Meetings in Toronto

Meetings are on hiatus right now, as I complete a farm job until October. Internet stuff always available, email at thielmannator@hotmail.com or skype me at michaelthielmann if you want to chat! Facebook name Michael Thielmann.

Last satsang till October

March 12 Meeting

January 29 Meeting

Saturday Jan. 15 Meeting

November 2 Meeting

Email at thielmannator@hotmail.com for a One to One. (skype or phone).

Friday, December 25, 2009

Who's the wise guy?

As a seeker, it seems like there are actual wise gurus out there, who have stumbled upon profound insight that seem out of my grasp. At this point, I begin trusting the 'wisdom' of these people to whom I assign status, meaning, and create a gap of inaccessibility.

The apparent wisdom comes from a direct investigation, looking at one's own Self, and present condition here and now. It's not a result of being a special person with a bunch of nebulous concepts that the lay-person can't understand.

It's like the clichéd story about the seeker who climbs the mountain, and the wise guru tells him that all the answers are within. This is a much more helpful pointer than the idea of "I know the answers, let me tell you how things are." Anyone who is clear on this will inevitably point to something direct and simple, here and now. A simple looking at the immediacy of one's experience reveals that there are no wise guys, and no guys that need to wise up- only the infinite wisdom and love of Being.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Special moments for "me"

The idea of being a seperate self is all about looking for that special moment. What you are is in no need of such thing, since what's happening now is so totally beyond expectation that the 'seeker's imaginary goals pale in comparison. As seperate selves, we live life as beggars, restlessly moving from one bit of pleasure to the next, hoping for the ultimate thing, someday, somehow. As we look into what we are, it becomes more obvious that this seeking mechanism is just a momentary appearance, and has nothing to do with what we are at all.

The last bit of fullfillment, where is it now? The last orgasm, last bit of chocolate, last meditative experience- all dead and gone. What you are is vibrantly alive and brimming with the life force of unconditional love- for lack of better words. Special moments in the future imply something missing now- is this the case?

What we are is the special moment itself, but not the way we imagined. This is beyond imagination, but immediately more REAL than any imaginary 'me' could ever touch.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

The paradox of what we are NOT

For what you are, none of the 'rules' of the mind apply. Non-conceptual awareness or divisionless being doesn't have questions or doubts. We often hear of these paradoxes that arise during the 'search,' and the mind would love to resolve them. The key is to see that none of this stuff is even relevant to what you inherently are, as you read this sentence. The notion of being a seeker is essentially a paradox or problem unto itself: why am I "me", and why aren't I whole and complete?

The real meat of this stuff is seeing that none of these imaginary entity notions even touch what you are. Right now, as always, you shine brightly behind the mental activity, unaffected and unconcerned with the important task of seeking (or stopping seeking!) Look directly into the heart of the matter (your own Self) and you can drop the whole notion right now.

How fun is "me-ing?"

Pretending to be a seeker can be fun, at times. It seems like I'm going to make it, any moment now. The next technique or teacher offers something even greater, just over the horizon. If only I keep at it, fighting away at all my important spiritual issues that prevent me from realizing what I already am.

If we look right now, we can see this stuff for what it is. The struggle of being a seperate seeker is very seductive- offering up major prizes in an imagined future state. It's like thinking about being at a party, when you already ARE the party.

What you are is a lot more fun than the activities of me-ing, which is basically an addictive and unfulfilled potential. We seek enjoyment of life, from the perspective that I'm a person who needs something to start enjoying life.

If we investigate directly, we see very clearly that what we've always been is the enjoyment we seek.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

No room for a seeker.

If you really look right now, you can see that there isn't actually any room in reality for this notion of a seeker. There is only wholeness or fullness- the Being that you ARE, and cannot avoid Being. Since this is Oneness without a Secondness, this whole seeker notion must also be That, arising as a harmless game in what you really are. Look, investigate directly. See what gives you so much confidence in asserting your existence- it's not in the mind. You do exist, just not in the way that thinking has suggested. See that the unmoving and aware nature that you are remains constant, while all else is free to change. You aren't a seeker now, see the home-free nature of your being itself.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Is there even a seeker?

Are you a seeker who's reading this? Is that really what you are? If I take myself to be a seeker, I'm really going to resist the message that "I am THAT". The whole thing ends now in seeing that I was never this imagined "seeker".

Who is aware of the comings and goings of this apparent entity doing the seeking? By its very nature, the awareness would have to be more real than the patchwork set of concepts we call ourselves.

Are you willing to really see that what you are is awareness itself, or are you content pretending to be a spiralling, made-up seeker who holds out hope for a better future? You can't not be this presence of awareness, no matter how good at pretending to seek you get.

No next moment

This is actually all there is. I know we've all heard it, a lot of us believe it, but this literally IS IT. There isn't a place for seeking to start here, and there's no need for anything to be different. What you are is whole, complete, and self obvious. There won't be a next moment better than this one. There won't be a next moment at all. There isn't even 'this' moment. No past, no future, no now.

All you are, is this. The blankness just beyond the words. You aren't any-thing, you don't need anything, all there is, is that YOU ARE.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Who needs to be ready?

The suggestion on my site about being ready to die can be quite misleading. What it's really pointing to is seeing the false nature of our conceptual self, and being willing to let go of it. What we are cannot die, it's just a matter of seeing our timeless aware nature directly, right now.

Being a "me" is like carrying a big garbage can around. It's heavy and it stinks, but I'm pretty sure there's some money in the bottom of it somewhere. So I take with me wherever I go, and pick around in it, tell people about it, and compare my garbage with other peoples' garbage. We talk about how close we're getting to finding the treasure, and about how much we hate the smell.

Someone walks up and tells us to drop the garbage can, because there's nothing of value in there. I clutch it closer, and defend it with my life because I'm sure there's something of value in there, if only I have more time to seek it out and get past the bad smell.

If we see what we are, the garbage of me-ing will be dropped because the true treasure has been seen. There's no treasure in our treasured concepts. See that you are the light behind this heavy can of concepts. No one needs to be ready to be what they are.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

"En-heavy-ment"

Charlie Hayes once alluded to how serious people can take this stuff, to the point of becoming ever more serious and enslaved by the obligation of seeing something properly. We take on the idea of having to "get it right", and compare ourselves with others that we imagine have gotten it right. The nature of what we are is simple and present, with a quality of light-ness about it. The word "enlightenment" may simply be pointing to this childlike nature that is present and aware right now. It's not a state to be reached by anyone, because the notion of a "someone" is just a bunch of heavy concepts arising in the Light of Being that we are.

Keep it light- don't worry. See that you are this awareness, even if there still appears to be a search or a process. There's no need to go into the heavy concepts, just see that you are the light prior to burden of self.

Search or no search, self or no self, you are that same shine-ingness that you cannot avoid.

There's nothing wrong that there's nothing wrong.

Inspired by Charlie's latest podcast with John Wheeler I decided to look into a core notion that drives the whole seeking mechanism. http://beingisknowing.blogspot.com/

As long as I took myself to be some type of seperate entity, there was always something wrong, to a greater or lesser extent. I was always driven to try to compensate for the "wrongness" of life, and my existence was focused on small moments of being ok, through some sort of psychological gratification.

For what we are right now, there is nothing wrong. Look and see, if the natural Being-ness that you are has a problem. Notice how concepts arise about problems, solutions, and the like. See that what you are is fundamentally present and aware, and is not affected by these notions.

For whom is there something wrong? Where is this elusive problem maker? The seeking is perpetuated by believing that I am a limited entity with a problem of some kind. There are plenty of options to try to remedy this supposed problematic person, but it's much easier to see that I'm not this imagined entity.

Get familiar with the natural presence of beingness that's always been right here. See what's wrong with that, and see what's wrong with there being nothing wrong.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Jesus didn't need the Bible, Buddha was not a buddhist.

If we look at people who have (clearly) shared this message, there seems to be a commonality. They did not rely on any 'outside' authority. Jesus wasn't referencing anything to prove his 'points,' he merely spoke out of the revelation that was apparent to him. Buddha didn't say "become a buddhist," he too simply pointed to our true nature. Of course, I'm merely speculating by saying this. The key thing to see, is that there's no need for anything besides what you already are.

How much scriptural referencing, podcasts, or reading of these words does it take to be who you already are? The best anyone can do, is point back to your Being as directly as possible. The mind has butchered clear pointers in the 'past', and it continues to do so today. See past the mind's high threshold of BS, and know that you are the clarity itself. Oneness needs no second opinion.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Just one last "me"

The nature of pretending to be a seperate self is, as Tony says, the greatest addiciton in the world. There can be an incessant clinging to these familiar yet limiting concepts. Who would choose to graps onto ideas that make for suffering? The real key is clarifying your ACTUAL identity, before the concepts kick in at all.

It's a matter of seeing that you are present, aware, and inherently free right now. There's no need for that one last "me" concept that needs resolution, the beingness is already established and doesn't need the last "hit" of whatever seems important.

The nature of reality (what you are) stands in the clear at all times, with no possibility of improvement or diminishment. See the concepts as concepts, and know that prior to all this mental jibberish, you are That already.

Monday, December 7, 2009

A message from Charlie

Here is a message from Charlie Hayes, on the subject of clear pointing. Much thanks for his no BS approach to all of this.

"Any sense of some identity with a problem (such as 'energetic contraction') or some need for an 'event' (such as some describe) keeps the seeker seeking. It took three years (after first talking with John and then traveling to Australia to be with 'Sailor' Bob) for me to really clarify this and to see that these "teachers" were not really delivering a pure, simple message. My standard (and this is my own and only my own standard) is represented in the five recent Podcasts on my site, with John Wheeler.

In the past I have interviewed (or been interviewed by) many others, some of who have great pointers to offer, but I find that after a few years of 'seasoning' (for want of a better term) that DAMN FEW ACTUALLY deliver the quality of pure message that Bob and John are offering. My message has been refined over the years (as Bob's was and is) to better mirror the reality of the FACT that your Being is already free and no event is needed to 'resolve any issue' nor is there any such real thing as a seeker with problems or issues ... IN ACTUAL FACT.

Bare Naked presence is simply NEVER missing! Until THAT gets clearly pointed to ... and finally 'noticed' ... well, the BS can go on for a very long time.

That said, there is NO 'problem as such' with ANY expression: There is gold in them there hills, even if the hills themselves are covered with dead trees (false concepts)... if one can learn how to dig the gold can be mined. BUT: Why would anyone endorse or promote a teacher type who has a 'professional spiritual teacher' game going? And who muddies the water with unnecessary conceptual "spiritual noise?"

I say that the original message of there being only already freedom, that who we are is that freedom and absolutely nothing is needed to "attain" what is ALREADY fully present here and now... for absolutely everyone.... that most usually gets distorted, in the typical "spiritual marketplace", not because there is malice aforethought, but because the 'teacher' does not REALLY understand what works, which is simple pointing devoid of conceptual baggage!

One last thing: to make the claim "there is no person THEREFORE there is nothing to be done is a flat contradiction to what the true sages (i.e. Ramana, Nisargadatta) have pointed out. What there IS to be done is a cogent investigation into what is REAL and the discarding of any and all concepts of identity. The cleaner the pointers the quicker that happens, in my experience.

Just my take. And none if it is to be believed, accepted, or taken on board as some 'truth'. The truth that is told is NOT The Real Truth full stop! The simpler the pointing the more potent and THAT is why so few expressions get linked at present on my site. Willy-nilly linking to any half-baked teaching is in this view (outside all viewpoints) a disservice. That said, again there ain't nothin’ wrong here there or anywhere. But I am a big fan of discrimination, in the vein of Adi Shankara and those of that ilk, currently Bob, and John Wheeler. Sorry to say, I find damn few others who stick to the real message with no baggage!

If the adherent to some ‘professional spiritual teachers’ really listen again to Podcast #5 I feel something one may still be a bit blind to can be recognized about all this... Anyway, being alive, awake, and the infinite possibility of communication, transformation and absolute freedom, I AM that I AM, and so are YOU... and THAT is ... LOVE!
Enough said. Let's pull the plug now."

Your friend in Freedom,

Charlie

Clear or not clear? Who's the authority?

Is this a clear, uncompromising expression of nonduality? What about the other sites I've read? What about all the apparent discrepencies between teachers, teachings, or non-teachers and non-teachings? How can we know what's trustworthy and what isn't?

The whole dilemma and apparently problematic questions arise from not seeing clearly what we are, right now. The mind loves to categorize, compare, accept and reject. It doesn't matter who's clear, as long as what we are IS. The mind can debate its important issues forever.

As a seeker, I compared teachers and teachings and tried to find air-tight parameters as to who was clear and who was not. In the end, I just trusted my own intuitive knowing, as I had really done all along. What's the point of debating in duality, when we are already the uncompromising nondual reality itself? This message isn't clear, what you ARE is the clarity itself.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Much Gratitude

This message is all about gratitude to those that shared the simple and obvious. It's only fair that I recognize those that told it to me straight. The following are clear and direct pointers to the divine love that we are.

Charlie Hayes- www.theeternalstate.org
Tony Parsons- www.theopensecret.com
John Wheeler- http://thenaturalstate.org
Jeff Foster- www.lifewithoutacentre.com

Check out the bloglist at the bottom for more potent pointers.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

It's all too much

A common feeling for me as a seeker was simply the "too much-ness" of life. Waking up to another day was heavy and dreary at times, as I fought tooth and nail to make something happen to get my life working properly. Desperate seeking through whatever means I deemed "hopeful", including the dreaded and sought after enlightenment. I really never wanted enlightnemnet as it really is, only my version of it. The real deal was always too much for "me" to handle.

Life, as it is, is enlightenment. Sadly, there's no room for anyone seperate in it. So there are no enlightened people, but no unenlightened ones either. It's too much for the mind to handle, and it doesn't need to.

This is the big break for the mind. It breaks itself trying to understand this, and ultimately the seeing puts the brakes on the seeking. This is the case right now, in seeing that this is enough, but not "too much."

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Simple Experiments

Try to find your centre, right now. Is it in the head, or somewhere in the stomach or chest? Where, exactly? Look directly into the supposed central "me-ness," then look for the centre of that.

Close your eyes, and try to find what shape you are. Where do you end? Open your eyes, and do the same. Where does what you call "you" end, and the "other" begin? What about the point where they meet, who is there at that place?

Gaze into your eyes in the mirror. Who is seeing what, and what is the awareness that contains it all?

Find the most real thing in your experience, right now. What's the most stable, solid, and reliable "thing" where you are right now?

Look into that troublesome loop of thoughts and feelings, and see if there's anyone being tossed around in there. Notice that you are the sky, in which the maelstrom or the peaceful weather can occur.

Stop a moment and see the show, as the show. Thoughts, feelings, notions of self-hood or non-selfhood all appear and disappear. You don't.

True Believer

How many thoughts have you had in the last 5 seconds that were true? Which of your many complex and spiritualized belief systems can stand up to naked investigation? How much "you-ness" can survive a head on and direct look? This pointing is not meant to create believers, martyrs, fundamentalists, or arguments. It's meant to dismantle the notion that there is anyone, to have anything to do with anything, spiritual or otherwise. Primarily, it's a pointing to what is true, but beyond belief. What is, right now, is naked, invisible and can be sensed intuitively as real. It requires no belief, and no believ-er. What you are, is what is always being pointed to.

How many young kids need all these words to be what they are? What you are in deep sleep is exactly what you are now. See what comes and goes, and know that you are behind and beyond.

No one needs to still the mind or the emotions. Seeing that they come and go, it's obvious that You do not.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

No blame, no excuse.

The human mind is very good at certain things. It can point the finger anywhere it wants, and be right, every time. It can excuse itself from all fault and wrongdoing, and justify every action. Or it can turn on itself and become a mechanism of self-loathing, collapsing into depression. The dysfunctional nature of the mind is seen through, by seeing that "you" are not a product of the mind at all. Who would choose all of the adverse effects that thought so readily spits out? Even to say "the mind" gives too much credence to a faculty that is completely dependent and subservient to what we really are. In seeing that I am the changless awareness in which thought happens, there's no longer anywhere to put the blame, even on "me". There's also no excuse for not seeing clearly, because there are no obstacles to what we are. During the search I would blame circumstances, people, and whatever I came across as to why I was still seeking and suffering. There's no fault in any of this, but the ball is in our court at all times. To see what we are, right now, or to suffer the effects of being what we are not.