Always and already
- The contents of consciousness, the third-person objective view, are arising and falling away on their own.
- The clarity and stillness of the context of consciousness, the first-person subjective view, is always and already here and now.
- Not “Find and rest in the View”, but “Realise there is only the View.”
- Bright, luminous, open.
- Too close, too accessible, too present, and too simple.
- Movement and thought occurs in the content, not the context.
- Including seeking.
- Including “I’ve got it!”
- Including “I’m not getting it!”
- Just leave everything in its place.
- Everything is included (in Reality). The context. The contents, including seeking.
- We are not doing in the world. The world is doing us, like it does trees, clouds.
- The noticing of and from the context can, might, affect the contents.
- The play and dance of the contents doesn’t affect the context.
Gathered notes
- Always and already here.
- The clarity and stillness of the context of consciousness, the first-person subjective view, is always and already here.
- Always and already here, but temporarily concealed.
- The contents of consciousness, of the third-person objective view, are arising and falling away on their own.
- Close, on the surface, easy, obvious.
- Looking for it means overlooking it.
- Like looking for things that weren’t really lost, like glasses on your head or keys on the table.
- Like making a tightly clenched fist that hurts your hard.
- Progress is an illusion.
- “I’m not getting it” is the same as “I’ve got it!”
- Measuring progress is a great way to avoid being present here and now.
- “This isn’t it” is just a thought. A seductive, hypnotic, one! But just a thought. Notice that.
- Give up, let go, rest.
- Just leave everything in its place.
- Give up the fight. Put it down. Leave it there.
Scribbled notes
(With bits from some recent Henry Shukman and Joan Tollifson posts)
- Other things that have that dis-covered-ness
- The sun behind the clouds
- A dirty mirror
- Looking for things that weren’t really lost, like glasses on your head or keys on the table
- Closing the curtains during the daytime
- Closing your eyes, but the world is still there
- Making a tightly clenched fist that hurts your hard
- Rough ocean surface, but underneath it’s calm
When there’s a problem
- Is it really a problem? What happens when you stop framing it as a problem?
- Stop doing the thing that’s making the problem.
Peace
- Long-term peace doesn’t come from fixing the problem, eliminating the problem. More problems come soon enough.
- Deeper peace is always and already here.
-
It’s not having a problem with the endless stream of problems.
- It’s not about doing more, it’s about doing less, about stopping. Give up the fight. Put it down. Leave it there.
- Not quite “stop stressing.” More like: notice that stress is happening in a container of not-stress.
- The content of consciousness might be stress. But the context of consciousness is not stress, can’t be stress; it’s the container for the stress, and not-stress, and everything.
- All the contents of consciousness are arising and falling away on their own. The context is always and already there.
The search takes you away from the centre, the source. Movement takes you away from stillness.
States
- What can drop away is states.
- “I’m not getting it” is the same as “I’ve got it!” (I think I feel tickles of Joshu’s
mu
here). - Stabilising nonduality is … an oxymoron?
- It’s future-focused, not present- and now-focused.
- Measuring progress is a great way to avoid being present here and now.
- Looking for it means overlooking it.
- Just let it be. Just leave everything in its place.
- The me, the one who wants an imagined future state, is an illusion.
- “This isn’t it” is just a thought. A seductive, hypnotic, one! But just a thought. Notice that.
Gathered notes from many other pages
- The context is always bright, clear, boundless, whatever the contents of consciousness.
- Always and already here, but temporarily concealed.
- What we are looking for is always and already here.
- What’s always available? The clarity and stillness of the context of consciousness.
- We can learn to notice that the first-person subjective view is always there.
- Spiritual awakening points to the recognition of this unbound vastness that we are, this all-inclusive, unconditional love that is always accepting everything, this aware presence that often gets overlooked because attention is habitually focused on the me-story and the dramas in the movie of waking life.
- Only once we wait, free of any intention, in waiting lingering, do humans become aware of the space in which we always already are
- It’s always right here. So this takes no effort. It’s a relaxing and letting go, a dissolving, a releasing, a care-free-ness, allowing everything to be exactly as it is.
- Notice the wider space that contains “this” and “not-this”. They always exist together. The “not-this” is the backdrop to the “this.”
- Sitting is about being what we always aready are.
- Just click into the awareness that’s always and already there. Can you be not-aware? Try!
- Waking up isn’t over there, it’s here and now, always and already.
- What we’re looking for, the calm / peace / enlightenment / Buddha-nature, is always and already here, but temporarily concealed.
- We have to decide and act within the relative dimension of our lives, but the absolute is always also there.
- Our true nature is always and already present.
- Being is always bright, whatever the contents of consciousness.
- Each moment is already perfect.
- Comfort is already here and now.
- “Dogen’s zazen is a ritual expression and celebration of awakening already present.”
- Notice how you deny that this awakeness is already present, how you postpone, how you look elsewhere.
- We already are what we want to become.
- Recognise what’s already there, not acquire something that’s missing.
- Consciousness is already at ease. No effort, no push or pull. No doer, no one.
Added 2024-08-24, last updated 2024-08-25.