Sailor Bob Adamson rocks

I now am on my third reading of What's Wrong with Right Now?by "Sailor" Bob Adamson.

As I mentioned in my post entitled What's wrong with right NOW, I recently had re-read this book after a two-year interval.

On this third reading, Adamson's explanation of Non-Duality is resonating with me very strongly.

Every other page -- sometimes every other sentence -- I find myself saying, "Yes! That is so true!"

In the meantime, things have grown even more challenging in what most people would call my "real life." I have had major disappointments, and I am facing big challenges for which I don't have answers. I also am working long hours on our little farm, doing chores that sometimes are physically demanding.

Yet, during this reading of Adamson's book, I'm finding myself feeling calm most of the time. Quite often I even feel cheerful. I'm comfortable not knowing how things will resolve themselves. I trust that there is an intelligence that is handling everything. I don't feel obliged to be the Fixer who can solve everyone else's problems for them.

I'm less inclined to take things personally. I'm more apt to view things simply as happening, rather than seeing them as happening to me.

In the reading department, the Tao Te Ching continues to be an inspiration too.

The Rings of Relationship

I had been wanting to share with you one of my remaining emotional triggers, which was my over-sensitivity to any hint or implication that I was stupid.

However, in my "real life" offline -- or perhaps it would be more accurate to say "in my illusory life" -- I had been too busy to blog.

But that's almost academic now. During these last few days, in which I had wanted to blog but hadn't been able to, my sense of inadequacy evaporated.

I completed Byron Katie's questionnaire, and I recalled the advice of various Non-Duality authors (both contemporary and ancient). Those efforts seemed to help to some extent, but I still was feeling a bit low.

Then I "stole" a few minutes out of my demanding schedule, and listened to Robert Scheinfeld's audio entitled The Rings of Relationship.

While I was listening to it, I experienced a powerful -- and extraordinarily freeing -- Aha moment.

I found the recording insightful on many levels.

Oddly enough, although Robert did not address intelligence, in a roundabout way his words provided me with support in that regard too.

Perhaps in the busy days ahead I'll get a chance to share with you how I unpacked the emotional suitcase labelled "stupid" that I'd been carrying around.

In the meantime, The Rings of Relationship link is available, in case you're curious about it. I consider a topic worthy of consideration in its own right.

Experiencing in the NOW

In an earlier post, I shared that I had found Richard Hittleman’s Guide to Yoga Meditation very supportive.

One of his recommendations is focusing on experiencing what is happening, in the moment.

As he points out, you either can experience something OR you can name it. You cannot do both simultaneously.

The two events – the experiencing and the naming -- happen in such quick succession that typically we believe they are a single event. With my exploration of Non-Duality, I’m coming to learn that experiencing and naming (or labelling, judging, or telling stories) are separate processes.

Naming or labelling causes no discomfort as long as we use it as a tool for functioning in everyday life. The phone is ringing, the traffic light has just turned green, from the sound of the running water I can guess the bath is as full as I need, and so on.

We can generate suffering, though, when we judge situations, when we read meaning into other people’s actions, or when we want things to be different from the way they are.

To get past the labels, the assumptions, the judgements and the stories, Hittleman suggests the following strategy:

As you engage in each of your activities throughout the day, do not resist any experience. Attempt to be aware of the essence of everything you are doing. Even in those everyday chores that you usually accomplish in a mechanical manner and which seem to be very boring, attempt to experience the nature of what you are doing. When you find yourself in what you usually thought of as an unpleasant situation, do not resist it. Throw yourself into the center of the situation. Feel it; experience it.

Each Non-Duality author that I've read has motivated me to do this. I would say, though, that the writings of Jean Klein, "Sailor" Bob Adamson, and especially Richard Hittleman have been the most powerfully inspiring in this regard.

Since I’ve been cultivating this habit, I’ve found it enormously helpful. Tasks that I previously resented –- because they were boring, menial, repetitive, difficult or for some other reason stressful –- have come to be enjoyable. I have been really surprised at how happily I’ve worked through chores that I used to detest.

We especially are prone to suffering when we make comparisons with the past or when we project undesired outcomes into the future. The practice of focusing on experiencing has the added benefit of keeping us in the NOW. If our attention is on experiencing, we can’t help but be living in the present. Problems tend to evaporate when we are in the NOW.

When I'm fully engaged in what I'm doing, my awareness of the "little me" -- what Hittleman calls the "ordinary mind" -- dissolves. I get into a flow, and feel at one with the work and with my environment.

Letting go of the "little me"

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I was re-reading What’s Wrong with Right NOW unless you think about it?

On this reading, the book is turning out to be a gem. It’s interesting that a couple of years ago I found it merely okay. Back then I didn’t understand why reviewers raved about it. Now I would say I’ve joined the fan club.

This time around, I’ve been finding it very interesting to see what Bob Adamson has to say about the entity that most of us think of as “I” or “me.” I find that he provides a very clear explanation of this.

As I’m making my way through this book, I’m finding myself relaxing more and more. Increasingly I seem to be letting go of “me,” that is, the apparent me that previously felt a heavy burden of responsibility for ensuring that things turned out okay. I’m relinquishing goals and desired outcomes.

The image I had of myself, which was based on my past, is loosening its grip on me. I worry less about the future. On examination, I find that many of my fears centred on the survival of the “little me” and maintenance of the little me’s ongoing membership of “the club.” (“Club” is my multi-purpose label for any reference group to which I may feel attached.)

With greater – but not yet perfect – consistency, I am trusting Intelligence Energy to work things out. (Intelligence Energy is one of several terms that Bob uses for Universal Consciousness.)

I am living more in the NOW.

As I’m easing my demands on myself, I’m finding my judgements of other people letting up. I feel warm towards them and enjoy their company.

As so many Non-Duality authors have stated, Universal Consciousness is like a mirror. The apparent other people with whom I interact, the apparent “me” that interacts with them, and the apparent events in which we apparent entities participate are like reflections in the mirror. Regardless of whether the events are “good” or “bad,” and regardless of whether we feel “happy” or “sad” about them, they can have no more effect on my essence (Universal Consciousness) than a reflection has on the mirror in which it’s reflected.

Bob uses another analogy that I don’t remember seeing elsewhere in Non-Duality literature. He talks about a mirage. He says it looks so like water, you could swear it was water. Yet, he asks, can the mirage wet your shoes? I like that metaphor! When I find something disturbing, I ask myself, “Can this situation wet my shoes?” That quickly puts things into perspective for me.

What's wrong with right NOW?

After a two-year interval, I am re-reading What’s wrong with right NOW unless you think about it? by “Sailor” Bob Adamson.

This book had been recommended to me close to the beginning of my exploration of Non-duality.

Although I did get something out of it back then, it resonates with me a lot more now.

Adamson’s style is less accessible to me than the writings of Rupert Spira, Francis Lucille, Jean Klein, Nathan Gill and, above all, Byron Katie.

However, it has felt supportive to me to read different authors. Each one expresses the same concept a little differently. The cumulative effect is a growing insight into the nature of Reality.

Certainly it feels good to have included “Sailor” Bob’s book in the mix.

My current reading of What’s wrong with right now? is reminding me that I – the “little me” that I think of as Judy – can do nothing.

Bob uses the analogy of a poker that’s red hot when it’s been in the fire. My imagining that I have power is like the poker’s imagining that it is the source of its own heat. Of course, if the poker is removed from the fire, it cools down.

The reason that I’ve appeared to have done this or that during my life is the result of my having been a channel for what Bob calls Presence Awareness. There are other names for It – Universal Consciousness, God, etc. It is That One that actually has done everything that I’ve previously attributed to Judy.

Recently I’ve faced several challenges. Whenever I’ve wondered how I’ll meet tight deadlines, how I’ll do something that appears complicated, and so on, I’ve felt overwhelmed. When I’ve reminded myself that I am not the doer, have let go of results, and have regarded myself as an instrument of The One, things have flowed.

Non-Duality Authors

The Non-Duality authors whom I've read so far are:

• Byron Katie
• Jean Klein
• Francis Lucille
• Rupert Spira
• Eckhart Tolle
• Nathan Gill
• "Sailor" Bob Adamson
• Robert Scheinfeld (I consider his Non-Duality phase to have begun with his Being In Truth online course)

I've found the writings of all of these authors to be supportive.

However, speaking for myself, I find Byron Katie's material the most accessible.

Later edited to add Lao Tzu, author of the Tao Te Ching. I keep Stephen Mitchell's translation on my bedside table, and continually re-read it.

Revised blog title

When I created this blog, I gave it the title of "My Spiritual Adventure."

It has just occurred to me that it would be more supportive to call it "A Spiritual Adventure."

The reason is that I am coming to see that I am not exploring Non-Duality.

There is no Judy to do the exploring.

As Jean Klein would put it, exploration is happening. That's all he would say.

He would not discuss it in terms of an explorer (subject) and that which is being explored (object).

He would say that both subject and object appear within Consciousness, that they are One.

Unlike those who have realized the Truth, I still experience myself as a separate "I." In my case, the I-thought has not evaporated.

Yet, with all this exposure to the writings of Rupert Spira, Francis Lucille and Jean Klein, I am finding that my use of language is changing.

As long as I'm being this technical, I may as well admit that I now find the term "Adventure" a bit suspect too.

Adventure suggests a series of experiences that are continuous in time. It might be more helpful to use a word that has a more timeless quality.

However, if you create a blog, you have to start somewhere, so I'm not beating myself up about this.

Snow Globe

Teachers of Advaita Vedanta (Non-Duality) say that I am not who I think I am.

Judy is an appearance that pops up within Consciousness.  

Everything else that makes up my world -- other people, situations, etc. -- also are appearances within Consciousness.  

At first it was quite something for me to wrap my mind around that idea.  

Then an image came to me that helped me to visualize the concept.

I thought of a snow globe. 

The people in my life and I are like the reindeer, fir trees, etc., in the globe.  The snow flakes that fly around when the globe is shaken represent the dramas that my ego gets caught up in.

Consciousness is something like the kid watching the snow flakes doing their thing in the globe.

Well, that's a very crude analogy -- and not a really accurate one either.

Consciousness and the appearance that arises within it actually are One.  There are not two things.  

Nonetheless, for an extreme beginner on the path towards Non-Duality, the snow globe image feels supportive.  When I'm in the middle of a "problem," it helps me to imagine Consciousness watching what's going on in my snow globe world.  It helps me to feel just a little more detached from the situation.