Audio blog – we are seeking in spirituality with the root idea we have about ourselves still in-tact and unquestioned. We believe we are something which began, in other words an independent and finite existence. Instead of looking for some benefit for that entity we must question the entity itself and see if it’s true.
Talk with Randall in Second Life on 3/17/2011. Randall talks about the ideas we have and hold closely, refusing to dig into – the very ideas about reality and our own existence.
Talk with Randall in Second Life on 2/24/2011. Randall talks about the absolute nature of existence and points out that this is what you are.
Talk with Randall in Second Life – Randall talks about pointers and challenges – pointing to that ineffable presence of “I” – the present capacity of knowing – through neti-neti eliminating all that is not-”I” and coming to the invariable and limitless presence of “I”. The challenge that is presented is the idea of being an entity looking through eyes at a world outside of yourself, a brain that receives second-hand data and paints a picture, a representation of the world. Can you know that picture? Are you in the brain looking at the picture? Randall wraps it up with the realization that existence does not belong to appearance – appearance belongs to existence. The means of measurement dictate the appearance of existence. When the means changes the appearance changes. Any appearance along with it’s parallel means of knowing is always relative. Without any means, what IS can only be called “absolute”. What IS without any relative or limited means of measurement. That “absolute” is truly the nature of existence itself, form-less, limitless.
The “absolute” and the “I” are one and the same.
Audio blog entry – Randall talks about what nonduality truly means – no separation or independence of existence. This honors the world as appearance yet points out that existence does not belong to the world, the world belongs to existence. The world is a play of existence, one essence, one intelligence. The podcast features some Chopin and also a bit from Rumi.
Talk with Randall in Second Life. Randall discusses the idea that you are a separate existence and unfolds the nature of the subject-”I” as well as the appearance of the world. This podcast has a little music along with segments from “Sailor” Bob Adamson, Alan Watts, and Walt Whitman.
Talk with Randall in Second Life on 1/20/2011. Randall talks about the falseness of separated existences and points out that the mature spiritual search is a direct look into that idea of existence itself – the idea you have about yourself. Existence is always given to form – when form changes we assume existence is somehow changing. But is it true? This is a direct challenge to the idea of myself as a separate existence.
All meetings end in dancing – the message is ultimately about celebration – about the absence of conditions. Each meeting ends with the dancing which symbolically points to the end of seeking and the realization that there is one whole reality, expressing in infinite ways, including dancing.
Talk with Randall in Second Life. Randall unfolds appearance as always dependent on the means of measurement or knowing – that what appears is not a separate existence of itself but is THAT existence which alone IS. That which exists appears in an infinite display called the universe – available to know via a particular means of knowledge. As the means of measurement changes the appearance changes, yet that existence never ceases to be. What changes is not real in itself – this is the meaning of no separate existence. What exists never comes and goes, does not come into existence on it’s own and that existence does not end when the means of measurement ends.
Talk with Randall in Second Life on January 6, 2011. As usual the talk pointed out the ineffable quality of the subject-”I”, always present and invariable while what appears comes and goes. Identification is investigated, noticed and ultimately seen as false. This was another marathon meeting, over 2 hours.
Talk with Randall in Second Life – the pot is made of clay, a form of clay. “Pot” really speaking is then only a concept, only a mental category – pot really does not exist anywhere other than mind. If you touch pot, you touch clay. If you see pot, you are looking at clay. In the same way, Vedanta says the world of forms is nothing but a concept not truly in existence anywhere other than mind. The essence of the world is the cause – the form is only a relative appearance which is not an independent cause or existence. If that form changes, as it always does, nothing happens to the essence.
Randall discusses the more traditional teachings of Vedanta and the concept of mithyA – that which comes and goes holds no absolute reality or existence apart from concepts. That “I” which is the subject requires no concept – it is the capacity of knowing what IS – and what IS is not other than the knowing itself, so to speak.
A bit of music is added in for pause. Happy New Year, whatever that means.
