where he shared the stage with a guy named Scott. He talked at length about ice cream; the core of his teaching seemed to be about finding and maintaining happiness. Then I downloaded his two books (total about 160 pages) and skimmed a bit. It was a good investment of time, saving 5 hours of travel and sitting in a gathering tomorrow. Here are some excerpts:
BOOK I The fact that Awareness is always here at the very root of all our experiences, makes it worth knowing more about. The fact that it is always present in every single one of our experiences, indicates that there is a stability within us that we might have been missing in the chaos of our everyday lives and in the habit of constant story-telling... We consistently confirm to ourselves what is always already here. Relaxed attention reveals the natural presence of awareness.
How to Recognize Awareness? In short: Simply notice that something is reading this text right now. This generally becomes a little easier at first when we relax our stories about everything. When we relax, we can usually notice the presence of awareness quite naturally. We notice how there is something still present. In fact, we notice that life is still living. Or you could say: that we are still present. Not necessarily as a story, idea or personality, but a natural presence is always here.
From this simple initial recognition we build onwards. More and more we start to recognize the fact that we are present as awareness...The more we do this the easier and more obvious it tends to become. Even in situations when we are not feeling relaxed, we can start to notice how we are present as awareness as well!
BOOK II - a lazy piece of work, dialogues with other people which read like doctored transcripts.
But all there is, is this free moment right now, refreshing itself effortlessly within your awareness. And all thoughts and beliefs about how that came about is just that: A coming and going thought-form in which neither truth nor fulfillment is found. Would you agree?
Brigitte: Yes I do. And I can see that when I am alone at home. It is more difficult when I am at work with a lot of people. But I guess that the more I see this the more it will unfold all by itself. Is it so ?
Bentinho Massaro: Exactly Brigitte! I am always so very much delighted by the insights so many people seem to have naturally. Many „newcomers to free awareness‟ say things for themselves that I feel I need to make them aware of, but then they already know it intuitively.
Bentinho Massaro: If it does not work at this time with some thought-forms in some situations, don't be discouraged, just do it whenever it is possible for you and whenever it is natural to relax as the Pure Seeing in which that thought arises. This way you will start to trust more on the accessibility of awareness and it will be easier to recognize the open awareness in situations that we think are more challenging.
Bentinho Massaro: We have been trained like soldiers for many, many years, for hundreds of generations even, to live our life the way we live it now.
Bentinho Massaro: So be gentle with yourself, just take that moment of freedom from believing and engaging in thought-forms a couple of times a day and recognize the clarity that‟s naturally there when you don‟t engage in thoughts and ideas for a second. Try not to make it a kind of meditation in which you sit for an hour not believing in anything, rather, whenever something arises, whether you are at home or at work, simply recognize how you belief in the thoughts that arise. That's enough. You don't have to stop this process, you will naturally recognize the clarity of awareness, the alert presence once you notice this process of believing in the stories. Because by seeing this automated belief we have in whatever appears as our mind, we will naturally discover how the thoughts themselves are really powerless and meaningless in the presence of awareness.
Brigitte: thank you. One other thing that i don't understand (but maybe it is out of subject) is how awareness (or pure seeing) can be all inclusive.
Bentinho Massaro: Brigitte: Another great question and one I will be happy to answer.
Bentinho Massaro: But first tell me how do you see that it can not be all-inclusive? Why do you think awareness is not all-inclusive?
Brigitte: Because it seems that it is exterior of me
Bentinho Massaro: Of what 'me'?
Brigitte: hmmm... the me that sees. it seems that i see things that are exterior.
Brigitte: exterior of my body
Bentinho Massaro: Ok so you are feeling like "I am over here as awareness, and over there is everything else, exterior of 'me as awareness' "?
Frank Molignano: separate and individual?
Brigitte: yes
Bentinho Massaro: yes to which question, mine or Frank's?
Brigitte: yours
Brigitte: hahaha
Bentinho Massaro: Alright, so let's take my sentence as an example of how many people feel when they start to discover themselves as being awareness.
Brigitte: ok...
Bentinho Massaro: They feel this separation of "I am over here as the seeing, as the knower, as the looker, and everything else is over there... and I am looking at it, so how can I as the knower, I as the awareness be all-inclusive if I feel that everything else is outside of awareness, separate?"
His teaching "Academy" commentary, which is now nearly two years behind schedule: The Free Awareness Academy - Coming Soon our on-line Teaching Courses.
- We are currently developing three core-teachings:
- 1) The Introduction to Freedom:
- Learning how to recognize already present free awareness.
- 2) The Integration of Freedom:
- Getting used to recognizing free awareness throughout everyday living.
- 3) The Conviction in Freedom:
- Becoming completely sure of our true identity as free awareness beyond all doubt.
- Note: The first core-teaching is expected to be released in August, 2010. You can subscribe to our newsletter in order to be updated and notified of further developments regarding the Academy Teachings.
I'll venture to give him a 2 for heart, 6 for wisdom
No comments:
Post a Comment