Thoughts or feelings may try to come up (and it may seem as if these thoughts or feelings are coming from a “you,” but they are not—because the only Self or “You” is Pure Awareness Itself.) For example, a thought may try to say, “This is all just a lot of words.” But is It Awareness saying that? Is It doubting Its own Presence?
Other thoughts may seem to come, such as, “It’s hopeless because suffering has been going on for such a long time. I have this long history of feeling intensely for those who appear to suffer, or I have suffered myself. I have this clinging habit—of being sensitive to suffering; it’s a part of me.”
Total rubbish. And actually, to Present Awareness, no such thing ever occurred, not even as rubbish. Why?
Look again, as Pure Present Awareness. In or AS this Present-ness, is there any such thing as history? AS THE PRESENT, is there any evidence, even the slightest, that there was a long time “back there” where a hard-to-break habit developed? No. To Present Awareness, there is ONLY Present-ness. Again, Awareness Itself does not think, or sense or feel emotions. It does not experience past or future—thus cannot think in such terms.
The only thing trying to say there was a long time back there would be a mere un-aware thought that tries to arise right now. And the so-called “past” is not back there, it’s not past—for all of it would be just a current thought seeming to arise right now for the first time ever. That’s the only place the entirety of “a past” can be found.
Go ahead, look into that thought. It may be an image of a place, an image of a body—and there may be feelings associated with those images. The entire thing, the whole so-called package or panorama is found only in, or as this thought. Try to find more of it separate from the very thinking of it. You can’t. There never is the thought of a situation–only the thought as the situation—because that “situation” has absolutely no other presence or existence apart from that mere thought! But in order to entertain even this thought, or to “suffer it” there first would have to be an ignoring of this effortlessly present Pure Awareness.
From CIA p. 231:
Mistaken human belief would try to say there are both that current thinking of a past and the other “real” past—the one that occurred in a physical world at a previous time. Why is that not true? Because, again, absolutely all there is, is Consciousness—which precludes there being any physical world. And the fact that Consciousness, All, is changelessly Present only, precludes there being any previous time.
The would-be ignorant “sense-mind” doesn’t realize that its “world” never is a separate physical world, but just its own dream-like thought. So all that the entire so-called past ever could have been “made out of” is thought. And when you examine it closely, you see the shocking truth—that dream-thought never is something that occurred “way back then”—for the entirety of it is being mentally projected just now!
Go ahead, try as hard as you can to come up with a little bit of a “past,” or a whole lot of it, in some place other than the current thought of it. It’s impossible.
The beauty of It is, as Pure Awareness, You actually never ignore Yourself to go on a time-thinking binge —and there is no other being present or aware.
Even the thought that Present Awareness has existed or been present before…even that would be just a thought trying to arise now. Not even Present Awareness has existed before—because where Present-ness is All and doesn’t change, there is no “before”! So there is absolutely NO history of anything! None. That means no history of ANY suffering, or any “body” prone to feel a lot of suffering! To this Pure Present Self, no such thing ever occurred.
As Present-ness, You are utterly Pure, and incapable of co-existing with, or “knowing” any suffering. Why? Because all would-be suffering requires time, and to this Pure unchanging Present-ness, a previous time never has occurred, thus suffering never has occurred.
As Pure Present-ness isn’t even a nanosecond old, It has had no prior experience, thus doesn’t “know” anything at all—so It certainly doesn’t know suffering. THIS is You! This history-less clean slate is all that is present!
On the same basis, as Pure Present-ness, You never are waiting for a seeming situation of “suffering” to ease or diminish, to finally dissolve. Why? To Pure Present-ness wherein nothing has happened before–You cannot wait for a dissolving of something that never even happened! The very notion that something did happen, and now hopefully will dissolve, still would be more mere thought–a thought seemingly arising just now for the first “time” ever. Don’t fall for it!
And even if it temporarily still appears as if pictures of suffering, and thoughts and feelings of suffering continue trying to “knock at the door”—stand your ground as Pure Present-ness. One has to. Why? In the first place, this is where the Present’s “ground” is eternally “stood” and there is no other. Again, this Life here is 100% that of the Pure Present, Awareness Itself.
Does it seem as if this website is relentless about this? Well…isn’t the Present relentless in being present?
Truth, Life, is this alive being that Pure Awareness, Pure Alive Presence is. It is now actually aware-ing—not thinking about Its Awareness. One is “alive-ly being” Oneself, not merely thinking thoughts about “a” Self.
Emotions and feelings seem to “run deeper” than thinking, or be more “visceral,” so mere thinking about Present Awareness will not cause them to fully dissolve. Nor does it do any good to try to “get rid of” feelings.
Only functioning as Alive NOWNESS, Pure Alive Presence, seems to dissolve such feelings. Why? Because Alive Nowness is the only One existing here, now, and this is what IT is “doing” or being. It is not feeling emotions of suffering. It is “aware-ing,” “Now-ing.”
Feelings would be mere impersonal vibration—and they seem to continue as long as there seems to be a “resonation” with them—either a resonation of unwittingly accepting them as “mine,” or a resonation of trying to oppose them. Either way is based on the mistaken assumption that something besides the unchanging Pure Present Itself is present—and to claim or oppose is continuing the assumption. Again, can the All-Present Present assume something besides Itself? No, there is nothing present besides Present-ness Itself that could be assumed! This clarity, being This, instantly stops all the run-on thinking/assuming dead in its tracks.
When seemingly on the level of the would-be “mind,” when merely thinking about Awareness, the Present, there always will be a dualistic or binary (two) opposite: un-Awareness, non-Presence, etc. But when consciously, unthinkingly being Awareness, the Present, Pure Being, there is no opposite. Only THIS is. Only THIS has or is Presence, and the seeming other has no permanent presence, which is why it “seems” to dissolve.
The Present Itself, this very Pure Being Itself, DOES NOT RESONATE. It would take time to have resonation, vibration, and in Pure Being, in Now-You, there is no time. Resonation seems to happen at a certain frequency or with a certain frequentness—and Being has no frequency. Why? Being is not frequent. Being IS. In Truth, Changeless Reality, You do not resonate with anything because You, Infinite Alive Being, are ALL—and there is nothing besides the Purity of this Being that It could resonate with.
Be clear right now, AS NOW. To this thought-less, wordless Present-ness, there is only Present-ness. There is not also present something called “several days ago” when a “Jean” made a comment about suffering. Only if Present-ness is ignored, could there seem to be such a thought. Is there present NOW a so-called “Peter” that replied seemingly even “a few minutes ago”? To have any of that, too, and the entire seeming “background” of the entire history of planetary suffering would require first ignoring the Present in favor of such thoughts. But the Present cannot ignore Itself. And even if it seemed to happen, at most it would be only a dream-like thought, trying to arise now for the first time ever.
To this Present Self, there simply is no background of time, no accumulation of a past in which anything occurred before in a certain way, and thus must continue. None at all!
This utterly history-less Life present NOW is permanently a brand new, clean slate! All That Is, is a permanently brand new clean slate! You are absolutely without any prior mental or emotional baggage! None!
What is THIS?!
Ease back into, or AS, the clean, clear Present, and enjoy how unlabored and baggage-free You are. Notice that, the less effort is made, the more light and alive it seems You are. This is not done as “another” that is turning to “a” Present—but because the FULLNESS of this Pure Life is the only You NOW and It cannot be otherwise for Eternity.
Get “lost” in how easy It is, and in how inescapably easy It is, to simply be present! Sink, sink into the Divine Quicksand of the Infinite Ease You are.
Again, as THIS is all that is present and never, never, never can change—what is this brand-new Fantastic-ness that You are?
As said before, as Pure Present-ness, having NO prior existence or experience, You don’t “know” anything! You don’t even “know” what Present-ness is, because It hasn’t been before in order be able to know It! Yet here It is, unfailingly alive.
Every “moment” of Life, You are “a total surprise to yourself” thanks to this Never-been-before-ness of Life that You are. And It cannot be shut off, avoided, or put aside! WHAT IS THIS?!
Don’t try to mentally grasp what You are, because You are That which doesn’t want to be grasped!
A thought may come, “This is wonderful…but what about being compassionate?”
This Self-Honesty is truly being as “compassionate” as ONE can be. Why?
It leaves only utterly fresh, pure, untainted LIFE as the entirety of what exists! This history-less Alive Awareness is the only Substance existent. All exists Here. Functioning as this Aware Purity simply does not allow a dream pattern of suffering to pretend its presence, nor any of the sufferers that appear in that dream. It may sound surprising, but this All-New Reality leaves no such thing as ever having occurred and this open Freedom is as “compassionate” as can be.
What could be more “caring” more “loving” than having the entirety of Existence be that of absolutely Pure, Perfect, un-aged LIFE?! Again, as the Present Itself, You literally are being This. And This is the only “Substance” existent now and eternally so.
It even may appear “outwardly” that one does things with the body to help others—to offer kind words, or to assist in other ways. So what?
All that counts is where one is “inwardly.” Inwardly, You “stay consciously busy” as the Pure Present, Pure Alive Presence, simply not ignoring or denying this history-less Alive Self that effortlessly IS. As long as You are clear and “busy being” this ease of Pure Present Awareness, what You truly are, it makes no difference what the body appears to do, for that “doing” never alters the Presence of Pure Awareness, or makes It less than Totally Present.
It’s worth repeating: if one were to talk about appearances, it seems that some teachings unwittingly acknowledge that there is suffering. It is taught that there could be an end of suffering, or that there should be an end of suffering. Then it may even be said that there has been an end of suffering. Of course, all of this contributes to the false belief that there can BE suffering.
All of it mistakenly implies that the Unchanging Total Present lapsed, and that suffering actually began; that it started “back there” in a past. Again, this always would be merely a “current thought” and a complete, total denial of Present Awareness—the only Presence, Self, and Power there is. And yet, to the Present Itself, not even that is really possible.
As long as the “goal” is an end of suffering, there never will be an end of suffering. Why? Because that is actually perpetuating the very thing that seemingly allowed it to occur—an ignorance of simple Present Awareness! To assume suffering can be ended, is to already be caught because one has already assumed suffering began in a “time before”—which it didn’t. This would be in ignore-ance of Present Awareness, assuming It is not changelessly all-present—which It is!
Again, isn’t it great that, this Present Awareness truly being the only Self, ALL PRESENCE, means there hasn’t been a past in which there could be mistaken teachings. In this inescapably present Present, there hasn’t been even a nanosecond of a past in which there was a “separate you” who wasn’t being THIS. Who could do such a thing—the Absolute Present Itself being ALL?