Unconditional Peace,
Truth Beyond Spirituality
&
What-Is-Not-Something
by Gavin Bowes
(open)
:: Preamble ::
This is for the awakening of human consciousness. Seekers look for enlightenment, but finders invariably discover truth. Truth turns out to be simultaneously heavenly and not entirely special, the most precious thing in the world. There are many versions of the truth of Life, God or The Universe, but truth itself, version-less and incapable of systematic or conceptual capture, is never known, never understood, only realized, in consciousness. Where consciousness is, truth is.
When a person looks for spiritual or religious truth, they learn and practice a spiritual system. But when a person touches living truth, which does not cancel any other truth, but encompasses them all, they learn to BE. Being is realized in consciousness. This Being, our truest self, is inherently at peace, with God, in union, liberated, and awake, but it's not what we think, and it's far too simple to ever be explained. If you want peace, find this field of awareness,
in you. It's the simplest thing going on in this moment, and is itself the utter truth of life, whether you or I or anyone else believes it or likes it or not. But I can't tell you any of this. The nature of realization is that we have to SEE - for ourselves.
Learn to inquire, on your own authority, into the truth of life in this moment. Learn to look past all thought, even thought-of-no-thought, and BE quiet. Then see, in your actual experience, what arises in that quiet. Experience it fully. Let it penetrate you. Remain still and inquire: "What is the difference between the reality of the actual occurrences in this moment and the reality of thoughts?" That is the beginning, that is the door to realizing Being.
The passages in this book are hopefully helpful musings, instructions, poems and the like, in no particular order. If they resonate or vibrate or otherwise reflect what you know is true, then forget the words and attend to that truth. Enjoy. Love, Gavin
bb
only you can see
the struggle is creating the struggle.
cancel this equation now.
at last, the spiritual search is a dead end.
it only brings you peace when you finally quit it.
meanwhile, the jaws of all who realize truth-of-being
drop and utter this phrase:
"oh my god
in this moment
it's not what i see that's beautiful
it's that i see that's beautiful".
notice that it's impossible to be alive in the future.
the person acts for the sake of an outcome.
consciousness is, before and after all outcomes.
as long as you are alive in this body,
both the person and the consciousness will be here.
you can create nearly any outcome you wish,
but only consciousness is what is beyond all outcomes.
to look upon the full moon is to REALIZE,
but a forest obscures the sky.
go to the meadow and be quiet.
no more talk of enlightenment.
- and -
truth is real
but enlightenment is a ruse.
when do you think it's going to happen?
attend to life-as-it-is in this moment
and see if anything is left of enlightenment.
when we look for
god/enlightenment/freedom/peace/heaven/salvation,
we are looking for something, so the search fails.
when we look for truth itself, beyond all of these ideas,
we discover what-is-not-something,
and then the search can succeed.
to find truth,
become intimate with what-is-not-something.
similarly:
all belief requires something (a story, a god, a value system)
to believe in,
but truth itself arises in what-is-not-something.
see how truth cannot be believed in.
see how spiritual and religious paths cannot BE it.
all beliefs are based on something, a point of view.
but who in you sees these points of view?
what is the fundamental point of view?
i am pointing at Being.
to realize it, look in yourself, at what-is-not-something.
the one who does not realize
that attention determines experience
is asleep
and dreams a rag doll's life,
haphazardly winning and losing, looking for luck,
without seeing.
the one who realizes
understands that it is not luck, but choice
and the world of possibility appears.
the one who masters the conscious direction of attention
transcends even this understanding
and actually possesses, in this moment,
the life of real possibility.
taught the true teacher of the unconditional self:
"look at awareness now and see:
the question is the answer
there is nothing to solve
that was the only problem."
there is no "non-spiritual" thing, and no "spiritual" thing.
Truth encompasses ALL.
don't look above, beyond or separately from ego, thought or the animal-self, but at what contains all of these things.
it is here!
quit harvesting stones.
what is simpler than all things?
spiritual seekers, quit looking for fireworks.
realization is whatever it is.
it is not your imagination of bliss.
it is not your imagination of anything.
a seeker can't stop looking.
finders of truth get bliss and promise out of their heads
those who find quit looking, and can finally see.
those who do, know peace.
so many people who are looking for peace seem stuck in spirituality. consider that any system-of-thought which purports to be the truth is dangerous and that any system-of-thought which actually seems to be the truth is even more dangerous. dangerous because it takes you away from your own reckoning with self and life and instead plants you on a fixed course of understanding and action. can any such course lead to truth? is there a fixed truth to discover?! or is truth something alive, in this moment? all the saints, gurus and teachers whose books we've read, words we've repeated and statues we've bowed to - were any of them following a handed-down spiritual understanding or routine?! or were they inquiring into and SEEING truth for themselves?! can you discover truth through knowledge, or by following the ways and actions of another, even of a saint? ask this. love and practice your spirituality deeply, but see also that it is a system-of-thought. to know Living Truth, learn also to be quieter than any system-of-thought, to surrender to what-is-not-knowledge, so you can SEE, for yourself. that is the way of truth-beyond-spirituality. you can't make a path of it.
the obstacles to realization-of-being do not exist, for
there is only one.
whether fear is surrendered to, or fought against
whether resistance is resisted
whether pain is allowed or denied
whether awkwardness is accepted or rejected
whether emotion is allowed or resisted in the body
whether ego is transcended, or fed
whether control is clung to or relinquished
none of these things matter!
there is only one obstacle to realization.
and it disappears in consciousness.
we want the world to be good
but the world is
what the world is.
be good if you want,
but surrender to what-is.
the last no-battle is with resistance.
when there is no struggle with struggle,
there is nothing left to happen.
the end of the war is no one left willing to fight.
in your mind and heart, you have all kinds of desires,
things you want to happen in life.
but first just be quiet.
the true fulfillment of your desires depends on it.
somehow, freedom is
not to become better, healthier, more successful or happier, but to finally end the struggle of needing to become anything at all.
in a moment free of all petitioning in yourself,
free of needing to move, grow, change or be different,
you live unburdened.
why not this moment?
when imperfection itself is seen to be perfect,
a cancellation occurs.
what is left?
your mind is contextualizing reality,
assigning titles and definitions.
have you contemplated:
"what is this reality that my mind does all of that to?"
presence is an exercise.
it's something that comes and goes,
something that is had and lost.
truth is not an exercise.
it does not come and go,
it is not had and lost.
what is, whether you are 'present' or not?
you have to be present to consider it.
a thousand people see the symphony
everyone hears the oboe
who is empty enough to be filled by it?
any written or spoken truth is not truth.
as human beings, we do not know the truth of existence.
we are not clumsy or stupid,
we simply do not know the truth of existence.
so who are we to argue about god?
who are we to try to convince each other of the truth of life and the universe?
we do not even know, finally, who or what we are.
let's find this out first - who are we?
when we see it together, we will not want nearly as much
to argue and convince.
truth cannot be 'known', as knowledge.
meditate on this and see what comes.
what IS in this moment, prior to all your knowledge?
if you want peace, find this.
come away from knowledge.
to do that, learn to rest in something other than thought.
in this life, we look for peace in a thousand ways
but here in our very being is where it is, already ongoing.
before you look for the next bit of peace in your life,
look in the field of awareness at Being, which is going on at all times, in this moment.
a fundamental god-peace exists there,
but it is not your concept of god or peace,
it's simply that-in-which-we-are-alive.
to know this essential and innate self is to know peace without condition, the unconditional peace, the supreme joy and rightness with life.
direct your awareness to Being, and unhook this experience from any religious, philosophical or spiritual reference, from any reference at all, and experience it only for what it is. you will see Life's Truth, no matter what you do or do not believe.
now is, at all times, in this moment.
this Being is going on now, in your awareness.
continually attend to the reality of this, prior to thought, image or concept.
SEE what is there. that is the way.
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