Sunday, December 31, 2017


A paradox?



In truth there is only One looking out of everyone's eyes.
All is made out of the one substance, consciousness.

And in truth each viewpoint is unique, individual, 
authentically only yours, 
as there is only one of them. 

There is only you looking out of your eyes.


Two in One.
There is no contradiction
and no paradox either 
if it can be seen as what is happening.

To deny one is being necessarily outside the Truth.

The process to be able to see
ever more clearly all that is involved 
in the experience called Living.

An unending process which does not stop.

Ever

( All though one can stagnate for a while at a station )

Even nonduality, self realization are but stops on the way.











Wednesday, December 13, 2017


Unsought



The inclusive aspect of awakeness
is ongoing and unstoppable
when surrender has occurred. 

You can not make this happen,
but one gives one's consent to it.

This call to give oneself and all that comes up
is unsought, spontaneous 
and answers something
which is at the same time
universal and intimately personal.

If you find yourself here you will notice 
that all concepts, systems, frameworks fail.

There is only the process happening. 

There are no two things.

Just this happening.






Monday, December 4, 2017


Some questions...


Was there ever a time that you were not here?

Do you have a memory of your absence?
 

Is it possible to live without concepts?

Even the Nondual concepts?

No concepts at all?

Can we do away with the frameworks we have become so
accustomed to?


The bagage we have picked up on the way.


Any idea which has not been investigated 
and experienced by ourselves
is second hand information 
taken on because someone else has said so.


Is it possible to live without concepts?
Truly alive here and now to what is happening?
Without referencing it to the mind?

?
 




Thursday, November 16, 2017


Somewhere


As new born babies
we are noticing everything directly,
as there is not yet a fixed position.

It is one fluid field of knowing.

Until we are conditioned, 

through upbringing and education,
from morning to night,
that what we are is limited to the body.  
This is our identity.

And as nobody has confirmed us in our perception
of the ever present nature
of our being, 
we believe the lie and
settle for a fake reality.

Somewhere we know we are
magnificent, 
beautiful and divine.

But we are brainwashed not to brag,
not to show ourselves

and to hide.

Somewhere we know we are
timeless, ageless and perfect.

But we are never confirmed
in this intuitive knowing and thus
slide into inferiority complexes
because our ever changing
appearance does not match the
fashion models of this moment.

Somewhere we know we are
ever present and all knowing;
our direct perceptions revealing
the truth of existence as it is.

But we get caught up in the
story of separation, of human 'doings.'
Entering the stream of time.
Of past and future.
And end up living in a conceptual framework
where things are only known by its labels.

Somewhere we already know we are
whole and complete.

That is why this message
of non separation is resonating with many.

It is already telling us
what we know to be true.

A place we never left.

The direct knowing of this moment.



Sunday, October 29, 2017


Hope



When there is hope that 
tomorrow will be better..

When there is hope that
what is right here
will be changed 
into a brighter future...

When we hope that later on
what is right now
will smoothen out
and be more comfortable..

we live in resistance to what is.


Now 
with all its imperfections
and challenges
is not good enough.

Now 
with all the odd bits 
here and there
is not living up to 
our dreams and expectations.


It is only when 
all hope 
all aspirations for a great tomorrow
all desire for a better life
have left us...

that we are confronted with 
the beauty and immediacy 
of what is 
right here and now.

The blinkers fallen from our eyes.

Suddenly aware of the  
unimaginable extraordinary 
ordinariness of existence.

Life as it is.




Monday, October 23, 2017


Visceral




When the I fixation has dissolved,

when the bubble of personal identification has burst,

when thoughts are not believed anymore,

when feelings and perception are seen for what they are:
information, 

and when this new found freedom is filtering down,

opening up the layers of personally identity,
( the nooks and crannies where the me-habit is hiding
cramping the style of Self, )

when integration and deepening
( which can take years )
are a natural process after an initial awakening,

then the results are visceral, physical.

A peace and ease are 
effortlessly present in the body.










 


Friday, October 6, 2017


Baffling


Massive rains throughout the night
with a thunder coming in at times.

Now early morning
a gentle cool breeze touching my legs

The songs of birds
muted by humidity.

Sitting here typing
sipping coffee 
the body slowly waking up
the being alert.


While we sleep, the night with dreaming 
is passing by almost unnoticed.
When the luminous awake being that we are
is doing its dance of discovery and creativity,
only at times do we remember.


The part of us which has been put on earth
has its life narrowed down so much,
( closed in by the identifications
with body, character, personality, believes,
tendencies, likes and dislikes )
that only at times do we realize 
the magnificence of what we are
and the openendedness of our being.

Uniquely this one expression of All that Is,
and not in any way separated from anything else.


We are where we are because of everything 
which exists and happened before us.  

Meaning everything.

The interdependence of everything that exist is
baffling, mind blowing.

Just take only oxygen, which sustains all of life,
which is dependent on the fact that the universe, 
the earth had to come into being first. 
Where the development of growth of plants had to take place
for the production of oxygen to happen.

Anything which is happening right now,
any activity, or movement can be traced back similarly.

Cells had to come into being, develop, multiply,
and after a miraculous process produce
fish, reptile, mammals, human beings.

For me to make one movement
the whole human evolution had to occur.
My great grandparents had to meet each other 
and have children.

The whole universe came into being 
to enable me at this moment 
to wiggle my toe.




 








Monday, October 2, 2017


Meaning Everything


There is often an amusement 
about discussions on the net on e.g.
personal and the impersonal.
As there is only Oneness


And in this and as this everything plays out.


Meaning everything


Meaning everything we might call
personal or impersonal. 


After all they are just words.


Do we first have to demarcate a difference
between personal and impersonal,
and then say that This includes both?


Is that not obvious?


Since there is only One?


Nothing is ever excluded.
How could it be?


But then of course debates about
personal and impersonal, or come to that, 

about dual and nondual,
are also playing out in This and as This.

Awareness mirroring itself in a billion ways.


Life is what is happening 
when we are busy debating on the net. :-)

 ( Free transfiguration of a famous quote mostly attributed to John Lennon )








Sunday, September 24, 2017


The Unmappable



How wonderful that Life is not static,
always changing.
Forever moving
into something else.

How wonderful that even from Nonduality
we can move on.

Why to remain stuck on one level?
No matter what it is called.
Is there not more to discover?

If we think we have figured it out and understood
we have mapped the unmappable 
yet again.

Never stop to wonder
the miracle of Life










Friday, September 8, 2017


Miracle


Firecrackers from villages in the distance
A truck's engine coming closer on the small forest path
It is overcast

The setting of this instant in time
which includes all of time as there is only now.

We are open ended systems. 

For the sake of convenience 
and to be able to navigate this earthly existence
we have taken on a body 
and have more or less identified with a personality.

But we are timeless beings.
Naturally already one with all of Life 
as life is One and undivided.
And we are always already in contact 
with who we truly are and with all that is.

Which will become apparent
when we break down the seemingly solid beliefs
we have accumulated on our journey up to now,
and which seem to divide us into 
me and the rest of the world.


We spring forth from the One substance 
which automatically includes all.

And we simultaneously also experience life, 
ourselves and the world uniquely the way we do.

All of life is this open free intelligence.

Also the trees, the chair, our bodies, 
insects and thunderstorms, 
an emotion,
sensations.
Everything is consciousness, 
aware and responsive.

The more we know who and what we are 
and what we are not,
the more this will help us to free ourselves 
of the prison of personal identity.

Once we know who we are, we can celebrate life 
through the miracle of this present personality 
and experience Life as the wonder it is.




Tuesday, September 5, 2017


Original


The coffee is still too hot to drink
my love is turning over in bed
geckos are chirping
fridge is humming
birds everywhere 
singing their song.


In the timelessness of now it is 6.54 am.

Is there a time apart from now?


Through the intelligence of this body mind,
there always has been a wish, a need 
to explore, to investigate.
To find out how life functions.

Emotions, thoughts, perceptions.
Natural phenomena, 
relational encounters.
What is this life?

e.g. what do we meet when we meet a person?
What makes up the energetic interchange 
when we speak to someone?

Is there an natural openness and aliveness?
Or is it burdened by assumptions, expectations? 

How open and sensitive are we to existence?
And to ourselves?

How clogged are our perceptual instruments?
All the beliefs and assumptions we have.

How much of what comes up in us is authentic,
original, spontaneous?

How much is habitual, conditioned by our past?

Do we let our lives be governed by concepts
of other wise men or women?

Are we afraid to think for ourselves, 
to stand on our own feet?

Or do we have the courage to trust what is true for us 
and live and act from there?

And are we original enough to question 
the one who is perceiving?

Who and what is the true identity of the the one
who is reading these words.

Who are you?








Tuesday, August 29, 2017


Thunderstorms


Of all the flowers in the field
you are the bush which I gather in my arms
and hold most close to be kissed
by the sun and the moon
as favorite of my creation.

Fly my love.

Flow with life
dance with the seasons,
erupt with volcanoes
chase the heights of thunderstorms 
and blazing skies.

Loose yourself in all the infinite ways
life is showing up for your delight.

On the wings of this love
soar to freedom 
in which ever way life is calling you.





Monday, August 28, 2017


Careless Abandon

With careless abandon
the river gives itself knowing that the
Ocean will be there to receive her.

With nothing but trust all of nature
is giving itself to this moment.

Nothing to hold back or deny.

Even in slow death the surrender
of a dying animal is obviously there.
And beautiful to behold

All of nature is taken care of and so are we.
Life is naturally good and god and bountiful.

We are that life as well as we are made out of
the very same substance.
From 'All that Is' 
to the cellular components which are the 
building blocks of this Universe.

Everyone has its own discoveries, 
has its own path,
has its own way of unveiling all 
that stands in the way of directly perceiving
what we are and what Life is.

One of the main lessons I have received 
apart from this innate trust in Life is:
'Do not get stuck anywhere
always further
always more to discover.'

Life is too vast to be put into anyone's conceptual box.

And at the same time:
Life is simply this
living as itself.
Just what is in front of us right now.

A cup of coffee next to me
songs from a nearby village
geckos and birds 
while the sun comes over the horizon.

Nothing complicated or spiritual about this.
Simply this.

Time for breakfast.

 

Wednesday, July 26, 2017


Cracks



A pigeon flapping its wings.
Pale sunlight filtering through the curtains.
Voices of pedestrians on the street.
A car door slams shut.

It is possible to fall out of time.
Between the past and the future
in the present.

Presence of Now.


Cracks in the armour of the mind.

Falling into 
God knows
what.

Not knowing.
And not minding
this.

And yet,
fully present
and alive.

Tickling sensations 
all over
and the sensing of
all of Life,
which does not exclude
anything.

Not even parallel lives
and lives to come
if this might be the case.


Can we conceive of something
when the mind resists?


Songs of creativity, intuition and insight.

Everything is whispering the truth
of the fabric of the universe.

For us to discover.

Calling from beyond the veil.












Saturday, July 8, 2017


Of Laptops and Mice


Before perception is put into words,
before the mind has framed and labelled 
the sensory information it is
color, shape, sound, taste, touch.

And if we slow way down
it is vibration or energy.


It is open and immediate.
And happens automatically 
when the hold of the mind relaxes.

A letting go of the need to be in control.


 

Overcast and quiet.
A crow descends on a rooftop.
The whirring and clicking sounds of laptops and mice.
A wordless perception wonders.





Saturday, June 24, 2017


Two in One



All that is, 
is forever in movement, 
evolving, in process,
always breaking out of existing status quos


At the same time;
This is always the same.
Still and unmoving. 
The all seeing nature. 

Cognizing.
All knowing.
Featureless.
Seeing knowing perceiving.

This is the constant 
in the ever towards
freedom moving process.
 
Which is happening
in our own body/mind, life.


Two aspects of One single thing.
 
Forever moving and forever still






Friday, June 2, 2017


Bummer ?



There is only one substance.
There is only this.

No words can touch it,
describe it.


This is self evident, 
self existent, 
self aware.

One substance
appearing as all shapes and form. 

Everything which is seen, felt, thought, perceived is this.
 
All forms, colours, movements, processes 
all that exists is this.

There is nothing ever separate from this.

And that is how things are.
 
We are and never were separate from it.


Hence you will never realize it


 bummer.....




The bad news:
you will never get it.

The good news:
you were never not this.





Monday, May 29, 2017


Are we?


Is it possible to perceive directly?
Sense perceptions, thoughts, emotions.

Without a story?
Without resistance?


Just perceiving what is? 

Is it?

Can we thin out the personal contraction?
Examine our assumptions which have up to now
been a veil between what we have called ourselves 
and the world.
 

Well yes it is possible
but there is no fixed path.
And no need to follow anyone, 
though we can for awhile if this feels right.

Each one has its own unique journey.
 

Start listening to that which moves us.

Our intuition, discernment can directly be guided
by Knowing provided we are honest. 

Refusing to fool ourselves.
Absolute honesty

So first find out what is moving and living within us.
What is the question, the quest?
What is it that motivates our life?

To be comfortable and
settling for the status quo? 

Or a passion for knowing the Goddamn Truth
whatever the cost.


( Choose wisely because this can cost you your life. )


Where do we stand? 

We cannot go wrong
after all we are already what we are looking for.

Can we fall into this mystery?

Giving up the need to know and control? 

Surrendering to not knowing?
Open to whatever shows up?

Are we ready?









Sunday, April 23, 2017


My Jacket


in my experience..

there is no arrival.
A place where suddenly all is miracle and happiness
for ever after.

If there is one thing permanent it is impermanence.

Things are always in flux, 
changing, 
on the way to become something else.

Seasons, tides, moods, bodies, climate, political landscapes.
continents, relationships.

Name anything at all, you can be sure it is in process.  

There can be processes of unveiling:
things getting clearer, awakenings, 
revelations, insights

Or processes of veiling:
brain hemorrhages, 
emotional upheavals, life's demands,
Alzheimer and slow decay.

And those will change again
for better or worse.

The search for permanent happiness, 
( what enlightenment is often associated with
is in many of us a wish to escape. 

Not having the willingness, courage or strength to cope 
with what is showing up in our lives.


as a suggestion...


maybe become interested in that which perceives all this?

Who is it that watches the show of sense perceptions 
always happening now? 
And only now.

Who or what is taken in by the story line of me?
The thoughts and feelings coming up and appropriated by
an identity around which we have given 
the importance of my life.
And which propels us in a time line of past and future.
Away from right now.

Find out what remains when you realize that
personal identity is a loosely worn jacket.

Who and what are you right now without thinking about it? 





Thursday, April 6, 2017


No Drama




We, as life living through our body and mind, are capable of the amazing feature of forgetting our true nature. 
And instead identify with character, body appearance, history, religious and national traits.  

The vastness of life is taking itself to be a temporary manifestation.

Which carries with it instantly the fear of extinction.

Because what is temporary will one day stop. 
And if we identify with what is limited and transitory 
we believe that we will one day cease to exist. 

While in truth we are eternal. 

We are life, 
for a while living in the story where we 
currently are finding ourselves. 


And after knowing who we truly are, the story does not stop.  
We do not become suddenly empty headed nobodies 
floating in an imaginary infinite.

After all what we are is not sterile and removed from life.
We are this life with everything which presents itself.

We only have stopped limiting ourselves to be this or that.

We are all of it. 
We are the ocean and the waves.

Once we know ourselves to be everything and ever present, 
no matter what shows itself at any given moment, 
we can start to appreciate the richness of life.

For instance the amazing functioning intelligence of the body.

If the belief in our story weakens, 
if we unwind the personal traits and trails of identity 
locked and stored in the tissues and cells
we might hear the voice of the body. 

A very quiet voice.

No concepts. 
Or spiritual goals..

Just the natural functioning of the body.

With a wisdom so simple, 
self evident, 
without drama.












Sunday, March 26, 2017


No agenda




The openness, curiosity, wonderment in the question
'What is This?'  'Who am I'?


Seeing through the construct of personal identity.

The clear, clean alive functioning of the senses.


Perceiving without resistance, without grasping, without agenda.


Choiceless aware 







 

Tuesday, March 14, 2017


The Take Over



How does one come to know This?

Not from memory
from what we have learned
or the ideas and opinions we have about things.
And not what has been instilled in us while growing up.

But by dismantling the identification which we have 
mistakenly called me 

It is the immediacy
the knowing right now.
The unborn uncluttered perception at every moment.


Does it help to go to Satsang to come to know This?

Going to Satsang might in the beginning 
help to give conceptual clarity.
To see in one's own being all that is standing in the way, 
with the help of one who knows.

But then the group can become an obstacle
if we do not dare to stand alone.
But prefer to shelter in the comfort of a sangha 
or group of friends 
or the club of Nonduality 
which has become another cult.

In the end to be all alone
as there is only one.

In the beginning and the end 
it is a journey one makes alone. 
There is no one else but me making my steps.
It is uniquely my path.


Is it helpful to read the scriptures?

It might in the beginning and for a long time 
give directions which are helpful in one's life.
But in the end not because if we prefer 
to keep hanging on to some dead gurus skirts or lunghi 
and keep believing the wise stories
of the old traditions, 
while that season of schooling has passed, 
we undermine the authority of our own being.

To stand in the authenticity of ones own perception
again and again and again.
As this is the only first hand knowing we have
which is true and alive every time
whatever it is. 

All else is second hand. 


What else is required?
 
A passion for truth no matter what.
No matter what the consequences.
Not being side tracked by lesser ideals and comforts,
but to keep standing in the fire of not knowing
of surrendering
as something Else knows better
and takes over
the rudder of our life.









Sunday, February 26, 2017


Nothing out of Place


Misty Morning
early sunrise
bumping over country roads.

The peace and timelessness   
of a world where as yet 
nothing is out of place.

Villages and potholes make way
for cows, dogs, palm trees
a lone figure squatting.
 
Then suddenly there...

The outline of a lake shore
visibility of a few square meters
the muted calls of life waking up.

The mind made world switched off
disappearing in the wonder
of birds doing their thing.






Sunday, February 19, 2017

                                                                                                    Photo: Michiel Mussies

Seamless


Do we dare to stand alone?

Dare to question the status quo?
 
All alone?

Only One? 
 

Letting go of everything we hold dear?
Everything we are used too?
 

Our conditioning has been instrumental in providing us a safe 
environment for us to grow up and then find 
our place in the world.

But when we have grown up do we dare to question
everything we have become so used too?
 
Everything which tells us that we are soo and soo?
Nationality, cultural identity, gender, family traits, etc.


This is the luggage which weighs us down.
if we hold this too close to us, 


Or are these just elements we play with as we come 
to realise that we are more than the things which appear?
 

Sometimes it needs courage to first dare to stand apart 
from what we have always known to be me. 
 
In order to create a distance from which we can see 
that we are more than the elements which appear.

We are also the space in which everything shows itself.

And we are as well the perceiving capacity by which
we know ourselves to be and this and that. 
 
We are the sky and the weather. 

A seamless continuum always in process 
and always at rest at the same time.

 

Sunday, January 29, 2017


Curious?



Once the filters of perception are cleared 
the more life is seen as it is.

Simply itself.
Without the interpretations.

Perceiving going on.
And there isn't anyone doing that.

It is already happening.

Clearing the filters of perception
happens through attention.

Attention on the personal identity structure.
Unwinding and unraveling the identification
with what we have learned to call me and mine.

Curious as to what arises in our field of awareness?
What is it that is coming up now?
What are these thoughts, emotions and perceptions?

Where does the perceiving takes place?

And what or who is perceiving?

??



















Friday, January 6, 2017


Texture


The numbness and ache in toes 
while legs are going up and down
and the landscape
passes by silently.

Unmistakably knowing that this
is what I am, and where I am:
Cycling through the freezing polders of Holland,
 the horizon an orange gold.

The sky so vast 
and close
as to be One thing,
indistinguishable
from what I am and
where I am.

Looking after my ailing mother while
siblings are needling me to do this or that.
Trying to control and program what I am doing.
Knowing and perceiving that what I am is 
freedom itself, cannot ever be controlled,
yet feeling at the same time myself 
as the whole situation.

There is never a me apart from all of this Life.

Everything experienced without filters.
The taste and texture of Dutch life.
The sweet frailty of my mother.
Family and neighbors visits.
Endless stories telling of their 
concerns, pains and struggles.
And the body adjusting to the differences 
of temperature, timezone and nourishment.

Never a me separate from
what I am and where I am.