Disappearance of questioner is answer -Adyashanti

Adyashanti

A conversation with Adyashanti on ‘choice and free will’.

Q. Do I have free will or do I not?” And the answer is, “No, you don’t exist.” (laughter) Do you feel it? It starts to be a relief of the question.
Q. You’ve spoken in the past about the individual, oneness, and the eternal.
A. Yes. They are all the same, actually.

Q. So, where does choice come in?
A. Where does choice come in? It comes in exactly where it comes
in. Where there is the appearance of choice, make it. Where there is not an appearance of choice, don’t worry about it. I understand that doesn’t answer the question, “Is there choice or is there not choice?” The answer is no to both, and yes to both. That’s the answer. But since I know that won’t help you, I’ll give its practical application. When it appears that there is choice, make it; when it appears that there is no choice, don’t worry about it.

Q. So when choice appears, is there free will?
A. Yes, and no, and they are both true. You would like me to explain that wouldn’t you? (laughter) All truth is like that by the way—that’s why we call it non-dual. Non-dual doesn’t mean that there is no duality, it means that the truth that expresses itself as duality and itself is bigger. So, it expresses itself as duality, which means there is free will and there isn’t free will. And, the ultimate truth is something that’s bigger than either one of those—where both are sort of completely irrelevant. Because the ultimate truth is that neither apply. Free will and no free will only apply to a “me.” But either way it’s saying something to the little me that’s not really true: “You have free will,” it’s not really true. “You don’t have free will,” that’s not really true. If it’s all one, since it is all one, where does the question of free will and no free will come about? You see what I mean? It’s only relevant when the mind separates itself and goes, “OK, now I’ve got to see, where do I stack up in it all. Do I have free will or do I not?” And the answer is, “No,you don’t exist.” (laughter) Do you feel it? It starts to be a relief of the question. That’s the relief, yes. The answer isn’t the answer. The answer is the relief of the question. There it is.

Q. It does feel like a relief.

A. Good. There you see it. That’s it. It doesn’t apply because the one asking the question is the one that’s always in bondage. And it’s just a movement of thought and it’s not really “what I am.” And it feels so good to see it. Ultimately there are no answers to all the questions, the only answer is the disappearance of the questioner. All of a sudden the questioner is realized to be a movement of thought that has no actual existence. The questioner disappears, it’s not like you got an answer. It’s just that there is no questioner. And if there is no questioner, there is no question. There has to be a separateness. You see? Without the questioner, there is just what is. And that’s it. Which is totally unsatisfactory to the egoic self, but absolute bliss to the truth within.”

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Adyashanti is an American spiritual teacher and author from the San Francisco Bay Area who offers talks, online study courses, and retreats in the United States and abroad. WikipediaBorn: October 26, 1962 (age 57 years), Cupertino, CASpouse: Mukti GrayParents: Larry GrayBooks: Emptiness dancingAlbums: True Meditation

Without thoughts . . . -RAdams

Adams, Robert

“The thoughts and the ego are synonymous. As the thoughts slow down, the ego slows down, and begins to also disappear with the thoughts. When there are no thoughts, there’s no ego. When there’s no ego, there’s nobody left to think. Then the question you will ask is, ‘How do I function without thinking?’ …

The sage’s thoughts are like a burnt rope. They appear to be real, but they’re not. In other words, your thoughts are not real. They are false. How do you function without thoughts? Very well, thank you. Many of you still believe you have to have thoughts to function.

You think you’ll become a vegetable, but you will be spontaneous without thoughts. You’ll be motivated by the Self. You will know what to do, where to go, whom to speak to, whom not to speak to, much better than you do now—much, much better. Things will happen to you spontaneously. “

~ Robert Adams (20th century American Advaita mystic)

Jean Klein, Who am I? -JK

Jean Klein

What called you to India? To visit the society in a traditional way. Went with no purpose. Found teacher. Do you know yourself? Strictly speaking you don’t need a teacher to tell you what you are, but what you are not. The teacher should show you that you are not body senses and mind, but you are the Self.

God = Consciousness -RAdams

Adams, Robert, Consciousness

Do not compare yourself with anyone. Do not believe that fate has dealt you a bad card and that you’re suffering mentally, or physically, or financially, or otherwise, and saying “Why did this happen to me?” You are not to blame. You’re identifying with the world, with the body, with the mind. This is the only reason you believe you’re suffering. No one really suffers.

If you really understood who you were, you would never believe that anything was wrong with your life. To believe something is wrong with your life is blasphemy.That is the only blasphemy that exists. When you believe you’re not in your right place. When you want to change. When you think somebody is doing something to you. When you have fears, that’s blasphemy. For what you are saying is this thing called God does not exist.

I use God synonymously with consciousness. You think God, consciousness, does not exist and that you have to struggle for yourself. You have to overcome burdens and you have to pay the price. Even the belief that it’s karmic is wrong. The best thing you can do is not react to anything, but to act from your heart with love, compassion, peace, and let the chips fall where they may.

Quantum physics background for Self-enquiry

Quantum world

In Quantum Physics, Even Humans Act As Waves

Ethan SiegelSenior ContributorStarts With A BangContributor GroupScienceThe Universe is out there, waiting for you to discover it.

“Is it a wave or is it a particle?” Never has such a simple question had such a complicated answer as in the quantum realm. The answer, perhaps frighteningly, depends on how you ask the question. Pass a beam of light through two slits, and it acts like a wave. Fire that same beam of light into a conducting plate of metal, and it acts like a particle. Under appropriate conditions, we can measure either wave-like or particle-like behavior for photons — the fundamental quantum of light — confirming the dual, and very weird, nature of reality.

This dual nature of reality isn’t just restricted to light, either, but has been observed to apply to all quantum particles: electrons, protons, neutrons, even significantly large collections of atoms. In fact, if we can define it, we can quantify just how “wave-like” a particle or set of particles is. Even an entire human being, under the right conditions, can act like a quantum wave. (Although, good luck with measuring that.) Here’s the science behind what that all means

The debate over whether light behaves as a wave or a particle goes all the way back to the 17th century, when two titanic figures in physics history took opposite sides on the issue. On the one hand, Isaac Newton put forth a “corpuscular” theory of light, where it behaved the same way that particles did: moving in straight lines (rays) and refracting, reflecting, and carrying momentum just as any other kind of material would. Newton was able to predict many phenomena this way, and could explain how white light was composed of many other colors.

On the other hand, Christiaan Huygens favored the wave theory of light, noting features like interference and diffraction, which are inherently wave-like. Huygens’ work on waves couldn’t explain some of the phenomena that Newton’s corpuscular theory could, and vice versa. Things started to get more interesting in the early 1800s, however, as novel experiments began to truly reveal the ways in which light was intrinsically wave-like.

Is the World an Illusion? -RSpira

Adams, Robert

FROM WHICH POINT OF VIEW ARE YOU REFERRING? rjs

Non-existence vs illusion

LUCID WAKING: JOHN SMITH CAN STILL PLAY THE PART OF KING LEAR WHILE KNOWING HE’S REALLY JOIN SMITH. Awareness doesn’t fall asleep anymore. It’s the essence of prayer or self-enquiry. 1. Lost in experience 2. I am John Smith. Inward-facing. 3. John Smith doesn’t forget who he really is anymore. Outward-facing.

Stop using your mind (ego) to control thoughts -RAdams

Adams, Robert, Attachment

“When the Sage thinks of something, it is like a fan that has been pulled out of the socket. It’s still turning, but there’s no power. The power is dead. The power has been cut off. In other words, the thoughts of a saint are dead. The thoughts of the Sage have no power, no power whatsoever. This is why it is said, a Sage does not think, a Sage has no thoughts. What it really means is that the sage’s thoughts are dead. When the thoughts are dead, you live in absolute reality. You live in pure awareness. When the thoughts are dead you live in sat-chit-ananda [existence-consciousness-bliss], in nirvana.

So what are you to do to also cease the thinking, so the thoughts can become dead? You simply do not attach yourself to the thoughts. By not attaching yourself to the thoughts, by not reacting to the thoughts, by not responding to the thoughts, they lose their power and begin to fade away. You do not give it any energy. You do not give it any power. Do not say to yourself, ‘I have to stop my thoughts.’ Do nothing like this. Just slow down, slow down, let the thoughts do what they may. Allow the thoughts to go their own way. Do nothing with your thoughts. Do not think about them. Do not fight them. And above all, do not try to stop them.

You may think this is sort of difficult, but it’s not. It’s like when you first wake up, before the thoughts come. You’re still drowsy from sleep. And when the first thoughts come to you, you hardly pay any attention to them. That’s the attitude to have. Do not pay any attention to your thoughts whatsoever. … There are so many practices [used to stop the mind]. You have Vipassana meditation. You have pranayama. You have so many different methods to stop your thoughts. All of these methods are good to an extent. They make you sort of one-pointed, but they will not stop your thoughts.

This is why people who have been practicing pranayamas, breathing exercises, Vipassana meditation, even Zen meditation, and other forms of yoga meditation, have been practicing for years, and years, and years and years. Perhaps they have achieved a semblance of peace, but they have not become liberated, due to the fact that they are using methods, whether it is a koan, or it’s watching your breath or your feelings, or whether it’s changing your thoughts to something positive, whatever you’ve been doing, you’re using your mind to do it. And your mind will always fool you. It will make you believe you’re getting somewhere, you’re becoming something great. But it’s really the ego. It is the ego that is controlling the mind.”

~ Robert Adams (20th century American Advaita mystic)

Die before you die, get it out of the way. Transition

Death, Self

Eternal unborn

“There is much to be said for dying now and not waiting until the body dies; things might be a little rushed then, and one might find it hard to concentrate. Now, in the midst of what you take to be your life, there can be, if needed, a ‘positive’ practice of building up and strengthening the sense of individual self until it is strong enough to undergo the negative’ process of realizing that it is a sham, unreal after all, never did exist; and then perhaps it can be let go, let die,let fall away.

Then there can be a liberation from that ego that haunted and plagued us all our lives with fears of its own demise, for it turns out not to be anything real, nothing even to struggle against or try to defeat. The ego, and the death it has convinced you is your greatest fear, is only a tired tape recording in an empty room, which from outside you thought was a powerful and fearful enemy; but now the plug is pulled and the voice slurs to a stop.

This is what it is to ‘die before you die;’to step through the gateless gate into Void, and to walk the universe alone.”

~ Perfect Brilliant Stillness.