Form or Formless?

"What do you want, the form or the formless?"  This is what Sathya Sai Baba asked one of his devotees one time and what I feel to ask all of you and myself today.

Spiritual Seekers can be found in every land, speaking every tongue, worshiping every form of God known to man.  Christians would love to see Christ, Muslims want to see Mohammed, Buddhists enjoy seeing the Dalai Lama,  and Sai Devotees love Swami.  But everything that is born will one day die.  Form is impermanent, transient, and fleeting.  Our very children will come and go.  We had lovers when we were young and we imagined that we would always be glued to their hip.  Not the case.  Ramana Maharshi used to say, "Let what comes come and let what goes go and find out what remains."  The formless alone remains.

The form is beautiful, no doubt.  Perhaps we are even in love with our own forms.  The human body is miraculous and amazing.  I don't know anyone who wants to die.  We are programmed to keep this organism alive, so we eat what is healthy (mostly), exercise the body, and do what we must in order to protect it from harm.

I read once that the reason we incarnate is in order to experience.  As formless awareness, unembodied, floating freely without any vehicle, we have no way of perceiving the world.  We need this dualistic creation and our five senses in order to experience what God has manifested as the universe.  Look at us, we are junkies.  Humans are very good at becoming addicted to form.  Ladies love to shop, Americans love to eat, Europeans love sipping coffee, and devotees love the form.

I don't believe there is a right or wrong answer to this question of what we want.  And of course, in any given moment, we are apt to provide a different answer.  In the morning, I may choose the formless, but by evening, I may be desiring the form.  Who knows?  Desires and fears and self-image are changing most rapidly and unexpectedly from moment to moment.

I will end this blog post by saying this: the formless is eternal and unending, without birth or death.  So, what will you choose? Remember, form is emptiness and emptiness is form. Duality is an illusion.  All is perfectly One.  You are a king/queen, dreaming that you are only a beggar.  Enjoy your next breath...it is divine.

Acceptance is Magic

I remember the first time I heard Stephen Levine say "Acceptance is heaven and resistance is hell," over 15 years ago. Okay, well, actually I think I may have read it in one of his books and not heard it flow from his tongue, but still. It was very helpful to read. It was enlightening to read. How true! And yet, even knowing that, intellectually, hasn't seemed to be enough to actually stop me from doing just the opposite in my life. But who is the "me" in this sentence? The mind. The mind is not always great at accepting What Is. Often it is quite the contrary. The mind judges. The mind dislikes. The mind wants Reality to be different than what it is. Ah yes, then the hell arises within. We call this suffering.

Stephen also brought to my attention that pain and suffering are different. Pain and pleasure happen. You could say they are the 2 sides of the coin of Life. But it is resistance to pain which causes suffering. In other words, pain is only sensation. Some very great saints experienced horrific pain, but apparently, did not suffer because there was no-thing left in them to resist. They were open channels, rivers, the flow of What Is. When we Allow things to unfold as they are then Life becomes a smooth running stream taking it's course where it will and all is well.

Aha! Remembering yet another Stephen quote, "Everything dissolves in Love." In fact, I wrote a song with the very same title, inspired by this Truth. Yes, everything dissolves in the presence of Love and Acceptance. Why is this so? Because most other states have to do with non-acceptance. So when Love is present, non-acceptance can't stay. No matter how long a dark room has been dark, even for a 1,000 years, when the light is turned on, instantly the darkness disappears. It simply CAN'T remain. The same goes with emotions and states of grief and loss. When One truly accepts What Is, then there is no more struggle, no more resistance, no more suffering. Life just continues to unfold and there is peace.

Thank you Stephen and Ondrea Levine for continuing to teach me, almost 20 years later! May you both be blessed. May we be blessed. May All beings everywhere be blessed. And they are.

Acceptance...it is magic in your life...the miracle you've been waiting for.

I AM

Who is aware of thoughts? I AM

Who is aware of emotions? I AM

Who is aware of actions? I AM

Who is aware of the body? I AM

Who is aware of the mind? I AM

Who is aware of the world? I AM

Who is aware of good and evil? I AM

Who is aware of saints and sinners? I AM

Who is aware of Duality? I AM

I AM is beyond All Duality. I AM is prior and after everything witnessed. I AM is the Alpha and the Omega. I AM is Awareness Itself...the space in which everything arises. Is anything aware of I AM? I AM

It's All About Experience

How do you experience this thing called Life? How do you experience yourself? How do you experience others? How do you experience this world we live in? You see, it's all about Experience.

Some say Life is Good, others say Life is Bad. Buddha said Life was full of suffering. Sai Baba says Life is Love. Everybody will spit out a different point of view, a different perspective, a different flavor...a different Experience.

And experiences and perceptions change. Sometimes quickly and other times over a long period of time. One may feel that there life is Blessed for several years, but then, one Experience will happen, and soon it seems that all has gone to Hell.

Some people had very joy filled, loving experiences growing up. Others couldn't wait to graduate, get out of the house, leave the State. Some people started off like wall-flowers, very shy and insecure, but as the years progressed, so did they, and eventually they blossomed into Beautiful and Radiant Beings of Light and Love.

Some spent their years alone in the forest, others in the hustle-bustle of a big city. Some were very poor and had no money, others were spoiled rotten and had every desire fulfilled. Life is rich and full of variety. Life is a movie, a story, with an incredible tapestry of flavor and experience. Every moment is merging into the next moment. Life is always changing, very transient, and it is impossible to hold onto anything. But, there is That which always remains and doesn't need to be held onto; Awareness.

Awareness is the "thing" which is Aware of all of these different Experiences of Life. Prior to everything, there is a witness who is witnessing Life; internally and externally. This witness is watching every thought, feeling, and action which arises in Consciousness. Well, that is if the Witness is paying attention. Often, the witness is so identified with the Mind, that it isn't even Aware that it is Independent of All Experience. But, as you begin to question Reality, your Self, and Life, you will see that there is this Shining Awareness which is the background of the foreground, the context for all content, the space in which everything happens, and It is always present, already here and now and always the case.

Are you happy right now? Are you sad? Are you feeling anxious about something? What is your experience right here and now? And are you being honest with your self? Or are you in denial? Do you feel that you are a mixture of competing thoughts and emotions, desires and fears? One voice says to eat the piece of cake, and after doing so, another voice arises to say, "I wouldn't have done that if I were you." Which voice do we trust? And the funny thing is that Ultimately, All Voices come from the One Source. Isn't that a hoot? All Duality comes from a place which is beyond Duality and is therefore Non-Dual. But that is the Cosmic Leela we are dealing with, that I AM dealing with. I don't actually know that you even exist. Jackie O'Keeffe actually says that Existence Itself is only a concept floating in the Mind. Which brings me to...

Experience again. How do you experience Life? Do you see a world? Do you perceive others in this world? Or are you like Sri Nisargadatta and see that All is One? What is your honest and truthful experience? And from what place are you answering this question? If you answer it from your mind, you might be tempted to say, "I can understand that All is One and that there are no Others." But, again, what is your experience? Is that Actually how you perceive things? As Oneness? Or do you perceive separation where there is none? Are you speaking from the Intellect; a place of concepts, notions, and ideas? Or are you awake? And what does that even mean, to be Awake? Who or what is Awake?

What is your experience here and now, honestly? How do you experience Life? How do you experience your Self? How do you experience the World? What are you thinking? What are you feeling? What are you doing? Who are You?