinking and behavior for the profit of the organization ? You can bet your life on it -- which humanity does. In fact, humanity bets his whole being (spiritual and physical) on it and wonders why they do not come up with a *winning ticket*, why there is so much suffering and evil. Yet the *bottom line* is that no one Saves us but ourselves, no one can and no one may, others can Point to the Path, but we ourselves must Walk the Way. But humanity has been badgered into believing that some organization or some person is going to Save them. These beliefs have been handed down generation to generation for tens of thousands of years. And oddly enough, after all this time of *believing*, humanity still wallows in the mire of his Suffering. Humanity is a creature of habit, and basically communal. So he will *go with the flow* of the herd regardless of the Suffering that such behavior incurs. And it is the most Painful and arduous task that humanity ever has to undertake to Free himself from the Causes of his Suffering, so he will shy away form it. He takes the *easy route* of letting someone else Save him. Yet humanity is conditioned to believe that the Causes of his Suffering are not Causes of Suffering and that Suffering is not Suffering. Humanity is told, "believe me and give to my organization and I will save you". These are the false prophets that Jesus so aptly talked about, for not even he said to believe him -- he said, "believe *in* me" (a subtle, but very important difference). All Great and True Sages of Wisdom, including Jesus and Siddhartha, said not to take their word for anything but rather to Directly Experience it for ourselves AS it IS without projecting our conditioned notions into/onto that Experience.

So, Openly and Honestly we must Observe our conditioned notions and see them for what they are -- a controlling manipulative program for the automatons that humanity is at present (and has been for tens of thousands of years). When we *let go of* clinging to these false security beliefs and venture on to Waking-Up from the Illusions of our conditioned ways, we get this empty bottomless gut feeling that we have been the victim of *The Sting*. There is no one to blame for our ignorance, but if we do nothing about it then we are to blame. Which is to say that we are actually the Causes of our own Suffering.

BE Well and Mindful, Shanti, Namaste, Metta, Zikr --

As Namaste is to say *may the Divine Essence IN me Embrace the Divine Essence IN you as a Divine Essence of One*, so too Metta is to say *may the Loving Kindness IN me Embrace the Loving Kindness IN you as Loving Kindness of One*, so too Zikr is to say *may the Self Remembering IN me Embrace the Self Remembering IN you as a Self Remembrance of One*. So *may the True Nature IN me Embrace the True Nature IN you as a True Nature of One*. It is in the Inner Embracing of each other that we Realize that we are all cut from the same bolt of cloth yet most do not Realize it yet.

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Oh yes, the New Testament portrays a far more loving and caring God than the Old -- showing a sort of evolution of religious thought. But I would say that the real difference in two religious organizations (Christian and Buddhist for example) is the stressing of a tangible *other* which is called *God*. Buddhists tend to recognize that words and images and symbols are but mere representations of the Essence of what we may call *God*. That God itself is of little value compared to one's own Awakening. For it is IN Awakening that we Know or Recognize or Understand or Realize God. The God that can be named is not God. When we look for God, we find nothing but another's beliefs or a religion. When we look for ourselves, we find God. Both the New Testament and the Old Testament, as well as both Jesus and Siddhartha, stressed to abolish our conditioned need for words and images.

For there will come a day, not in the too distant future, that humanity will let go of the fantasy of religion and BE a religion unto himself. Are we not to be a *Lamp Unto Ourselves* ? Likewise, we will be our own religion. Awakening is not about *following* but rather about *BEing*.

Little by little each person will be his own religion. You are at the beginning of this process, no gurus, no masters, and everyone will be his own guru, and master, and everyone will have his own oratory. The multiplication of sects which at the moment seems dangerous will go on until everyone has Realized himself as his religion, because as many human beings as there are on this planet, there are as many revealed religions. Everyone is conditioned to pretend to a given religion, for now, but our return to Eternity is our Path that we do by ourselves. For the route for everyone is different from the route for all others, even though all these routes must eventually Awaken to the Path to Eternity. No one Saves us but ourselves, no one can and no one may, others can Point to the Path, but we ourselves must Walk the Way.

When one is just fooling themselves, resting in their conditioned notions, thinking that they have some inkling of understanding or Awakening, they *react*. They fear that it might cause them Pain in asking them to let go of the conditioned notions. For embarking into this hitherto uncharted area of Awakening, there are many a pit-falls and huddles in our Way. If you are Open and Honest with yourself you will make strides in your Awakening. It is the Awakening of every level and every aspect of your BEing -- which includes everyday life.

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