| Satsang 2-09-09 What I noticed is that some people speak from the known, the mind. They talk ABOUT things rather than from direct experience. The words all come from the same place, memory, suggesting “fixes” and what if’s and could it be’s. There is discomfort when asked to be authentic, to experience the moment as it is and share that with the group. The identification with thought preys upon the moment as if it has happened a million times. This i-d ravages the senses and gives free reign to the mind, provoking fear with every thought. Disagreement (and agreement) become a way of life. Everything is seen as a pro or a con and no attention whatsoever is given to the real environment, the presence that is aware. The real environment, I’ll call it presence, has room for everything. It IS everything WITHOUT the least bit of identification with any of it. It sees the coming and going of thought, feelings, emotions, anything as JUST what is happening now. It does not see the thought, “What if I can’t sell my house?!” as a problem, as real, or as true. It sees this thought as something that is happening now, not to be believed, but, instead, to be aware of or to be questioned if stress attaches to it. We can think of ourselves as the ocean. We watch our waves, what happens in our life, come and go, arise and fall, come out of us and go back into us. Do we, as the ocean, try hold on to, or get rid of each wave that arises? Do we wale, pound our chests and scream at the waves to stay or go? Are we afraid of certain waves, pushing them away, hiding from them, running from them? Or do we like and crave other waves trying to hold on to them with controlling behaviors? As the ocean, we do none of this. We are content with each wave coming and going. As the ocean, I am the infinite, boundless capacity for everything that happens in me. My arms are always open to what is showing itself in every moment. I see clearly that the happenings that come out of me and go back into me ARE me, no separation. Sparked by the movement of the ocean, things come and go. The ocean, Presence that I am, reveals Its power in ALLOWING the coming and going without identifying with any of it. Presence, ocean, has a real “hands off” approach to what shows up. Why would I, you, as presence, want to get rid of or hold onto what I am? When I am the environment, the source of all that arises, there’s no doubt that the arisings, the waves, need me in order to occur. This beingness as ocean, as infinite and boundless space, unravels the web of identification created by believing that I, ocean, am separate from the waves. The separation thinks that every wave belongs to me, is mine. To believe something is mine, I must believe it as true. I then relate to what I think the wave is, something separate to hold to or to get rid of. Control becomes my only hope. Separation keeps me busy. I get to search, work on and hide from what’s right here that, if I look, will show me the truth of what I am. Separation believes this is death, and it doesn’t want to die! So the struggle remains for the sake of survival, for the sake of what I think I am. Living, true living, BEING WHAT I AM, lingers in the background of my survival. Authenticity remains in the background as stress, struggle, and poverty lead the way. Surviving in stress, struggle and poverty creates the appearance of not enough. Aliveness has no room in not enough, no room at all. Life gives Itself, GIVES ITSELF, to this not-enough-trying-to-survive-survival. With so much love and freedom and support, Life gives Itself to everything that arises. It gives Itself to every wave, the tsunamis and the tiny splashes. It says YES to ALL that comes out of It and ALL that fades back into It. Without ever knowing what will arise next, Presence says YES! This YES to everything can only be authentic when I am the capacity for everything. I must disappear in favor of what is arising in order to say yes. This open capacity is the home I never left, even when I identify with thought. So I am always here, open and boundless space for the world to happen in. I am the endless ocean disappearing in favor of every wave! Being this Presence is the assurance that I am free from harm, stress and struggle. Being this Love, I disappear in favor of harm, stress and struggle. The ‘disappearing in favor of’ allows flow, no resistance to what is happening. When there is no resistance to what is happening the sky opens up with countless possibilities. No resistance, no problem. No problem, … see what happens … -georgette cressend |
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Satsang 2-02-09 Remember when a grown up would carry you on their shoulders and you could see above the crowd? This Infinite Love that we are carries us on its shoulders, where we can see above the debilitating dogma of the crowded mind. Dogma, belief, demands respect and doesn’t get any. It can only get unconscious followers that come and go with the coming and going of a thought, which is what dogma/belief is. Awareness, however, is here through the comings and goings, and doesn’t care if what happens is respected or condemned. Why? Because Awareness is free of a me that measures what happens against what it thinks should happen or against what has happened. There’s no me to refute what is. There’s no me to give meaning to what has happened, what will happen or what is happening. Without assigning meaning, there is neither a sense of lack nor any sense of abundance as our society has defined it. Everything is equal, just what it is, free of a dogmatic story that assigns value and meaning. There’s a popular notion that rank and file are lower than the top brass. What if rank and file were to investigate the top brass instead of believing they are higher, better? What would the r/f find? Well, let’s see. The top brass are people just like r/f, living as human and believing their stories just like r/f believes theirs. How’s that any better? R/f attempts to find more than similarities. Let’s look at what ‘really’ makes t/b better. They have more money. Has that ever been a reliable source of evidence for someone being better than another? Well, what if the top brass have more power, evidenced in having created more in their lives, not just more money, but more elaborate conditions such as home, car, etc., and more authority and power in their position. When has the accumulation of more of anything ever proven one person to be better than another? Have we exhausted the idea that having more of anything is proof of anything? There’s only one thing that has r/f APPEAR less than or different from t/b. They believe a different story and, thus, the image they hold in their minds of themselves and the world is different. That image, of both r/f and t/b, gets projected outward and appears as top brass vs. rank and file with all the struggle, horror and/or bliss that arrives on the heels of that story. In the midst of living our stories, whether r/f or t/b, pressure takes its rightful (righteous) place. It anchors itself in the groin area impeding our ability to walk without pain and suffering … as we tell everyone how happy we are. We lengthen our spiritual practices, acquire more real estate, increase our productivity and rule the world with a long list of positive affirmations. And what happens? Our outer lives change. We accomplish more, or we don’t. We have more spiritual experiences, or we don’t. We build a larger bank account, or we don’t. We continue to do the same things we’ve been doing, recycling through what is known, unaware that the freshness of Life is right here. We recycle our old stories for new ones. They are recycled, coming from the same old place, the mind. This kind of recycling does not help the planet or us! It maintains the viability of the notion that we must DO MORE to get better, to be better, an idea whose time has come … for dying. Last but not least, listening to the ridicule that fills the airwaves of the mind has its lasting effects … or does it? How could a thought have a lasting effect when it, the thought, doesn’t last? No thought stays. It comes and goes. In order for it to have a lasting effect, it must last. And it doesn’t. It seems to last because we give it our attention every time it comes. No thought has ever been constant. There’s always a break between thoughts. We just don’t look for it. We are aware of the thought and not aware of the no-thought. What happens when you are aware of the no-thought? What happens when you give ALL your attention to the no-thing of empty space that thought arises in? The invitation: Give your attention to what is aware of the thought and the no-thought. What you give attention to lives you. What you give attention to will either carry you on its shoulders allowing you to see both the crowd and the empty space in which the crowd stands, or you will get dragged amidst the feet of the dead. Test the waters of this seeing … and really see if you are the crowd (the crowded mind) or the space in which it comes and goes. Loving you, georgette |
| Satsang 3-16-09 The life that we lead is no more (or less) than an expression of the whole and the beliefs to which the whole gives power. Stretching into the whole is not possible. Reaching the whole is not possible. Getting more of the whole is not possible. Having less of the whole is not possible. BEING only a part of the whole is not possible. WE are the whole, capacity for everything and no-thing. When we, the Whole, seemingly loses Itself in Its own empowering of belief, It, we, rests there. The Whole rests in Its own expression as story or belief, not mistakenly, not wrongly, and not erroneously. The whole allows everything to be as it is -- and, in that allowing, It is not lost in belief. It IS the belief, having lost nothing of Itself, remaining clear, pristine awareness as It plays in the human game of creation. So the story that identifying with a belief equates to losing something, (Oh, I’ve lost myself in this story, this person, this situation!) particularly awareness, is NOT true. Awareness is always here and aware, even when It becomes a belief, or acts out of a belief, or makes a decision from a belief, or lives straight from a story. Awareness RESTS in whatever It gives attention to. It doesn’t try to overcome anything, because It doesn’t judge one thing better than another. It RESTS in the moment, even if the moment brings attempts to control, manipulate or annihilate. It rests in that, until It doesn’t. Awareness will rest in a story that expresses holocaust as easily as one that expresses harmony. Without the judgment of one being worse than another and without any story attached to holocaust or harmony, the moment is met AS IT IS. The moment is met with the infinite capacity to embrace the expression Wholly. Fully open to an experience, Awareness can choicelessly move, that is, move without thinking, from moment to moment AS IT IS. The movement that comes from this kind of openness is always the perfect move. It can be respected and trusted unequivocally because it arises from the uncluttered clarity of Awareness. As we look through the lens of the mind, WE see people experiencing hardship, suffering and pain. Awareness sees something different as It rests in what is happening. It does not see hardship, suffering and pain. These are the words of the thinking mind. Awareness sees what is happening, that is, It sees actions, thoughts, and sensations. It does not label, decode, analyze, figure out, compartmentalize or stress over these actions, thoughts and sensations. It only “rests” in it all, inviting a bright, open clarity that takes charge. Then physical movement or non-movement occurs. When you notice yourself “resting” in a story or a belief, will you stake you claim to it, rather than run from it, judge it or make it wrong? What are you believing right now that you see as not okay? Stop resisting and just rest in it. As Awareness, you gave it the power to appear. Do you really want to avoid your own creation? Give to it now the respect and trust you gave it when you created it … and see what happens. Give it your full attention … and see what happens. -georgette cressend |