WHERE IS ONENESS? Questioner: I’m told by teachers in books and meetings that Oneness is all there is. Can you please say something about this? Nic: What are you hoping to get from an answer to this question? Questioner: I don’t know really. Clarity and a sense of truth, I guess. Nic: What isn’t clear and true here, right now? Questioner: I feel confused, that there’s something I need to work out or understand. So my confusion isn’t clear and my lack of understanding prevents me from knowing a higher truth. Nic: What is this higher truth? How do you know there is a high truth? Questioner: Because I am told that how I see the world is inaccurate. My thinking is cloudy. And I have a sense that there is something else out there. Something pure and true. I want to fully embody and live that. Nic: Where is that higher “something else”? Questioner: I don’t know. That’s what I am confused about! Nic: But you have a sense that such a thing exists? Questioner: What I read and hear from non-dual teachers resonates with me very deeply. Nic: What is this resonance? Questioner: Something beyond the words strikes something in me. It feels like love. Beyond thinking and intellectualisation. It feels like home; as if I am being called back to rest and belonging. An intellectual understanding isn’t it. I want more than that. Nic: And you want a map to help guide you back to this place of rest and belonging? Questioner: Yes, that’s it! I don’t have a map and I feel I need one. Until I have a map, all I can do is listen to all these wonderful but second-hand descriptions about Oneness that are full of promise and hope. And yes, these descriptions resonate but I feel that what they point to is out of reach. It feels like not being able to recall a certain word. It’s on the tip of your tongue but for whatever reason you can’t quite get to it. It’s frustrating because I feel as if I am almost there. Nic: You feel that home is very close, yet out of reach? Questioner: Yes. I want to be part of Oneness. To return to my true home. It’s confusing, frustrating and quite sad. Nic: And this, here and now isn’t home, isn’t Oneness? Confusion, frustration and sadness aren’t expressions of Oneness. Questioner: Well, they must be if Oneness – home – is all there is. Nic: But logic doesn’t scratch your itch sufficiently. It can’t. The mind, which employs judgment and reason and creates distinction, can’t provide the map you’re looking for. The mind, which is thought, can’t comprehend Oneness. How could it? Thought is an unreliable means of navigation in some ways. Thought is incredibly creative and extraordinary, but it can’t completely unveil the home you’ve never left, the home that you are. It can’t successfully capture the fullness of you. Questioner: So what can? Nic: Again, thought concludes by means of logic: so if thought is not the tool, then what is? Do you see that? Questioner: Yes, I see that. Nic: By exposing the limited mind-mechanisms, the light of insight shines through the cracks in the apparent obscuration. Honest, open inquiry and observation bring this illuminating insight. Questioner: Will they provide the map to home? Nic: No, they don’t provide a map. You don’t need a map to give you a faultless route from here to here. Inquiry and observation - and a good helping of willingness and patience - reveal the cracks, the holes in the apparent obscuration which is distraction from the obvious. Built into the human condition is a blind tendency to overlook the obvious. Clarity comes from wisdom and inquiry is the vehicle. Love is the ignition. Questioner: I feel the love as you speak now. Nic: Then allow it to light you up; to burn away that which distracts you from the home that you are. Let it ignite the fire of curiosity and fascination with this timeless moment. Questioner: But what distracts me? Nic: The compelling and unquestioned ideas and beliefs you hold to be true. They’re full of holes, though. They cannot hold any water and so you inevitably feel a lack, a gaping hole in your life and you attempt to fill it with more conclusions which you think will bring about the stability and wholeness you think you need. Empty the mind. Start afresh. Start here and now. Thought continues but you don’t invest in it. It serves its purpose but it doesn’t convince you. It’s innocent and it tries its best to help you and in many ways it does: it keeps the body alive which is of relative importance. It just can’t see beyond the body. Thought creates life in its own image. Let the blinkers that seem to restrict your view fall away. Be willing to let them go. Be willing to be without a map or guide and clarity will emerge naturally. You were asking about truth earlier. Questioner: Yes. The truth seems to be revealed now by your words. But will it last? Nic: Do you mean will you remember these words? Questioner: I guess so. When I go about my everyday life I might forget this truth and get lost again. Nic: Then forget these words: they are of no importance. The words aren’t truth. These words don’t carry anything but the meaning you ascribe to them. When they are spoken they dissolve. They float away like sand seeping from your tight fist. Release your grip and let it go. Questioner: Then what is truth? Where is it? Nic: You are assuming that there is a higher truth beyond this moment; a truth higher than now. There is no higher truth beyond this timeless moment. Truth is this, here and now. Questioner: But outside of thought? Nic: Regardless of thought. Despite appearance. Questioner: My experience rarely feels good enough. Nic: That’s what thought would have you believe, that this moment has to feel a certain way. But ephemeral experience isn’t what you truly desire. No experience will ultimately satisfy your thirst. Questioner: So how do I stop thought if thought is the problem? Nic: It’s not possible to stop thought and anyway, stopping thought is not required. Exposing and observing thought’s restrictive and limited nature is all that’s required. Let it play on. Thought isn’t a problem; it just doesn’t know much! Inquire into this for a moment: is there a thinker? Questioner: There seems to be. But when I really look, I can only find thought itself, not someone thinking the thoughts. They come from nowhere then disappear. Nic: Exactly! It’s not even true to say that thought has a mind of its own, although it seems that way. It’s just energy dancing. That’s all we can say about it really. Thought can’t know itself. Thought may obscure things but it cannot ever affect or tarnish what you are: home. Clarity itself. Nic Higham.....
Posted on: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 04:02:23 +0000
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