Taking Questions March 1st to 15th

What is happening when we see hierarchies, teachers, and enlightened people?

Hierarchies don't exist out there as real objects or levels. They are part of a conceptual overlay--mind, which just means thought. This is how the separate self sense stays in the sense of separateness. Thoughts appear about others who are better, richer, more knowledgeable, more enlightened or perhaps worse, poorer, less enlightened--depending on the perspective. When these thoughts are emphasized over simple present awareness, it seems as though there really are others and there really is a self that relates to the others. When the thoughts are seen as thoughts, coming and going in what you really are--awareness--they are no longer believed to be pointing to real objects, people, and hierarchies.

In a conventional sense, so-called "teachers" can provide pointers to help guide us. Without a teacher--in the conventional sense of the word--I would not have been exposed to pointers that helped see through the separation. So we don't want to throw out the baby with the bathwater. We don't want to emphasize the thought "there are no others" and therefore "there are no teachers" in some attempt to sound nondual, while we are really suffering in the belief that separation is real. That is not helpful. We've then turned nonduality into a belief system. Again, not helpful and not nonduality really at all. Too often, we jump to those statements as conclusions rather than looking where the words are actually pointing.

But what these pointers coming from "teachers" are ultimately showing is that the awareness that is the "teachers" real identity, prior to the thought-based conventional, ego self, is your identity also. Although it may be helpful to have a teacher who can guide us to this seeing, ultimately the investigation is ours to do.

I had to take the pointers of my teachers and look into my own experience. I had to see that part of my experience that had never moved or changed. I would rest there on a periodic basis. That was the practice I used. Yet one moment of seeing that you are this non-conceptual awareness may be enough. You see that, whatever you are, it does not move or change. Thoughts move and change, come and go within that awareness. And the thoughts are inseparable from awareness, which means they are also awareness.

Certainly thoughts like "I'm enlightened" or "I'm unenlightened" or "I'm a seeker" or "I'm a finder" can come through and be emphasized. Be easy on yourself. Just look again from pure awareness. If we mistake our identity for any of those thoughts, we are taking separation to be true and real. But in looking from and as this awareness that sees those thoughts, we know that we are not thought. We are not any thought, no matter how profound or mundane. Thoughts come and go within the awareness that is what we really are. This awareness is what sees each thought. In recognizing what we really are, the supposed hierarchy of teachers v. students, enlightened v. unenlightened is seen to be nothing more than a play of ideas. It isn't real.

Looking from and as your real identity as awareness resolves this issue fully and finally. It's an identity crisis, so to speak. There are no separate people. There are no hierarchies. In the absolute sense, we really can't even say that "we are all equal." Even that viewpoint comes and goes within awareness. It's a beautiful viewpoint. I like it very much. But nothing that we say captures awareness. Everything comes and goes. This is so freeing as we see that our identity can never be captured by a fleeting viewpoint. All viewpoints come and go inseparably within what we are. This allows us to play with dualistic ideas and it may seem, in a conventional sense, that we play certain roles perhaps, but through recognizing awareness, these ideas are no longer seen to be pointing to real objects "out there." In seeing through these viewpoints, seeing that they are transparent, temporary appearances that come and go within awareness, they no longer have the capacity to make us feel separate. We then have the sense that there is just casual, loving discussion happening here. No hierarchies. Just compassion, freedom, love, peace. It's very simple.

If there is someone out there that appears to be more enlightened than you, simply notice that the sentence, "X is more enlightened" comes and goes within an awareness that is prior to the viewpoint. This awareness is what you really are. In that seeing, you no longer suffer under the false belief that there is someone out there that is over or beyond you.