Hi Roy,

Please tell me about the Dream. How does it work? If the dream is that of Awareness, and if Awareness is One, why so many different views? How is it that if someone can see the illusion, another can't, if we are all part of the same dream? What is your view about that?

Thank you,

The dream seems real because it is real in that we are experiencing it.  If I am depressed and life seems hopeless then depression is experienced and real (for me) and I consider suicide – it seems the best option.  UFOs are real to those who believe in them.  LSD produces an experience that is real for the person under the influence and when I dream at night they are absolutely real to me (and I love them) – until I wake up.  It’s the same with the dream you refer to - until we wake up (to the truth).  We share the dream – more or less.  It seems real because that’s all we know but when we get to see something truthful, some other view, then we realize that this world is nothing more than a dream. 

Ah, awareness is one but the world (the dream) seems to be many because those views are through the senses and brains of many people who have forgotten who they are and have taken on the belief they are the person and the person’s experience.  If we only ever sat in a cinema and watched an ongoing movie non-stop then pretty soon we would think that it was real – we would believe in it, we would get bored with remembering the silver screen.  I see and apparently live in duality – I the person, that is.  This brain generates a dualistic view and a marvellous one it is.  It seems very real and I play it out to the fullest but having seen the greater truth I know that ultimately this is not real and that the world actually appears in me (awareness).  We all see the illusion but some have come to remember who (or what) they actually are and have seen the truth (again), to see that the world is an illusion.

The difficulty you have is that you are trying to understand from a dualistic perspective because that’s what you’ve become accustomed to.  Once you have the non-dual view as well then it’s easy to understand.  Seen from Cory’s dualistic view the world seems real but remember that even Cory is part of the dream too.  You are the awareness that the dream appears in.  You are the omnipresent’ness viewing through Cory’s experience.

From the omnipresent perspective there is only awareness and so there is nothing else, no other, nothing different and no world, no time or space.  Everything that seems other than awareness is an illusion.  Since all there is is awareness then awareness must be omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent and so again all there is is awareness.

Seeker:-  I 've come across Suzanne Foxton: http://nothingexistsdespiteappearances.blogspot.fr/
She also made some videos, she very often says that there's nothing wrong with anything.

Me:-  Exactly, it is all as it should be – that doesn’t mean it’s nice or desirable.  Remember ‘nice’ and ‘desirable’ are dualistic.

Seeker:-  That made me wonder again about right/wrong, good/bad. It's something very hard to grasp.

Me:-  The dualistic mind will never understand since it goes on dividing and comparing.  You also have the ‘heavy’ catholic conditioning. 

Seeker:-  How is it possible to accept bad things as neutral? Isn't this kind of concept leading to indifference? 
Me:-  Yes, if it’s misunderstood.

Seeker:-  Can we let bad things unfold right before our eyes without doing anything, just because it is not real ultimately, and because right or wrong don't exist ultimately? If the answer is no, isn't it the proof that right or wrong exist? 

Me:-  In duality it does.  But look at how the mind is disturbing you by its division.  Peace will not come with the mind.  Mind is a great servant but a despotic master.

Seeker:-  We all (most of us) dream about a world of peace, with rainbows everywhere and the sun shining all the time (just kidding, but you know what I mean, no one wants to live in a devastated world in the middle of endless wars). Why? Is it just because we can't accept the reality as it is, or is it the proof that there's a sort of "good pattern" in the creation that is to be achieved? (I'm not sure the sentence is correct, I hope you understand :)) 

Me:-  The desire you talk of may come from the knowledge deep down that all is peaceful – that we remember the peace of non-duality from early childhood.  I grew up in the 60’s of love, peace and flower power but unfortunately the world is ruled by sick politicians who have no idea of anything other than what their minds tell them.  They are lost in their minds.
Seeker:-  In fact, I'm confused :)  This good/bad thing is a big issue. 

Me:-  Only from a dualistic perspective.  Identify the you that exists prior to mind and don’t worry about good/bad.

Seeker:-  And the "nothing happens" too. Why is it the use to live things if it's not real?

Me:-  Do you have a choice, is there a you to choose? 

Seeker:-  How can Awareness know itself on something based on an illusion? Very strange... :) 

Me:-  Awareness is aware of all that appears in it.  Remember that awareness is non-dual (not separate) and so it is intimate with all, it is all so it knows immediately.  There is no separation – separation is an illusion.

Seeker:-  And the questions go on and on...  

Me:-  The mind asks a question and gets one answer then heaps more questions – is there a god, yes, why, where is he, what does he look like, which language does he speak.  Did god create the world, yes, why and why on that day, and what was the time – Monday morning, Thursday.  Why did he choose to create it that day and not the next or an eon before or after and what has he been doing since.  He was said to work for six and then rested and it seems he’s done nothing since.  What sort of a roll model is this.  Why does there have to be a god any way, are we so afraid of being responsible for our actions?  Do we need a god to blame, to justify our actions? 

Seeker:-  but maybe there's nothing wrong with it either :)

On Skype I use    roy.townsend   As far as I know that's my identity although I don't seem to have the micrphone working yet.

Our home is up for sale so if you'd like to see where we've enjoyed living for the past sixteen years take a look at this.

http://www.domain.com.au/Property/For-Sale/Acreage-Semi-Rural/WA/Balingup/?adid=2009878686

It looks like you might need to copy & paste it though.

Me:-  The frustration might be the energy you need to make the break through.

Seeker:-  Yes maybe, but I am afraid to be more and more frustrated and to become totaly depressed. I don't know, sometimes desperation is really intense, and sometimes it's bearable.
Reading so much is useless, I know it, because it all becomes a concept in my mind, and that's all. I don't live it. I know I have to practice but I don't know how, that's the main problem, what to do, how to do it. Start to watch thoughts, get familiar with the process.  Some say there's nothing to do, that everything is there, but for the seeker it's not true at all, or he won't be seeking.  Yes, some people will say all sorts of things to sound wise.  In truth there is nothing to do because there is no-one to do it but right now the seeker has to do some-thing.
It's a real struggle to still the mind, I have been used to manipulate concepts for so many time in a so intense way, as everybody else I guess. It's like an addiction, I sometimes see the process, I like thinking, and at the same time I hate it.  Yes, I know.  You can’t actually still it by force as that will just add more energy to it.  Instead we allow it to do it’s thing but get used to watching what is happening.  As we watch and not get involved it slows down by itself.

  From a seeker:-  And the questions go on and on... The mind asks a question and gets an answer then heaps more questions – is there a god, yes, why, where is he, what does he look like, which language does he speak.  Did god create the world, yes, why and why on that day, and what was the time – Monday morning, Thursday?  Why did he choose to create it that day and not the next or an eon before or after and what has he been doing since.  He was said to work for six and then rested and it seems he’s done nothing since.  What sort of a roll model is this.  Why does there have to be a god any way, are we so afraid of being responsible for our actions?  Do we need a god to blame, to justify our actions?The mind asks a question and gets an answer then heaps more questions – is there a god, yes, why, where is he, what does he look like, which language does he speak.  Did god create the world, yes, why and why on that day, and what was the time – Monday morning, Thursday?  Why did he choose to create it that day and not the next or an eon before or after and what has he been doing since.  He was said to work for six and then rested and it seems he’s done nothing since.  What sort of a roll model is this.  Why does there have to be a god any way, are we so afraid of being responsible for our actions?  Do we need a god to blame, to justify our actions?

As I understand it, non-dualistic approach says we have no choices, that life expresses itself through the human system without it in control at all. Things happen and that's just the way it is.
This seems more or less legitimate concerning the physical/physiological level, but it is a difficult idea to accept for the whole human experience because it sounds like we are just puppets not able to change our behavior patterns even if we know/see they are negative ones.
Where do negative behaviors come from? Maybe they are just an experience? Does self realization suppress them and if it is the case, why?

My next question is about money. A difficult issue for me, specially when it comes close to the spiritual field.
I have noticed that spiritual teachers, including realized persons, always try to make a living from spiritual guidance. Is it because they are not able to handle a job to earn money because this doesn't fit with their "personality" any more?
Well, in fact it doesn't fit with the personality of a lot of people :) (there is a lot of stress, boredom, and lack of freedom at work), but where is the choice? Why would illuminated/realized people be an exception to this?

The most important search is for the true self – ‘who am I’?  When this is known all will be revealed to you.  You have been told and conditioned to believe that you are human and in control of that body/mind.  This question is too difficult for most people simply because it goes against their conditioning and it is conditioning that tells us that they are people and have choices.  It isn’t even their belief, it’s just a belief by no-one.  Keep trying to locate the ‘I’ or ‘Me’ that you refer to when you say I or me.  Where is it?  Where does it start and finish?  Is it in the body or is the body in it.  And while this is going on you might notice that the real you (awareness) is witnessing the whole progress, that all this is merely an appearance in awareness.

When you suddenly recognise who you actually are (awareness) then you also know that you are not the human and that in fact there is no-one in control of the human – the human is running on its conditioning with no-one at the steering wheel (as it were) like the computer runs on it’s own programmes.  It is then that you will know there is no-one here (or there) and it is because of this insight that we say we are not in control – there is no-one here who can be in control, and never has been.  We don’t cease to exist, we just recognise that there never was any-one here.  There is no-one controlling your body/mind either.  The difference between us is just this.  I know it and you are still thinking that you exist (as a person in control).  The ‘Me’ is an illusion, it is not real.  This insight causes ultimate relaxation.

Religions and ‘philosophies’ have all sorts of beliefs and rituals.  They are often based of what an ‘enlightened’ person has said but because those religions are created and maintained by people who still think they are human they are misguided.

The truth cannot be expressed in words.  I don’t even speak the truth – no-one ever has.  That is why Advaita uses the term ‘pointers towards the truth’.  Jesus cannot come back and even if he did he knows that he cannot save any-one.  He, like others can know and guide and that’s all.  The seeker still has to do the work.

What we are (pure subjective awareness) is where everything, the human experience, the world and the whole of existence appears.  And what we are is already the case and it is before language.  Language is conceptual and dualistic and quite recent in evolution.  You are awareness right now, so there is nothing to gain or achieve – just the recognition of this fact.  The word witnessing is used by people who have realised but actually we all witness.

So advaita/non-duality says there is no choice not as a belief but as a fact.  There is no choice simply because there is no-one who can chose.

Yes it is a difficult idea to accept, but you don’t have to – just find out who your really are and the rest will be revealed to you.  Then all is well.  As long as the idea of a ‘me’ exists then everything is viewed from a ‘me’ (ego) perspective; we are looking from this very limited point of view.  Once it dawns on you that you are awareness then you see from an omnipresent perspective.  When I say see I don’t mean visually but you will understand it from an omnipresent understanding.

What is negative?  Isn’t it a judgement of good/bad and in that case dualistic?  So negative comes from a dualistic mind, which is an appearance in awareness.  No, realisation doesn’t suppress anything, it simply puts everything in perspective.

The money thing always comes up.  Realised ‘people’ still get bills and need money for food, drive cars and suffer illness.  In the end is some way nothing changes but in another way everything changes.  This world, even though it’s all a dream, still runs on money.  We can stop using money but in the west we would have the power cut off and we’d get hungry and eventually get thrown out on the streets.  There is nothing wrong with money, it’s just another way of obtaining food.  Of course not every-one claiming to be self realised actually are; some just jump on the bandwagon and try to get rich from it.  I know realised ‘people’ who work at a regular job, who are retired so self funded or live totally of teaching.

Realised ‘people’ are not an exception to emotions; they do have a balanced, relaxed view though and accept what is.  In some ways we are more sensitive.  And with choice or no choice we do what we do.  It makes no difference, we just chose when we chose – because we have no choice.  So if you think you have choice to do something or change your job then chose – it’s all part of what is.  It’s all perfect (meaning balanced).

You will read because it’s your nature to.  You will search because you have no choice.  You can’t stop searching until searching stops of it’s own accord.  You are a seeker, as I was.  My searching ended when the truth was realised – that I am in fact awareness (of everything) and not this person.