My response (as you will see in the video) is that noticing the mind racing with thoughts is a good thing!

Check it out and let me know what you think!

Thanks!

In this video I talk about about an adaptation to a question I picked up from Brendan Bruchard.

I hope you enjoy!

Please let me know what you think. I’d love to hear some of the questions you keep in your back pocket.

Thanks!

PS – Sorry for the low volume at the start.  This was filmed right after my meditation for the day, so I was a little quiet at first.  Thanks!

In this vid I ask that question about awakening, and come at a side benefit I think is key.

Please check it out, and let me know what you think in the comments!

Thanks!

Here’s a little video I filmed this morning. It’s one of the “guide rails” I like to use to zero in directly on me when looking at me.  I hope you enjoy!

Let me know what you think in the comments!

Cheers!

This error can creep into the conversation and practice in subtle, or blatant, ways. No matter what form it takes, the crux is always the same. Here’s the thing – the truth of what you are is you as you are already. Since the goal is for you to awaken to that, it won’t help you one whit if someone else has done so.

Your freedom from the lie of the separate self will only be realized when you, yourself, are free from it.

The Buddha being awake is all fine and dandy, but that won’t help you. Will it?

I say, it won’t help you at all. The only one whose liberation from the lies told about what you are that will be of any real use to you is yours. Nobody else’s liberation will help, aside perhaps from being an inspiration for your own efforts.

It’s time to draw a line in the sand. Would you be liberated from the lies you have been taught about what you really are? If so, then do it. Look. Inquire. See. Do this for yourself, by yourself. Nothing less will do.

Once the universe becomes credible, once I seriously suppose  I know a thing or two about myself, then I have sunk back into the stupor of the half-dead.  – Douglas Harding

I am so excited!

Today I get to share with you an interview with Timothy Freke.  Tim has been a big influence on my search into what it means to wake up to what I really am, and a great reminder to always question what I find.  (To paraphrase Tim from his new book, “That question itself, is the answer to what you truly are.”)  Tim is a powerful author on the subject of awakening, but the biggest impact I got was attending one of his day long mystery experiences.  I cannot recommend them enough!

I had a blast doing this one, as I am sure you will notice from how much I end up talking in the interview.  ;)

You can connect with Tim on his website, themysteryexperience.com.

You can pick up the book here.

I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I did!  Let me know what you think in the comments.  Thanks!

You can download the interview here.

(PS – In the interview we chat about the pre/trans fallacy as taught by Ken Wilber.  I accidentally introduced it here as the “post/trans fallacy.”  Ooops!  ;)  )

Some of the questions seem to be coming from confusion over the distinction I make between “what you are”, and “how to be.”  (I draw that distinction strongly in this video.)  I’d like to clear up some of that confusion.

Distinctions are tools only.  They are not factual.  They let us tell the difference between things for purposes of skillful living.  Distinction making is what stops us from eating stones instead of apples.  As useful as that is, the distinctions we hold do not make an apple different from what it is.

So, the distinction between “how to be” and “what you are” is there to help. It does not propose that there is an actual separation between two realms of being.  In  my experience, there is no separation. Approaching some tasks though “as if” there were a separation has been exceedingly helpful for me to stay on target for a specific task.

I have found it to be incredibly helpful when looking directly at me to stick strictly to the “what I am” realm.  That means looking at me without reference to anything about me. Everything about me, every story told about me (by myself or others) exists in the realm of “how to be,”  as far as I can tell.  Using that distinction to cleave away distractions allows for a laser focus on the goal of looking directly at me.  I have found that extremely advantageous.

Another piece of confusion seems to come from using the looking as a therapeutic tool.  When I look directly at me (and this report is mirrored by tons of people I have shared about this with), there can be an incredible sense of relief and a visceral experience of that relief.  As near as I can tell, this comes from dropping all the stories we have accumulated, and struggle to maintain, that lay in the “how to be” space.  Letting go of the energy bound up in that can be an amazing release.  Since we are are taught to focus on “how to be” rather than “what we are,” many novel things (insights, realizations, re-alignments) can come from changing the focus of where we look.

Both of those gifts (relief and insight) are well and good, but the moment we get sidetracked into pursuing them rather than simply looking, we are off the track.  There is nothing wrong with sidetracks.  Relief and insight is something I think everyone should enjoy more.  However, getting into the habit of chasing those gifts, rather than looking directly at you, muddles things up a bit.  Sidetracks won’t harm you, but it may slow down the dissolution of the lie of the separate self.

That lie is the only disease that the looking cures.  That’s it.  So in a way,  looking is a therapy for a disease, but exactly one disease and no other.  I find that when I use the looking for relief from stress, depression or pain I go off course and slow down my own recovery from the lie of the separate self.

I want to be clear that I think seeking out and implementing cures for whatever diseases, confusions, or shadows that afflicts one is a great and good thing.  I am a staunch supporter of psychotherapy, fitness and self-reflection.  I have gotten tremendous benefits out of therapy.  It’s simply that the looking does not directly treat those issues.

That being said, it seems to be the case that many of those conditions are tied up with (and founded on) the lie of the separate self.  It has been my experience that dealing with that lie makes working with all of the other issues in my life a great, great deal easier and more effective.  The difference for me has been astounding.

I strongly urge that you continue with whatever practices are helping to sort issues (journaling, psychology, religion, philosophy, NLP, spirituality, prayer, meditation. medication, 12 Step programs, therapy, etc.)  I suggest not using the looking as a replacement for any of those practices.  I recommend that the looking only be used to get rid of the lie of the separate self and the fear of life it generates.

Looking does deal with sickness, but it deals with one sickness only.

If you have any questions about this distinction or if there is any lingering confusion, I would love to hear from you in a comment below.

Please, keep looking.

Cheers!

As I’ve brought up before, it seems to me that we live in two realms simultaneously.  The “how to be” realm and the “what you are” realm.  It also seems to me that it’s possible to see the world through both of those lenses.

Of course, when we first are born, the “how to be” realm is of much more immediate necessity as we grapple with the sudden immensity, danger, and weirdness of being at all.  We withdraw from the tumult of uncategorized stimuli which assails us, and (metaphorically and factually) we close our eyes.  Life demands that we pay attention though, in order to survive, and the most apparent place we need to pay attention to is, “how to be.”

So, we focus on using that “eye” to deal with the world.  Our culture, developed under the pressure of needing that “eye” to survive, encourages us, and trains us, to use the “how to be” “eye” nearly exclusively.

I’d love to know what you think of the metaphor, and if you find it useful.  Please give me a shout in the comments below.  Thanks!

(Oh, and if you feel like spreading this site around a bit, you can do that through the social sharing buttons at the top of this post.  Cheers!)

Thanks!

You can download a copy of this video HERE.

We had a lot of fun with this interview, not least because it took us about 3 weeks to line up!  (It’s taken me a few weeks to actually get it up on the site too.  Life is funny that way, isn’t it?)  Check out her site for tons of awesome content and her delightful take on life.

I hope you get a lot out of this interview with Christine.  I know I did!  Enjoy, and please let me know what you think in the comments below.

Cheers!

You can download the interview here.