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Thanks,

Aja

Forget All!

Often the path must be paradoxical by nature, apparently
contradicting itself in order to point out the truth. The following
is a perfect example of that. It is a quote from the Ashtavakra
Samhita (or Gita)

'My son, you may recite or listen to countless scriptures, but you
will not be established within until you can FORGET EVERYTHING.' 16.1

So, how would you know this unless you read the scripture (Ashtavakra
Samhita) which tells you not to read scripture? Actually, it doesn't
tell you not to read scripture, but rather forget all. Often, reading
scripture (or other spiritually oriented matter) becomes a pastime to
escape the Reality. After all, the scripture is still in the dream
world. Who is reading it? Who is contemplating it? This was Ramana's
constant question. A large percentage of the time when a question
was asked of him, he pointed the questioner back to them-Selves by
posing, "Who is asking the question?" The moment you recognize the I
Am or I-I of the questioner, the question becomes superfluous. The
scripture acts in the same way. In effect, it immediately says, 'Stop
what you are doing and look within, reverse the vector of attention
to that which is Aware, which is Awareness Itself. Forget everything
you think you know and look at the knower.'

A few verses later, the Ashtavakra reiterates in a different way:

'If even Shiva, Vishnu or the lotus-born Brahma were your instructor,
until you have FORGOTTEN EVERYTHING you cannot be established within.' 16.11

It doesn't matter who the teacher is, what the teaching is, where it
comes from, the lineage, or anything else...forget all!

At the end of the most well-known Gita (Bhagavad Gita), Krishna gives
his final instruction: 'Abandon all varieties of dharma and go to the
shelter of Me alone.' 18.66

The word dharma, traditionally thought of as religious truth, comes
from the Sanskrit root 'dhr' to hold or grasp, so in essence Krisna
is saying the same thing - forget everything and simply take refuge
in Me (or the I Am).

How does one do this? By inquiring into the 'I'. Who am I? What am
I? What is this I-ness? Who is Aware? What is Aware? Where is it
located?.....whatever points you to the recognition or REAL-I-zation
of Self as infinite Awareness. Whenever a question or thought comes
up, IMMEDIATELY return back to the 'Who is aware of it?' All else
will pull you off into all variety of spiritual, philosophical,
ontological and hoary questions which ultimately can never be
answered by the mind anyway. And as the Ashtavakra also says:

'What man is there who, having observed the diversity of opinions
among the great seers, saints, and yogis, and becoming completely
indifferent to learning, does not attain quietude?' 9.5

Every teacher, every teaching, has a slightly different 'take' on the
process. Yes, they all point, ultimately, to the same thing, but some
more directly than others; some more clearly than others; and some
may get past your filters better than others. But the moment you
start questioning the whys and wherefors, you're off in the tangle of
mental conceptions and ideas. Who are these arising to? Remember,
Self REAL-I-zation is about nothing other than the recognition of
Self, recognizing What you have eternally been. That requires no
understanding other than the recognition of that and abiding as that
(NOT the intellectual understanding of that).

So, now that you've read this.....FORGET IT! And Abide as the SELF.

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Greetings,
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This is where the blogs will be....

thanks,
Aja

Who Says So

Conditioning - subtle and pervasive. We can call it belief or ideas, mental
constructs, habits, it really doesn't matter. The point is that it appears
to be there, points upon which we fixate. We believe we ARE or we are NOT
enlightened. We believe that there can only be one or ten or fifty
enlightened people on the planet at any given time. We believe that
everyone is already enlightened. It doesn't really matter what the
fixation, whether it is a 'good' one or a 'bad' one - in some way it is
still holding us to an angle of vision, a perspective.

The question is, "Who the hell said it had to be this way or that way???"
People are constantly quoting someone or some scripture to me to prove
their point, as if I give a damn! Sure, I love quotes as much or more than
the next person. I collect them like stamps or coins, but I also recognize
that they give a flavor, they point a direction. I never take them as
unalterable Truths. "It takes three million lifetimes to become
enlightened." It's not even about believing you're enlightened right now.
It's about seeing what you are holding onto. That's all. Choose to let it
go or choose to live with it. It doesn't matter. But don't let it define
you, bind you, constrict you.

Now, look and see how you react to what I am saying. Do you agree? Do you
disagree? Doesn't matter one way or the other, does it? You simply hold it
in your own mind as 'true' or not. Yes, it leaves you dangling, without a
particular idea to hold onto, but that's sort of the point now isn't it?

The Way to Total Freedom Takes GUTS

Ryokan, an 18th century Zen monk wrote:

"Without a bit of ambition left, I let my nature flow where it will. There are ten days of rice in my bag, and by the fireplace a bundle of wood Who prattles of illusion or nirvana? Forgetting the equal dusts of name & fortune, listening to the night rain on the roof of my hut, I sit, at ease, both legs stretched out."

So, the other day I was musing how it might be easier if we just got euthanized at 50 (I'm 52) - you know, something like Soilent Green is People! I mean, a few thousand years ago, (and in some places, much more recently) I would most likely be dead by now anyway. But as humans we have this incredible attachment to living. I'm not sure why, really. We tend to treat death as if it's something to be avoided. You do know it's inevitable don't you. In fact, much of the difficulty is the great struggle to resist death in all its forms. Much of this looks like "There's something wrong!" Our day to day experience is often seeped in "there's something wrong." We can't necessarily get a grasp of what it is, but there's something wrong!

THERE'S NOTHING WRONG!

As I lay there, with nothing particular arising to be done, it ocurred to me that as long as there is a sense of something wrong, there will be an inclination to do something about it. Now, 'WHO' wants to do something about it? To whom is such an idea arising.

There is an old saying, "DIE to LIVE." In order to really experience LIFE, one must Give Up The Struggle - yes, that's right, it takes G.U.T.S. - - - Giving Up The Struggle - The struggle to live, the struggle to know, the struggle to correct what's theoretically wrong, all the struggles. Now, some would call this resignation, but resignation suggests that I want it to be different, but I can't have it different so I give up. This is more akin to surrender, which says, it's perfect as it is. All the struggle is really just resistance to what is, and the resistance comes from the sense of a localized individual that is somehow separate from the whole. Often this individual considers themselves as searching. So guess what? G.U.T.S. can also mean Give Up The Search. And who is making this search? Why the Seeker. So, once more, the answer is G.U.T.S. - Give up the Seeker.

As long as one is seeking, one can not find. The cost of freedom is EVERYTHING. You must give up all beliefs and concepts and BE the Absolute free from limitations. How do you do this. Well, it takes GUTS!!

With Infinite love & gratitude,

and Without a bit of ambition left

Aja

Triggering the Enlightenment Virus

For some years now, I have had this thought that re-emerges in my head from time to time - "Trigger the 60's virus". Now, to be honest, I'm not sure if this is something that came through me, or if I picked it up somewhere else. Ultimately, it doesn't really matter. In fact, if it came from somewhere else, perhaps it's symbolic that the idea is working...I now have the virus. For those of you who might be old enough to have lived through the 1960's, the summer of love, and all that, there is a recognition, that it was an unprecedented period in history. Although very embryonic at that time, still, there was a sense or foreshadowing of what was to come, and seems to be happening now. The 60's represented a period in history where the existing memes were being deeply questioned. At that time, the principle one was, of course, Viet Nam, however, there were other ideals arising of love versus hate, collectivism versus extreme individuality and independence, return to rural and agrarian versus metropolitan life, etc. Even the idea of Enlightenment was first to really emerge here, with the Beatles going to the Maharishi and the budding of the TM movement, George and his sitar studying with Ravi Shankar, the Hare Krishna devotees chanting on street corners. But in many ways, like pre-pubescence, it was short lived, and we entered into the late 70's and 80's and onward into even more massive materialism, and domination by the media, government, and the various ills that weigh upon society on a much grander scale today.

Now, we are at a new point. I am totally convinced of it. I feel it to the core of my Being (or perhaps better from the core of Being). I see it echoed by spiritual teachers in all traditions. Suddenly, it was as if we turned around, and it was happening. In Joseph Chilton Pearce's recent book, Biology of Transcendence, he speaks of research which points out that the brain goes through very specific changes at certain ages in early life - around 3 or 4, again around 12 to 15, and once more at around 18 to 22 (I may have these ages wrong by a few years), where the whole chemistry changes; certain synapses are created, others destroyed, specific things are sought (primarily meaning in life), and so forth. It takes a certain maturity for these things to happen. Similarly, globally, as a species, we seemed to have reached one of these points. We are evolving to the next stage, potentially a stage that may be occurring for the first time in human history. It is an age of Global Awakening, an Age of Enlightenment.

As someone who has been teaching about Enlightenment and Consciousness for nearly 20 years, for most of it, there wasn't a whole lot of interest. Suddenly, you see people talking about it on talk shows, on the street, on buses. Perhaps not in a deeply serious way, but still, it's in the air. But it's a little like talk about a cure for many diseases - something of a remote possibility, but not taken too seriously. It's time to change that!

Trigger the Enlightenment Virus!!!
Our culture, our world, has been deeply infected with a virus. This virus has been going on for quite some time, and its hold is insidious and pervasive. It is the virus (or viruses) of egoism, narcissism, materialism, fragmentation and divisiveness. Whereas we used to have tribes and families, we now have billions of independent entities, each vying for personal fulfillment and even supremacy. Even the so-called nuclear families of the 50's and 60's have passed on, and a huge percentage of children grow up in single parent households. Our culture has become terminally ill. If you watch TV, you see that half the advertisements are for things that no one needs, while the other half are for medications to cure them from the diseases they have acquired from those very things - many of them for obesity, depression, and anxiety. What we essentially have is a virus of anti-Enlightenment, in all its various forms. We need to trigger the Enlightenment Virus!

What does the Enlightenment Virus look like?
First, it is an understanding of what Enlightenment or Awakening is. It is the recognition that we are not the ego-based individuals we think we are. The spiritual teachings of a wide variety of traditions essentially tell us the same thing - You are Absolute Consciousness - the sense of an individualized and localized self is part of this Infinite and Absolute Consciousness. When you inquire into the thing you call "I", it is not the body or the mind or the emotions, although all of those things are occurring IN Awareness, you are in fact that Awareness within which the personality 'you' is arising.

Secondly, it is the recognition that this is not something for some 'Special' people only - the Jesuses, the Buddhas, the Mohammeds (or any other well known, living or dead, spiritual teachers) - but is in fact the normal reality, which we have simply missed because of our infatuation with the phenomenal reality. It's like looking in the mirror and completely identifying with the person IN the mirror, rather than recognizing you are the person that is gazing AT the mirror. It only requires spending some time to look at the 'looker' and realizing that behind it all, the 'BIG' looker is the real, impersonal, and ever-present YOU.
Thirdly, it is spreading this virus. This is the most important part, and, for now, perhaps the most difficult. The Anti-Enlightenment Virus is SO pervasive, that it literally drowns out all other ideas. It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack. And to make matters worse, for many, they don't even know there is a needle. But Enlightenment is a reality, and it is possible to spread it. That's what teachers have been doing for centuries. But commonly, the virus has been mutated to a belief system, which is another type of Anti-Enlightenment virus. Real Enlightenment has nothing whatsoever to do with belief systems. It is an actual and concrete recognition of Who One Is. What's more, this virus has a tangible effect on deeper layers. It has an advantage. Unlike traditional memetic viruses, which need to be spread AS a belief system, the Enlightenment Virus is spread not only through mental and intellectual understanding, but also by 'resonance'. Most people who have spent time with a deeply Enlightened being recognize that there is more going on than simply seeing and hearing; there is an energetic influence taking place. This is what Alan Lithman in his ground-breaking book, An Evolutionary Agenda for the Third Millennium calls Evolutionary or Integral Activism:

"Motivated by an evolutionary Force... this integral activism (i.e. Enlightenment Virus - ed.) effectively reunites the once-polarized paths of peace and power;invoking an invincible evolutionary dynamic that acts directly, vibrationally upon the body, cellular and terrestrial; not simply overpowering from without but setting up a resonance that "agitates" the "particles" of consciousness in the surrounding material field. In effect, this "agitation" awakens and quickens that same power locked within each crystallized form; setting in motion the consciousness equivalent of a nuclear chain reaction; catalyzing and releasing this truer power and potential lying dormant (i.e., unconscious or half-conscious) within each being and form; freeing that power to consciously transform the instrumental vessels it inhabits; out-sustaining the counter-reactive resistances through an inexorable takeover from within...in effect, "radioactivating" the particular field through which one acts; shaking it (i.e., vibrating it at an accelerated rate) from its present status quo trance; provoking in the most positive and profound sense a mutation of consciousness."
This is the mission of www.OneMillionAwake.com - To spread this enlightenment virus around the globe; to document and assist 1,000,000 people in their Enlightenment, so that this all-important Enlightenment Virus can infect the world, eventually overcoming and wiping out the Anti-Enlightenment Virus. Remember, at first it is a joke, then it is possible, than plausible, then inevitable. Be a part of this Virus!

Pretend I'm Dying

When I look around and see the situation in the
world, like many people, my reaction is, "Whoo
boy! What a mess!!" Next is the thought of what
can possibly be done to improve the situation.
But, there is a problem – in order to solve the
various crises of the world, it's going to
require a significant change in the way people
view and act in the world. However, very few are
willing to do anything that will significantly
impact their own lives. Global warming? "Oh,
well, my one little SUV won't make much
difference, and I sure love the roominess. I
mean, come on, I still need to look good, right?"

So, how does one get anything done? How does one
make an impact on the world? What would actually
cause people to initiate action? And then I came
up with it: Pretend that I'm dying. Better yet,
pretend that I am a young child and I am dying.
Works every time. For instance, a young boy could
come up to you in the street, not well dressed,
pretty pathetic looking and say he'd really like
a bicycle. Our reaction, "Swell kid. Get a job,
and you'll be able to buy one." However, if we
saw on the news that a particular child (he might
even be fairly well off) was dying, and his one
wish was to have a new bicycle, within a week,
that kid would have enough bicycles to reach from
here to the moon and back, as well as several
motorscooters, dune buggies, a trainset, a rolls royce, and an elephant.

So here's the deal - I'm dying. I've been
diagnosed with terminal temporary-life-ism, and
can't tell you how much time I have left. It
could be any day now. (Well, it could, you know.)
And I have only one dying wish - which I beg you
to fulfill: I want to see an Enlightened world! I
want to see 1,000,000 enlightened beings
inhabiting the planet and tipping the scales of
evolution to a more evolved Awakened humanity.
Come on, how hard can that be? It won't cost you
a thing, and we've already set up the foundation
for it (you know, like make-a-wish). It's
www.OneMillionAwake.com. The whole purpose of it
is to foster the awakening of 1,000,000 beings,
to document their enlightenment (via email), and
to give permission to everyone in the world to
Wake up! So, the only thing you have to do is go
to the site and declare that you are Awake or
that you are committed to your own and humanity's
awakening. And then do what everyone else does,
send this as an email to everyone you know,
because for a change, this one is actually
important. This one could actually make an
unprecedented difference on a global scale. This
could change humanity forever, in the way people
have been seeking forever. So please, do this for
me; I'm dying. In fact, if my dying will make
this happen, I'm more than willing to give my
life, again and again. There could be no better
reason to give up this existence. In fact, there
could be no better purpose for this existence.

So, how about it? Take a few minutes for a young
dying boy's wish of Global Enlightenment?

Never More Enlightened

The reality is, you will never be more enlightened than you are right now!

It's like happiness. If you're not happy now, nothing, NOTHING will
make you any more happy in the future. Nothing will change that -
nothing will change who or what you are. Certainly circumstances will change. Circumstances always change. That is the nature of the flow
of life. But the moment you depend on some circumstance to make you
happy, you're sunk. As Socrates said, "He who is not contented with
what he has, will not be contented with what he doesn't have."

Enlightenment is the same. Enlightenment is not something to be
achieved. It is like happiness - it is what is already present when
you let go of their being something wrong, like the idea of NOT being
enlightened. When you recognize that the "I" that is seeking, is
itself nothing of real substance other than an idea of seeking, and
that the sense of Presence, of 'I AM'-ness has always and already
been present, then you can be happy, peaceful, and FREE of bondage,
free of suffering, free of illusions of some future enlightenment and
happiness. The Reality is NOW...deeply rooted in the beauty of this
mystery called Here and Now. It is not in a past 'experience' nor in
the future when 'such and such' happens. It is always right
NOW! Stop and be the Presence that IS. Spread that wondrous
Recognition. Be the Enlightenment that is What You Are. Now DANCE!

With Infinite Love & Gratitude,
Aja