A New Common Sense

June 18, 2003 admin 68 Comments

I am so struck by how unique a politician Dennis Kucinich is, where everything he says resonates with a consciousness not usually found in government. The piece I'm posting here, Your Vegan Holistic President, sent by Susan Steffes, charmingly captures a lot of what's special about him.

But first, in regard to Kucinich and then some, it was painful to see A Modest Proposal, by Doug Ireland, posted on TomPaine.com. That's one of our most visible and powerful organizations that promote the progressive message — significantly, in ads in the New York Times. I recently met John Moyers (Bill's son), Editor-in-Chief of TomPaine.org, at a fundraiser for his organization (a fundraiser I'd gone to before that, at the same place, was for Kucinich), and he couldn't have been nicer. Here was my email to Moyers, asking him if he would apologize for posting what Ireland wrote:

Suzanne Taylor wrote:

A Modest Proposal, posted on your site, includes this nastiness:

The Take Back America Conference, organized by the Campaign for America's Future last week, was a PR exercise and a feel-good rally for its participants that allowed liberals to vent their spleen at the DLC without proposing or working toward concrete organizational initiatives and alternatives of the kind I've described. one liberal Democratic strategist who attended called it a “nothingburger” that will leave no trace on the electoral picture a few months hence.

Your posting this article — which includes characterizing “dour Dennis” Kucinich as “cleaving to the dangerous, anti-rational, New Age voodoo fantasies of his guru, Marianne Williamson” — was ironic in light of a piece in The Nation, that's in wide circulation on the Net, about the Take Back America Conference. Bill Moyers' “Presidential” Address extols daddy Bill's performance at the conference, and Dennis Kucinich's, too.

…it was a non-candidate who won the hearts and minds of the crowd with a “Cross of Gold” speech for the 21st century…There was little doubt that the crowd of activists from across the country would have nominated Moyers by acclamation when he finished a remarkable address in which he challenged not just the policies of the Bush Administration but the failures of Democratic leaders in Congress to effectively challenge the president and his minions…Kucinich, who earned nine standing ovations for his antiwar and anti-corporate free trade rhetoric, probably did more to advance his candidacy than any of the other contenders. But he never got to the place that Moyers reached with a speech that legal scholar Jamie Raskin described as “one of the most amazing and spellbinding” addresses he had ever heard. Author and activist Frances Moore Lappe said she was close to tears as she thanked Moyers for providing precisely the mixture of perspective and hope that progressives need as they prepare to challenge the right in 2004.

What Ireland wrote doesn't belong on your site, and could alienate people who support you.

Here is John Moyers' answer to me:

We don’t make our regular contributors, like Doug Ireland, toe any party line or agree with our own personal opinions. We’re here to create debate and we’re glad when a piece does that.

How about that? Would they run anything that blithely mentioned “dirty Jews” or “lazy Mexicans?” It is deeply offensive to print a comparably awful characterization of Marianne Williamson, who has had three best seller books, and is beloved by millions of people who are of a deeply spiritual persuasion. Here's what Allen Branson, our webmaster, submitted for posting in Letters on the TomPaine.com site:

I agree that the left-wing of the Democratic party must build a solid base from which to work. Do you think that is going to happen by spouting divisive, close-minded and bigoted remarks about that part of the left that follows a spiritual path that's in other than the all-but-state-sponsored Judeo-Christian tradition?

The dangerous ideas of Marianne Williamson? Anti-rational, New Age voodoo? I've heard more tolerance from the mouth of Wolfowitz, speaking about Saddam Hussein!! I can think of no better way to NOT achieve the organization of the left than to let bigotry and bias drive a wedge between its various factions, as this sort of rhetoric is bound to do.

This situation is a reminder of the adage, “We've met the enemy and it is us.” Perhaps more of you might contact TomPaine.com, offering them some enlightening perspectives, as they are so sincerely working towards unifying us.

So, here's the treat about Dennis Kucinich, from Mark Morford, who sets this up with, “It sure is nice to dream”:

Your Vegan Holistic President

And then the new 2004 president had the gall, the unutterable nerve, to actually set up an official Department of Peace to promote, you know, nonviolence and human rights. That big jerk.

And then he repealed the snide and vicious USA Patriot Act, and promoted legit environmental causes and sustainability and actually tightened EPA restrictions and strengthened the Clean Air Act, gasp oh my God what the hell is he thinking.

And then it was revealed that, oh dear God what anti-American blasphemy, he eats no meat or dairy, and prefers organic and kosher foods and actually cares about issues of personal holistic health and therefore isn't a smirking well-funded crony of the toxic beef industry or big agribiz, and hence the bloated lobbyists from those groups are no longer swimming in favoritism and payola and what the hell is the world coming to.

And furthermore, he isn't particularly vehemently religious, not in the normal sense anyway, not Christian or strictly Catholic or Baptist or whatever Bush claims to be, Born-Again Failed-CEO Warmonger, I believe.

And in fact he's actually a rather unique amalgam, a loosely observant Roman Catholic who observes kashruth due to the influence of his longtime Jewish girlfriend, and yet who also supports alternative beliefs, has practicing Muslims on his staff, supports spiritual exploration, knows Shirley Maclaine personally, gives his own personal money to alternative spirituality research. What the hell? This cannot be.

And that damn hippie liberal, he actually wants to legalize medical marijuana, and he supports the rights of the poor and the working class, and more protections for the oceans, and universal health care and a reduction in military spending, and actually wants to change the world's opinion of the U.S. as this despised unipolar rogue into a more cooperative powerhouse role-model peacemaker. Oh dear. That does it. We're gonna be invaded by China any day now, for certain.

Let us imagine, just for a moment, just because it's entirely implausible and because it feels so utterly odd, that such a leadership, such an open and distinctive viewpoint, actually ran this nation.

Let us imagine the horror. Imagine the savage blow to the all-American mega-machismo, to the hardcore GOP hawks and the freerepublic.com psychopatriots and the Christian Bible gropers and the stunned CEOs, the insult to the giant angry fist of self-righteousness America now represents were someone like, say, Dennis Kucinich, the humble long-shot progressive Democratic congressman candidate from Ohio — the one who represents all those viewpoints listed above — to actually became president.

Is it really all that radical? Is it really all that extreme to try and imagine a truly connected national leadership that promotes international cooperation and spiritual openness and the sacredness of the environment and a genuinely holistic worldview, one who actually attempts to connect with and listen to its populace?

Why does this seem so far off, so utterly impossible? Have we gone so far down the road of BushCo-style isolationism and dread and knives-out bile that we can't even entertain a serious alternative, the notion that we actually could, as a country, stand for something as radical as peace?

Are we so deeply and repressively beaten down with war and terror and fake Orange Alerts and the idea that we absolutely positively must, no matter what, have a cold and corporatized iron-fisted leadership hell-bent on expanding American empire at all costs, that we can't even conceive of a sincere and pacifistic alternative?

Apparently, we are. That far gone. That far removed from what this nation actually stands for, stood for. At least for the moment. The tyranny of fear is in control. We are so absolutely goddamn certain we are facing a brutal and heartless world that wishes us perpetual violent ill that we simply must have an equally heartless and guns-drawn pseudo-fascist leadership to match it.

This is, quite simply, utter bull. We have chosen our own path. We have actively elected to become the strong-arm rogue superpower. We have created our own warmongering circumstance far, far more than it has been imposed on us.

Get this. According to his Web site, Dennis Kucinich's proposed Cabinet-level peace appointee would seek to not merely make nonviolence an organizing principle of society but actually strive to make war archaic, to “endeavor to promote justice and democratic principles to expand human rights … and develop new structures in nonviolent dispute resolution.” Man. What a heretic.

Is Kucinich the ideal candidate? I have no idea. He is merely one of the most interesting, indeed a longshot and probably flawed and it's true that he just recently flip-flopped on abortion rights, and is maybe just a bit overly pro-labor, and who knows what else, and he could be trouble for the Demos in terms of shaking up the unified message the party so desperately needs right now.

But let's just use him as our example. Let's use his unique candidacy as a mirror to reflect how far we have careened down the path of indignation and megalomania and the idea that we, as a nation, are somehow locked into this warmongering, hateful mode, this hostile role as schoolyard bully of the world.

How shockingly naive it seems, how utterly childish to think we could have a president who actually promotes peace and empowers the U.N. and works toward interconnectedness, and in this day and age. Don't you know the world is at our throat? Don't you know it's all eye-for-an-eye and dog-eat-dog and only the strong survive and kill 'em all before they come and eat our innocent babies?

Yeah right. How very sad. No one seems to remember. No one truly recalls the overwhelming sentiment just after 9/11, a stunned and saddened nation rethinking its core values, a deeply historic opportunity for a radical reshaping of America's world position and policy, our intentions, our national agenda.

We could've chosen a Kucinich-style path. We could've easily chosen peace and cooperation and humanity and communication. BushCo chose the exact opposite.

And now, here we are. Globally disrespected, almost universally feared and loathed and resented, our economy hammered, the vicious GOP war machine cranking on all cylinders, openly lying about the justifications for war, huge numbers of misguided citizens truly believing 9/11 is a valid excuse to annihilate Iraq and slaughter thousands, maybe Syria and North Korea and Libya and Lebanon and who knows who else, next.

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World Press

Some Great Tell-It-Like-It-Is Pieces

June 14, 2003 admin 54 Comments

As we are getting perturbed about not finding WMD, the American media is treating this as news. And, this conclusion of Under-Fire President Waters Down Claims on Iraqi Weapons, from The Times UK, seems reasonable:

The President was warned of the scale of the trouble he would face if it emerged that the intelligence behind the war had been twisted. “This is the first potential scandal I have seen that could make Watergate pale by comparison,” John W. Dean, President Nixon’s White House lawyer, said. “To put it bluntly, if Bush has taken Congress and the nation into war based on bogus information, he is cooked.” The White House actions could be “a high crime” under the Constitution’s impeachment clause.

But, is this the fact, or is it more like Maureen Farrell points out in The Duping of America? She say, first of all, that the foreign press had our “news” months ago, and, for yet another layer of American mass hallucination, we don't care:

With the latest Gallup/CNN/USA Today poll showing that 79 percent of Americans believe that “the war would be justified even 'if the U.S. does not find conclusive evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction'”, it seems, for the moment at least, that we don't mind being lied to — as long as we continue to feel good about ourselves and our role in the world. Truth isn't nearly as important as is the oft-staged and contrived mythology of America saving the day. Why wouldn't we give the president the benefit of the doubt — particularly when pundits tell us it's the all-American thing to do? The mantra is readily memorized: the foreign press habitually out-scoops the US media because they are “anti-American” and Americans aren't easily and readily duped, but merely enthusiastic and optimistic. Until one looks deeper, that is.

Maureen Farrell is good. She reminds me of MediaLens, the British site I keep touting for so eloquently showing the nakedness of our empire. She, too, makes everything come alive, like a Greek tragedy, where you get in your guts the nightmarish scenario that's being presented.

Her piece, that I encourage you to read in its entirety, and the cover story in the May issue of my favorite left publication, The American Prospect, The Most Dangerous President Ever: How and why George W. Bush undermines American security (ditto about reading all of this one), haunt me. It's my this-can't-really-be-happening level of incredulity at the march we are on to hell. Blessings on publisher, Harold Meyerson, author of this piece, who's another person who sounds a consistently clear voice of tell-it-like-it-is outrage:

George W. Bush has been pursuing a reckless, even ridiculous, but always right-wing agenda — shredding a global-security structure at a time requiring unprecedented international integration, shredding a domestic safety net at a time when the private sector provides radically less security than it did a generation ago. No American president has ever played quite so fast and loose with the well-being of the American people.

This is one more good overview to round out this post. Here's a laundry list that Robert Reich wrote up in a facetious end piece to that same May issue of The American Prospect. In The Big Lesson, he has composed a fictional memorandum from Karl Rove to The President, that he sets us with this paragraph:

As the Iraq War winds down, I want to bring to your attention several important lessons. Election day is just 19 months away. While I have the highest respect for your dad, I think it fair to say he squandered his victory in the Gulf War. You do not want to make the same mistake. Take careful note of the following:

I've omitted the explanation he has on each point to just bring you the points themselves:

1. We didn't need the United Nations.

2. We didn't need to show a connection to al-Qaeda.

3. The war distracted the public's attention from our failures on terrorism.

4. The war distracted the public's attention from our failures on the economy.

5. The war revealed the Democrats to be comatose.

6. We split the Jews.

7. The media gave us a free ride.

This is his conclusion:

What do these lessons add up to? You need to continue this war — at least through November 2004.

There's no reason to declare victory just yet. Remember: Iran lies just over Iraq's eastern border; Syria is immediately to the west. These borders are arbitrary anyway, imposed on the Ottoman Empire after World War I. Both Iran and Syria are headed by tyrants and both are dangerous. Iran is close to having a nuclear bomb; Syria sponsors terrorists.

Here's the argument you can make. Our preemptive war with Iraq is really just the first phase of our larger preemptive strategy in the Middle East. In order to stabilize the Middle East, rid it of cruel despots and ensure that terrorists don't get access to WMD, we must move eastward into Tehran and westward into Damascus.

Mr. President, now is your chance. Your dad failed to push into Baghdad, and where did that leave him? Without a job.

By the way, Cheney and Rummy are in full agreement with me. Colin has some reservations but, being the good soldier he is, he's willing to cave (again). Needless to say, the RNC is wildly enthusiastic.

You have only to give the nod and the speech is ready.

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This and That

“What is enlightenment, no, I mean really, like what is it?”

June 11, 2003 admin 62 Comments

Wowee. This is a piece guaranteed to take you somewhere. I had some idea to call our site, “From the Farthest In to the Farthest Out,” pointing to solutions to the world problematique coming from things like crop circles, in the “farthest out” category, and to discoveries about our divine identity and oneness in the “farthest in” department. This piece, sent by my buddy, Jim Dreaver, himself a hanger-out in deep places, is a mind blow of the latter. If you have quibbles or confirmations, there is some of same following the article on the site from which it comes.

What is enlightenment, no, I mean really, like what is it? by Steven Norquist

Many friends and family have been after me for some time to write about my experience and understanding of this topic. I have hesitated to write about it not because enlightenment itself is so hard to describe, but because enlightenment tends to make one quite lazy. Before my change I was a busy beaver, reading and writing and playing music and sports and really actively getting out there. But after the change as I call it, there was a clear vision of how silly all this activity was and how much incredible effort is required to perform it.

But before I get ahead of myself, let me lay out one basic fact: I am awake. I woke up about a year ago. I know what I am, what I have always been and what it is impossible to stop being. Some call this enlightenment or ultimate truth, unity consciousness, infinite mind and so on. But all those names don't tell the non-awake what it is. Even calling it the change is not really accurate because nothing really changed, yet paradoxically, huge change took place. In simple terms I was once Steve living his life but now I am the experience of Steve living his life. It is a shift in perspective. Before this perspective shift occurred I had practiced about three years of medium intensity meditation consisting of some breath watching, a little mantra repetition and some light self inquiry Ramana Maharshi style. These techniques were coupled with an intense desire to find and know the truth. I read everything on enlightenment I could get my hands on.

After about three years of this I had my first experience of nonduality as it is called. I had just read a passage in Ken Wilber's The Spectrum of Consciousness, where he points out that ordinary awareness is ultimate awareness. This struck a chord in me, I set the book down and stared at a paper that was sitting on the table in front of me, after about a minute or two an exciting and frightening thing happened, I disappeared! By that I mean the middle fell right out of the equation. Normally there would be Steve over here, looking at the paper on the desk over there; now there was only the experience, “paper,” but no Steve over here seeing it. It was clear that the middle that normally separated the paper from Steve did not really exist; there was only the experience, “paper.”

Now let me try to make this more clear by giving an illustration.

Imagine as clearly as you can that you enter a large house that you have never been in before. You feel strange and kind of scared, there is furniture and drapes but no people. You wander around feeling the creepiness of being alone in this big house. You go from room to room not knowing what you will find. You start to get nervous and a little fearful being alone in this big house. You wonder how long it has been empty like this. In time the sense of the bigness and emptiness of the house starts to weigh heavily on your nerves. Finally, when you can not stand it any longer a shocking realization occurs to you: you're not there either! only the experience exists.

This is how nonduality feels and is the real truth of existence. Remember the question, “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” Now you know the answer.

You see, with enlightenment comes the knowledge that even though there is much activity in the world, there are no doers. The universe is, in a sense, lifeless. There is no one, only happenings and the experience of happenings. Enlightenment reveals that the universe emerges spontaneously. It's emergence and pattern are perfect in mathematics and symmetry and involve no chance. Nothing is random, everything emerges exactly as it has to. There is no random chance, or evolution based on chance. The universe is perfect, nothing is wrong or could be. There seems to be chance or unpredictability from a human perspective but that is only because our time frame reference cannot see the universe emerge through its whole life span in a matter of minutes. If we could see that, then we would clearly see how every event was not only perfect and necessary but even predictable.

Now let's summarize so far: the universe is perfect, no one exists, yet the experience “universe” persists. How can this be? Consciousness. Consciousness is aware. If it were not there would be no universe. The very nature of existence implies consciousness. One can not exist without the other.

There can never be a universe that does not involve consciousness. There are no universes or dimensions where there is no consciousness. Matter and form would never arise without consciousness. Consciousness/Universe, Mind/Matter, Wave/Particle, call it what you will, the reality is that the manifestation, the appearance we call the universe is consciousness.

Now don't mistake me here, there is no observer. There are no persons in existence experiencing the universe, but more than that there is no ultimate person, God, Mind or anything else observing the universe. There is only the experience of the universe being there with no experiencer.

This seems like a paradox, but who cares, this is the way it is. Experience “is,”that is all; that is the way the universe is, an experience by no one.

The universe spontaneously arises out of consciousness yet at the same time is itself consciousness. We must lose the idea of matter being observed by something we call consciousness, that is not true. Some teachers talk of the Witness, the ultimate passive mind that observes all things moment to moment. This implies some level of separation, a witness over here watching the universe over there. It's not like this; there is only the experience, universe. There is no observer. Even if there were no manifestation the feeling would be the same. once again let me make this clear: Consciousness is not aware of the universe, Consciousness is aware as the universe.

Now don't mistake that last sentence. Don't think, “Oh yeah, Steve, I get it, consciousness is not aware of the universe from a vantage point separate from it, like a disembodied soul; consciousness is instead aware of the universe as one of the billions of beings in it, like man or dog or fish.” No! Such thoughts are false. When I say consciousness is aware as the universe, I mean the very act of existence is consciousness. A carrot is itself consciousness, is itself awareness. There is not carrot aware of itself as carrot, nor disembodied invisible consciousness aware of carrot as carrot; there is only the experience “carrot,” and that is consciousness and that is enlightenment. There is no observer.

Let's talk now about how this fits in with human life. All people who do not know what's going on believe that they are the people that they are, an individual with thoughts and desires and hopes and dreams, a body and a house, a wife and a child. The list goes on, but you get it.

Now the truth. Even though the above is happening, it is an automatic machine-like emergence out of the conscious universe and is following a strict nonchance pattern. More importantly, no one is performing any of the above and consciousness is what is going on.

To make it more clear, stuff is happening but no one is doing it. Emergence proceeds and consciousness is aware. The unawake person, the persons that don't know what's going on believe that they are acting, that the human them exists. The reality is the body exists, the thoughts exist, the memories exist, and that is consciousness, and that is all.

Someone might say consciousness has temporarily mistaken its experience of the body and the body's memories as a person. But even though that answer may seem to explain the why, really there is no mistake at all. Consciousness/Universe has never been confused. The person can fall away at any moment restoring the original state of matter and consciousness, which has never actually been obscured. This happened to me, but in that happening nothing was lost because there never was a me to lose, only a confusion to correct that never existed.

Knowing this, I mean really knowing this, not intellectually, but as a direct experience of everyday life, is enlightenment. Now once this is known it is impossible to go back. once you have drawn the curtain and seen who Oz really is, you can't cover him back up and pretend not to know the truth.

So how do we proceed once we know? We let experience manifest unmolested. As has been said, the universe is perfect, intervene at your peril. The enlightened person never acts. This is the riddle of karma solved; there is no karma, never was, never could be. There is no reincarnation. How could there be? Who is there to reincarnate? There are no persons, there is no birth or death, there is ultimately nothing except manifestation/awareness.

99.999% of the spiritual books and teachers out there are completely wrong. They are wrong for one simple reason — they are not enlightened, they don't know what's going on. So in order to keep the illusion of personality, of the idea that there is something or someone, they invent stories, or theories, or ideas, wear special clothes, perform certain rituals and so on. They teach this stuff. But the truth is so simple it is laughable.

Now let me make a clear distinction on one point: mystical experience is not enlightenment. You may have mystical experience, see God, get abducted by aliens, receive messages from an angel, contact your spirit guides — the list could go on. But always and forever, no matter what is going on, the truth is every experience, mystical or ordinary is a happening of Universe/Consciousness.

If I could teach the world a lesson it would be, no matter what you experience always remind yourself, “There is no experiencer, there is no observer.” If you do this long enough and often enough you will one day know what's going on. When that day comes you will realize nothing has changed, yet everything has changed. It is a feeling and a knowing. An inescapable falling away of untruth. If you think you know it then you don't. When you know it, you do. And when you do know it no one can take it away from you.

Some points to clear up. When I said the enlightened person never acts I did not mean such people sit in a cave and die of starvation and exposure. I mean the body can be quite active and manifest all manner of good and bad behavior, the mind can be racing with thoughts and feelings, but consciousness, now enlightened, knows no one is acting. It is only the universe blossoming forth spontaneously and perfectly.

As consciousness you are more aware of the feelings of the body, physically and emotionally. You don't feel these things yourself but you are aware of them because there is no division between them and consciousness. Remember the formula: U=C. Also the thing we call personality or ego does not totally vanish. It remains intact along with the body. It behaves and interacts and changes over time like any person would, but the enlightened one knows they are not that ego.

Some schools emphasize the destruction of the ego as the only means of liberation. All that is really required is the realization that you are not that ego. That the ego really doesn't exist is an illusion of sorts that can be left to its own designs. It's not really there, but it appears to be there and that is just fine, don't worry. If the ego begins to fade that's ok. Remember, there is no experiencer.

Let me talk briefly about practice. Meditation and book study are useful and can ripen an individual towards awakening, but the most important thing is to change your perspective. You must learn to see what is really going on. Understand, in reality everyone is enlightened, but not everyone knows how to perceive this. The reason is enlightenment is so natural, so obvious, that from birth we have become accustomed to ignoring it in preference to anything else that manifests. Mediation can train you to still the mind and gain concentration but it will not give you enlightenment. A radical shift in perspective must occur; the habitual focus of your awareness and your way of perceiving must be changed.

Study of books will not get you there; you need a shock. The easiest way I know is for an enlightened person to talk you into this perspective shift. The best books I read were the ones that talked you into enlightenment. Feeling experiments, such as the house scenario above, are good to help evoke the feeling of enlightenment. Feel what it is like to not be there. The real breakthrough will come when you feel the truth.

It's creepy, not blissful or ecstatic. It should scare you; the body should react defensively, or there could be uncontrolled laughter at how stupid you have been for so long. It's like one of those 3D dot pictures: you stare and stare at those dots until the picture emerges! After that, you can always see it, you can't unlearn it. The same with enlightenment.

Basically any practice that can shock you into seeing what is really going on is acceptable. But understand, you want to know what's really going on, to feel it, to contact reality. It shouldn't take long, a few years at most, less for some. If a practice or a teacher tells you it will take 10 or 20 years, find a new practice or teacher. Remember you are your own salvation; ultimately it is you who will wake you up. Any method that can shock you into seeing what is really going on is acceptable but the perspective shift must occur.

Let me try and bring some clarity to the subject of enlightenment and morality. It has been said that enlightenment produces compassion and love and that many enlightened ones forgo release into nirvana and reincarnate again and again until all souls have obtained enlightenment — the bodhisattva vow and such. None of this is enlightenment. Enlightenment is not about morality or vows; it is simply existence in the truth, that is all.

Enlightenment carries no requirements and expects nothing; the universe manifests and just that is enlightenment. We don't seek enlightenment to be happy or to give our lives meaning or to feel bliss or ecstasy. Loyalty to a flag is not enlightenment, love is not enlightenment, hate is not enlightenment. If you see these things as the fruit of enlightenment, then you are wrong. Instead each of these are enlightenment themselves. Each of these are spontaneous emergences out of and as consciousness. Action, feeling, creation, performance, love, hate, murder, salvation, compassion, each is enlightenment itself. There is no doer, no experiencer, only manifestation. This is the truth, this is enlightenment.

I want you to understand that while nothing ultimately changes, in human terms much change takes place. This happens because once you recognize what's going on the main motivations of life begin to drop away. The level of dropping away is no doubt unique to the individual but is directly proportional to how much you desire to resolve into reality. What I mean is that it is possible to be enlightened and still try to retain a level of unconsciousness in order to interact in human affairs. As time passes this state will be harder to maintain.

It is similar to suspending your belief when watching a movie. You pretend to believe the reality of what is going on. You cry with the characters, you laugh with them, you hope with them, etc. You do this for the entertainment, to get your money's worth. This is the way real life is with enlightenment. You know there really is no one. You know that it is just a display, a machine-like emergence out of and as consciousness. Yet you must believe it at some level or you will simply lose the ability to interact in the world.

I can see why some enlightened ones have isolated themselves or become hermits. For the last year this has been an issue I personally have struggled with. How to know the truth and continue to interact with the world as if you believe it. You basically have to employ a little Orwellian 1984 doublethink. You have to pretend to believe while always knowing the truth. Some things are unavoidable of course — I was an avid reader but now can barely open up a book. I loved and played the guitar for years but now have zero interest in picking one up. Even writing these few words is a colossal effort. The reason is that deliberate effort is an affront to reality where nothing is deliberate, everything is spontaneous, and nothing at all is going on.

Don't mistake me here, I have not invented a rule of behavior where I have decided I must act less because to do otherwise would be an affront to reality; rather, the natural outcome of enlightenment is less and less action, less and less thought. This is a natural development within the enlightened person. Eventually all action will be spontaneous and the person will not be acting.

Of course to say this is not ultimately true, because in reality no one ever acts. But from the human vantage point this is how it plays out. Memory is also a tricky thing; the memories of your life are still there and can be jogged into awareness, but, as time progresses and enlightenment begins to dissolve you, your access to them becomes more difficult. Your awareness becomes centered in the events of the present as they manifest; this is natural since these are the only events that actually exist. The person and the ego are simply dissolving. They don't really exist but the illusion that they do becomes less a part of awareness. You don't remember and you don't care.

Let me make a point about Zen breath watching. Most people just don't get it and most Zen schools don't make it any easier for students to get it. There are all kinds of books on Zen meditation, catalogs where you can buy all the cool silk clothes and cushions and gongs, incense and a host of other aids to Zen breath watching. But once you have all that stuff and finally sit your butt down, close your eyes and start watching your breath, what exactly are you doing? Why are you doing that? I ask people this all the time and really piss them off: why do you meditate? What are you trying to accomplish? Why do you watch your breath? I have never met anyone that has given me the correct answer.

The reason they don't know is because they are not enlightened. If they were, then they might not even meditate anymore, or they might; it would make no difference. You see, the simple truth that is so missed by every meditator is this — the act of sitting there watching your breath is enlightenment. That is all. You are not doing something to gain something, just sitting there is enlightenment. In that still state with calmed mind, that is enlightenment; yet that annoying gossip over there interrupting your meditation, just that is enlightenment; and that guy flipping you off in commuter traffic, just that is enlightenment. There is no doer, no experiencer, no one who acts. Manifestation emerges, actless, mindless and just that is enlightenment.

People meditate today because it is popular or because they want to have a mystical experience or just relax. The latter reason may actually be the most legitimate for the average person. But no one I know says they meditate because they are deliberately engaging in an actless act, or attempting to resolve a false sense of being into a beingless existence. And of the many meditators out there, I suspect that the majority would be shocked if I told them the guy flipping them off in traffic is more enlightened than they.

The point I'm trying to make and have been trying to make is that enlightenment is so natural and so easy that any attempt at deliberate practice towards it will get you farther from it; yet, paradoxically, you have never once not been enlightened and no matter how strained and deliberate your efforts towards it, you never once acted!

So, in closing, Enlightenment can be talked about, it can be understood, it is not mysterious nor does it need to be cloaked in a secret boys only club language. Enlightenment is the feeling/knowing that no one exists including you and that everything that happens does so spontaneously and perfectly. Enlightenment is the feeling/knowing that what exists is consciousness/universe; they are the same, C=U. Existence is itself consciousness and that is why there is something rather than nothing. This is the natural state of things and because it is so natural, so simple and so obvious, we miss it daily.

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