The Buddha's Secret

During my recent Esalen Institute seminar, I was lounging in the hot baths one morning, overlooking the vast Pacific Ocean. Then I looked up at a statue of the Buddha in the hillside garden just above the baths. As I contemplated his partially open eyes, and his mystical, half-smile, I suddenly realized his ancient yet timeless message to humanity—his “secret,” as it were: “I exist here, now, one with the ease, harmony, and flow of life—and I invite you into the same realization.” In terms of tangible knowledge, the only thing we can “know” for certain is that we exist here, now. In this moment now, we exist as the aware, conscious beings—the men and women—we are. This was and is the Buddha’s secret. This feeling of existing here, now, when you really settle into it, is characterized by a quality of infinite, spacious awareness which has no center, other than the feeling of “you” experiencing your existence, and no border. It truly is infinite, unbounded, and universal. This awareness that you most essentially are is aware of everything happening in your inner and outer environment: thoughts, sensations, sounds, feelings, emotions, events, and circumstances. Notice how everything you observe happening within and around you is also is also characterized by a single quality: it comes and goes, arises and disappears within the spacious awareness of your existing here, now. The realization that the only thing we can “know” for certain is that we exist here, now, is the essence of awakening, self-realization, or enlightenment. Every person who is awake and free has come to the realization that they are not their thoughts or stories—not even their “I” and “me” thoughts—all of which come and go, but the ever-present, aware, conscious being or person who is existing here, now. This is why those who are awake and free talk about living in the present, in your experience here, now, so much. This is why I talk about it. When you are awake to your true nature, to the fact of your existence here, now, you realize that this moment right now is actually all there ever is. Even when you imagine, think about, an event that will happen later, it too is only real when “later” becomes the now.

Five Tools for Shifting Perception

Here are Five Tools for shifting perception and awakening out of the ego’s grip into the ease, harmony, and flow of our true nature: 1) The Teaching. The teaching is that the whole world of thought that exists between your ears, including the “I” and “me” thoughts, the ego thoughts, is illusory, yet you—as this aware, conscious being—are still very much here, present and alive in this moment. 2) The Practice of Freedom. This is a simple, three-step process for freeing yourself from the grip of the illusory thoughts (that you still “believe,” or take to be real) whenever you are caught in upset, conflict, or suffering. 3) Conscious Meditation, Conscious Mind. Conscious Meditation is a practice where you actually have the experience of yourself being awake and free, one with the ease, harmony, and flow of your true nature. Conscious Mind is where, when you are in the meditative state, the flow of freedom, you experience using thought, free of the self-obsessing “I” and “me,” as a powerful tool for creative thinking, brain-storming, planning, and setting goals and intentions. 4) The Concept of Residues. Understanding this concept, that even long after you have finally awakened to freedom, residues of old ego patterns and behaviors can still arise from time-to-time, allows us to relax and flow with life, it’s ups and downs, even more easily . After all, we are still human, and we still have an ego, even though we’ve now realized we are not our ego. 5) Conscious Connection. This is where our inner freedom manifests in the world of our human relationships. The freer you are of the “I,” the “me,” the freer you are of your reactive personality, the more able you are to meet others, friends or strangers, in an open-eyed, warm, natural, and welcoming way. This is what will produce the healing that is so sorely needed in our world!

Ordinary Man, Extraordinary Realization

I am an ordinary man with an extraordinary realization. It has allowed me to live stress-free, in peace and freedom, at one with the harmony and flow of life and all its many ups and downs, these past seventeen years. What is my secret? It is all revealed in clear, simple language in my book, End Your Story, Begin Your Life: Wake Up, Let Go, Live Free. Every human being on earth can have the same realization I enjoy. There is nothing you have to do. All that’s required is a deep, fundamental shift in the way you see reality. Come sit with me, hear what I have to say, soak up the energy of being, and get your questions answered. You can “sit” at your desk during one of my online programs, join me at one of my gatherings in Los Angeles where I live, or come to our magical, transformational retreat at Esalen Institute, near Big Sur, California, September 9 – 14. Register online at www.esalen.org, type ‘jim dreaver’ into the search box, or call Esalen at 831-667-3005. For my full schedule of events, visit http://www.jimdreaver.com/teaching-schedule.html

A Story of Sexual Abuse

Stephanie , a middle-aged woman, had come to the workshop with a friend who had encouraged her to break out of her shell. “I’m sure you’ll learn something new that will help you heal,” her friend said, as they were driving down the coast to Esalen. As the workshop began, Stephanie was contracted and very sad, and revealed—when everybody shared a little about their particular story—that she was the victim of a long-ago traumatic experience of sexual abuse at the hands of her father. As a result, she hadn’t spoken to her father in years. She was overweight, having used food for self-protection, and lived with a lot of fear and paranoia, which had affected her sleeping patterns and everything else in her life. She had difficulty getting close to men, not trusting them, above all not trusting herself. She seemed to trust her husband, however, the only man she felt safe with. A few days into the workshop, Stephanie plucked up the courage to ask me a question. “How can you say that what my father did to me is not real? I think of him touching me when I was a child, and my whole being recoils. It was horrible!” “The event was definitely real when it happened, and that needs to be honored,” I said gently, “but telling yourself the story over and over again, reliving the memories, keeps the painful experience alive. When you see that you are not your story, nor your memories, but rather the beautiful, aware person who is here right now, everything will begin to change for you.” She took in what I said, nodding silently. Over the next few days, her energy shifted noticeably. She became much more present. She relaxed and smiled more, and confessed to the group that she was finally getting tired of the “victim” story she had believed all these years. She was even feeling more forgiving toward her father, realizing that she needed to forgive him for her own inner peace. At the end of the workshop, we gave each other a warm hug. “Thank you,” she said. “Something has changed in me. A burden has been lifted, and I feel lighter, freer… I am going to call my father when I get home. I realize now that he was acting out of his own troubled history when he molested me, and I want him to know that.”

A Meditation on Emptiness

Close your eyes (unless you are driving!), take a deep and slow breath, and imagine yourself, your whole being, as vast, empty, aware space… And realize that this space, filled with creative potential, is your true, spiritual nature… It is who and what you most essentially are… Hang out in that emptiness for as long as you want, until you feel really one with it… Then feel yourself rooted in existence, the flow of life, here, now… Actually sense your breathing, and feel the energy tingling in your hands and feet… Feel the vibration of now… Then open your eyes, and just abide in the feeling of being empty space, the plenum-void as Buddhists call it… The full-emptiness, because it is literally vibrating with energy and potential… Contemplate the mantra: “My thoughts come and go yet I, as an aware being, am always here…” Allow yourself to continue to dwell, for a few minutes, in the emptiness... Breathe consciously, and feel yourself as this alive, creative, loving presence that is here, now… Enjoy the feeling of ease, harmony, and flow you are experiencing… As you begin to notice, to actually look within and watch how thoughts, and especially the “I” and “me” thoughts, constantly arise and disappear in your inner visual field… Or hear them, or feel them… An insight may occur… You can think about anything and yet your thoughts do not create upset… You are literally senior to your thoughts… You realize that you can consciously choose your thoughts, and choose actions that will create good in your world…

A Personal Statement

I have seen that everything between my ears—including all ideas and images about “I” and “me”—are not real, yet I, as an aware, clear, and conscious human being, am still very much here… That, in a nutshell, is what I teach. That is what has to be seen to realize true, complete, and final (except for those occasional, inevitable, pesky human residues of old ego patterns!) freedom and happiness… The happiness that doesn’t depend on circumstances… This is my true nature, and yours. It is the true nature of every single human being on earth…

Self-Discipline and Vigilance

Discovering the truth of happiness within you requires a measure of self-discipline and vigilance. You don’t have to be extreme in these behaviors; extreme anything is usually a sign that your ego is involved, and thus is self-defeating. All that is required is a modicum of self-discipline and vigilance.

You need enough discipline such that when you get caught up in your “story” and find yourself in conflict, suffering in some way, you can bring yourself back to the present, to what is here, now—the feelings and sensations in your body, and your current circumstances in this moment.

     

You have to be curious about your own suffering—like I was when I had my awakening. You have to be willing to look deeply inside yourself to find out where you are still not free. And you need tremendous self-honesty, the courage to face the truth about yourself, your own inner “demons,” the things that are not so pretty in your character or behavior.

     

If it helps, you can welcome the suffering, welcome it because it is showing you where you are not yet free. You can remind yourself of the mantra: I am not my thoughts… I am a wise, loving, powerful being.

     

Then breathe deeply and slowly, let the mantra fall away, and come back to the alert, relatively thought-free space. Close your eyes for a few moments and imagine yourself as being empty space. Experience what it is like to be this clear, spacious awareness, this conscious, aware presence you are.

     

When you do this—and you are literally, in a sense, doing beingness—and so long as you don’t get distracted by some thought or story again, you will have the experience of freedom. You will realize that you are, indeed, not your thoughts, but rather the ever-present, changeless awareness in which everything, including your thoughts, comes and goes.