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3rd Millennium Gateway
A Guide and Index to Genuine Spirituality
Selections From Jan Kersschot's New Book
This Is It
Dialogues on the Nature of Oneness
Including Interviews With Eckhart Tolle, U.G. Krishnamurti And Tony Parsons
by Jan Kersschot
Table Of Contents
Foreword by Tony Parsons
Preface
Introduction
ONE: Where Are You Going?
TWO: Let It Be
THREE: Dialogues On The Nature Of Oneness
'The Invitation Is Always There' Interview with Tony Parsons
'You Are Space For My Face' Interview with Douglas Harding
'Beyond Masculine And Feminine' Second interview with Tony Parsons
'The Joy Of Sharing' Interview with Mira Pagal
'Making It Clear' Interview with Nathan Gill
'The Cosmic Joke' Interview with Chuck Hillig
'No Stone In My Shoe' Interview with Wayne Liquorman
'Perfume Of Peace' Interview with Francis Lucille
'Embrace Life Without The Mind' Interview with Vijai Shankar
'You Are The Pure Silence' Interview with Mark McCloskey
'The Place Of Not-Knowing' Interview with Eckhart Tolle
'Revelation Of The Divine Hand' Second interview with Francis Lucille
'A Mirror Reflecting' Interview with U.G. Krishnamurti
'This Is It' Interview with Jan Kersschot by Amigo e-zine
'Let It Be' Interview with Jan Kersschot by Watkins Review
Epilogue
There is no path to Being,
Being is the path.
When Being sees Itself,
there is only clear presence.
No matter what you hope 'It' is,
No matter what you imagine 'It' is,
'It' is different from that.
If you are looking for Liberation,
There is some bad news and some good news.
The bad news is that the person you think you are
will never find Liberation.
The good news is that what You really are
is already awakened.
Foreword by Tony Parsons
This Is It invites the seeker to investigate the possibility that there is no one and nothing that needs to be liberated. The author speaks easily and clearly about moving beyond effort, belief and path into a new perception that sees everything as the expression of wholeness.
Jan Kersschot interviews many communicators in his book, but he is one of the very few who speaks without compromise
about the direct perception that is available to all.
Tony Parsons, Author Of The Open Secret and As It Is
Preface
This book doesn't offer any form of therapy or healing, nor is it a teaching that suggests that there is a spiritual path leading to enlightenment. The awakening referred to in this book has nothing to do with your personal attributes. So don't expect any exercises or instructions on how to live life, because all prescriptive and goal-oriented approaches only confirm you are a seeker going to a better future.
Most popular teachings about enlightenment are based on the mistaken idea that there is a seeker who will finally attain
self-realization. What you might find here is the possibility of withdrawing the belief in the person who sits here reading this book. Just forget about the idea that something spiritual is going to happen to you. Maybe you will also find out that the separate individual you always believed yourself to be is just an idea, a concept in the mind.
When it is clear that the seeker is a ghost, what can you do? Can a concept attain something higher? Does this phantom
need any improvement at all? If there is no you, where are you going? Do you believe that a ghost can find Liberation?
Jan Kersschot
March 2004
Introduction
Most books about spirituality and enlightenment deal with personal growth. They suggest that there is a higher goal to be
reached; something the sages have attained which you haven't attained (yet). This only confirms your sense of separation. A
lot of these books are about 'you' who are supposed to do things in order to become better. They respond to your belief
that something is wrong with you, and that you have to work on yourself. These teachings confirm your belief that you have
to be more spiritual in order to be open to enlightenment.
All that is very attractive to the mind because these teachings give you hope. Maybe you felt a glimpse of enlightenment and
now you want to feel that all the time. Maybe you want to become like your spiritual heroes by imitating them or by doing what they tell you to do. Or your mind can do the opposite: you get disappointed because you realize you will never become as perfect as they seem to be. You realize that you will never 'get it'. Whether you desperately want it or whether you fear you will never make it, both options confirm you are a separate identity. What if the person you think you are is only a concept in the mind?
This book questions the common belief that there is a person reading these words right now; that you are an individual who is standing or sitting here reading this book; that you are a person who is holding this book in his or her hands. The identification with body and mind is very practical for everyday life, but when it comes to Liberation, it is interesting
to discover that your personality only exists as a phantom – an idea appearing in the mind. I don't expect you to believe
me in this matter, but just consider the possibility of what I am saying and see what happens.
The Liberation I refer to is quite different from the old idea about spiritual enlightenment that is still around: a higher state someone special received because he was chosen by the gods or because he worked so hard on it (for decades or even lives) that he was finally rewarded with the highest prize a human being can ever get. Once attained, this enlightenment is assumed to reflect perfection, peace, goodness and permanent bliss. To me, enlightenment has nothing to do with perfection. It has nothing to do with sitting on a throne. It is not about Jan looking down on other people. It is not about Jan leading his readers to a higher state. The concept of being Jan is just another image appearing in awareness. It has nothing to do with 'me' and still I can say, 'What I really am is life happening. And since nothing can be excluded, everything that appears is what I am. There are no more borders, although there are still concepts about borders appearing in the mind.'
The paradox in this book is of course that it seems to be about me and the people I have met during the interviews (see
part three). Don't pay too much attention to my story, or to their stories. Such stories usually focus on the personal aspects and the temporary elements of life, while this book tries to point at that which is impersonal and timeless.
Furthermore, if you focus on the meaning of the words, you may not sense what the words are pointing at. Words are
dualistic in nature, and will always fail in describing nondualism. But I have to use words: there is no other way when writing a book. That is why obviously this book is full of inconsistencies and contradictions. It attempts only to point at nondualism – knowing that nondualism can never be pointed at. So it is doomed to fail anyway.
Although I will have to use words like 'you' and 'me' and 'us', it is clear that these only exist as concepts in the mind. In fact, there is no 'me' and no 'you'. You may presume that I am talking to you through these words, but there is no one sitting here reading. The person you think you are is just a concept in the mind, a game of memory which gives it apparently a permanent status. It's a phantom. It is clear that if there is no separate 'you', I can't offer you a lot. What can one phantom give to another phantom? So I can't give you any hope, not because your situation is hopeless but simply because there is no 'you'. So don't expect any strategies or secret paths. Even when sometimes you have the feeling that I suggest you should be or behave in a certain way, read that particular book, go and see a particular teacher or give up whatever you think should be given up, ignore it: there really is nowhere to go. I can't bring you to where you already are. I can't give you your true nature if you are already being it.
The enlightenment this book is trying to point at has nothing to do with your spiritual materialism. Forget about all
your ambitions in this matter. If there is no 'you' then where should you go? What is the use of turning a concept into a
more holy concept? Even saying 'let it be', 'enquire into the self', 'accept what is', or 'do nothing' is still a subtle way of addressing the individual you think you are. What is the point of suggesting all this if the 'you' isn't even there? If the person is but a concept in the mind, what use is it trying to make it more spiritual? What use is it to become a better phantom? Can an illusion become enlightened?
Reading this book will not give you anything, but it may take away your spiritual ambitions. Not because you have to get rid of them, not because then you can reach something still higher, but simply because there is no 'you' in the first place.
ONE: Where Are You Going?
BEINGNESS
While reading the words on this page, you are conscious of them appearing in your present awareness, aren't you? Maybe you are also aware of certain parts of your body. All these images confirm that you are. You can't say, 'I am not'.
Experiencing this sense of being is maybe one of the most basic recognitions there is. Just being here, just being. Wherever you go, there is this same sense of being. No matter how you feel or what you think, this 'sense of being' is available to you and to everyone.
If you want to take a closer look at this being, or this 'Isness,' you may feel a certain discomfort because your mind is
not able to grasp Is-ness. The person you think you are will try to lay claim to it but it has nothing to do with you as a person. It has nothing to do with being in a special state of consciousness. As soon as you think you get it, it (apparently) escapes. It is like trying to grab a bar of soap in water: the harder you try, the more you fail. At the same time, it is obvious that 'it' is right here. Is-ness cannot escape, and yet you can never practise how to 'just be'. It is impossible because you are already doing it! It is obvious that this sense of being is never far away since it is witnessing your thoughts and emotions. So, it must be right 'here'. Being is the closest you can get and still the mind
fails to get hold of it. That is the paradox. How can something be so present and available and yet be incomprehensible for the mind?
Maybe you will see that this being is not a personal thing but that it's borderless. Where does being stop? Nobody can tell you where it ends. If it has no borders, if it's limitless, there can't be two of them; it is all-encompassing. We could call it Unicity because there is only one of it and it can't be cut into pieces. And the term Unicity is given a capital to emphasize its limitless nature: it encompasses everything that is witnessed. Although it is indescribable, you can give it any name you wish, like Awareness, Is-ness, Consciousness, the Unknown, the Source, Light or Presence. This is the Witness of Advaita, the Original face according to Zen, the Father of Christianity, the Buddha-mind of the Chinese Ch'an. Some call it Shiva, Brahman, Nirvana, God or Spirit. In this book, the word Beingness is used mostly because it sounds neutral. Other terms used here are Oneness, Life, Unicity, Silence, Space and It. In the end, the names or descriptions you use don't matter that much. Some terms however – especially the religious ones – can be quite confusing because then the mind may imagine it can put It into a specific frame and then take hold of It. Or you may believe you know what you are talking about because you know the meaning of the words. However, your brain and senses can't observe this Awareness, it is rather Awareness seeing Awareness. Light recognizing Light. Life mirroring Life. Is-ness seeing Is-ness. And Is-ness is all there is. There is nothing outside of it.
When you recognize that you inherently are this endless Beingness, that you are this Space without boundaries, the struggle to find or even feel Beingness ceases automatically. Where should you go to find It if It is everywhere? And realizing that, there is no longer a sense that you should be different from what you are in the present moment. There is also less investment in guilt and regret, and also less dependence on hope or purpose. It is the end of the subject–object relationship. It is the end of believing you are a seeker who has to attain a higher state.
Losing conditioning and beliefs lets life flow naturally. The sense of individual doership falls away. Still, things are
(apparently) being done. Like a mountain river, the water just flows. When a stone is encountered on the path, the water just goes around it and continues on its way. Everything is allowed to take its course, although there is no active process of allowing going on. You could say that on the spiritual level, nothing matters anymore, and yet there is no sense of detachment or indifference. It is just clear that there is nothing spiritual or religious that has to be done in order to express Is-ness, and at the same time everything is possible. Nothing is excluded. Everything (and everyone) can be as it is. That may sound like infinite freedom, but there is no person who can lay claim to this freedom. There is no more attachment to spiritual expectations or religious moral codes. When Oneness is seen, all these games of the seeking mind are seen as side issues. Everything is allowed to go its way, and it is recognized that this has been happening all along. Everything is already taking its course.
Looking for Oneness is not like a puzzle you have to solve, in which you take all the different pieces and try to figure it
out. It is just the opposite. The basic understanding is that the 'you' who needs to work it out is a phantom. When the central position of the 'you' is abandoned, there is just a gentle OK-ness, a liquid witnessing of what appears in life. When you recognize your true nature as Beingness, when Oneness is seen as all there is, there may be a fluid adaptability because the investment in a personal agenda becomes less important. The more this Beingness is recognized for what it is, the more you realize how ordinary it is to just be. It is not you recognizing Beingness, it is not a personal achievement, it is not a gradual process you have to go through, it is just Being recognizing Being. The 'me' you usually believe you are just can't manage it. It's simply about being without any sense that things could have been any different
from how they are. It's as simple as that. You don't have to still the mind for that because you are stillness itself. And this stillness allows all sorts of noises of the mind to appear in it, similar to space letting all sorts of objects appear in it.
WINDOWS TO BEINGNESS
The way Beingness is expressed seems unique for each individual. Everything you think or feel or do is conditioned by your genetic code and your personal programming, and that is how it is. On the human level, we all appear to be unique expressions of Oneness. This uniqueness is not just there in the daydream, but also in the (apparent) process of waking up. A seeker who reports a transcendental happening usually turns it into a personal experience. When you actually believe you have had an awakening experience you come up with an individual story, and the mind can get easily excited by that. But each
report of a personal Liberation is only another part of the daydream. Beingness itself cannot be described or experienced.
Such happenings can be windows into Beingness, like the sudden appearance of a white page in a book, or a white screen in the middle of a film. It is like Light seeing Light. When the images start to appear again, the mind comes in and starts to talk about what happened. The ego wants to understand. The seeker wants to claim 'it' as a personal achievement. The mind wants to own the white screen. The person wants to be a pure reflection of the Light. All these tricks of the mind only perpetuate the spiritual search.
Some masters report that they have come home to their true nature. There are many books in which you can find what people
describe as (their) awakening. In most cases, the story is presented as a personal achievement. However, some of them have
realized that this awakening has nothing to do with their person.
The realization of one's true nature may come to the surface in many ways, but it is important to notice that the way it
appears has no significance at all. There are no standard procedures. Some already live in the light, and just go
(apparently) from light to an ever bigger light. Very smoothly – without anyone noticing it – they seem to disappear into
Beingness. They usually don't report a major awakening experience.
Some seekers have been in misery and depression for several decades. When they discover the light, the change can be so
huge that they can have a major awakening event. That may be very blissful and peaceful – imagine how it is to strike a
match in a cellar if you haven't seen daylight for several decades – but the trap is that the first impact of that light is now considered as the standard of how one should feel all the time. You may believe you found it and then lost it again. In that case, you can chase that feeling of peace and bliss for the rest of your life. Although there is nothing wrong with that, although it is still an equal expression of Beingness, you are back in the horse race.
Some seekers have been looking for the Holy Grail for several decades. When all the burdens of the desperate seeking are finally dropped, the leap may be so huge that indeed it may come to the surface as a spectacular event, as a big relief. Such experiences can be very inspiring but can also be misleading. You can mislead yourself (and others) by presenting your
awakening experience as the standard to look for.
You can also mislead yourself by comparing yourself with others. Reading about other seekers' testimonies of what they call their awakening can be very confusing. It can easily become frustrating when you imagine you are not there yet as you
compare your own experience (or the lack of it) with the experience described by someone else. When the awakening event is personalized, your mind turns it into an experience. As a result, it is claimed as a personal reward the seeker has
attained at a certain point of time, and if the awakening continues to be there for the mind, the seeker may believe he
or she is actually awakened and has attained real enlightenment, not realizing that Enlightenment cannot be achieved by a
person. Even a transcendental experience can't bring you any closer to Beingness.
Still, transcendental happenings can be very inspiring indeed. Such events can unmask the belief in your personal story. It is the belief in being a seeker (or being an experiencer) that seems to overshadow the recognition of Unicity. When that belief suddenly drops away, there simply is 'what is' without any sense that things should be different from how they are.
Maybe you recognize the impersonal aspect of Beingness while you are outside in a natural environment, seeing that all
boundaries are gone and that there is no separate you to recognize it. Everything is just as it is. The natural elements are
good examples of Beingness that don't pretend to have the ability to be other than what they are. Your mind can't grasp it
and uses words like emptiness or wholeness; this is simply infinity seeing infinity. Maybe you recognize this wholeness
during a blissful moment while meditating or while making love: suddenly there is a sense of clear emptiness and nobody
being there to witness this emptiness.
Some people report opening to this wholeness while being with their spiritual master. Or maybe there is a recognition that
the seeker is a concept without ever having had a mystical experience at all. However, if there is still in the back of your
mind a gentle whisper that it is you who will be awakened, you will only be disappointed. There is simply nothing to chase, no hero to be imitated, nowhere to go. And why is that? Because the 'separate you' who does the chasing or imitating is conceptual. One of the tricks of the mind is to suggest that there is a separate you who can prepare for enlightenment, that you can actually attain enlightenment while others are still unenlightened. That is one of the many traps around. The belief in a personal Liberation is not bringing you closer to the Awakening referred to in this book. This Awakening is
impersonal. It is the natural way of being, and natural can mean just anything here.
Both transcendental happenings as well as flashes of intuitive insight are irresistibly compelling for the seeking mind because they often seem to function as 'windows' into Beingness. This is why they can have such a profound impact upon you, and why you feel drawn toward a deepening of this recognition, but that is exactly where the mind comes in and wants to turn
this into a process again. Finally you will have to forget about holy rituals, wise action, trying to be spiritual and all the rest. There are no steps or rules to attain Liberation. Where you are right now, that is exactly where you are supposed to be. How you are, is exactly how you are supposed to be. Even if you don't feel blissful or peaceful right now; even when you think you are still in the horse race.
Once you focus on blissful states, it only creates more separation between you and Beingness, or between the apparent you and the apparent others. All of it is just another expression of dualism. The same goes for the spiritual level of the guru. Your mind imagines that there is a border between you and the sage, but Beingness has no borders because there is only one of it. So Beingness doesn't have any hierarchy! You are invited to forget about all the spiritual heroes you heard of, and to ignore all the dogmatic teachings of the religious leaders you have read about. You are also invited to forget about the concept you have about yourself. Whether you think you are a loser or a winner is not relevant here. Even a neurosis and a depression are not able to take away Beingness. Even being peaceful and feeling at one with everything is not bringing you closer to Is-ness. Even 'spiritual experiences' are just images appearing, but these are not the Light itself. These images are not yours, even the concepts you have about yourself aren't yours, because the person you think you are is also an image passing by. Even the most blissful experiences you ever had aren't yours. Even your dark night of the soul isn't yours. And the same goes for 'your' pain, 'your' joy or 'your' bliss. They are happenings rather than experiences. Even 'your' transcendental experiences are but images passing by. Some of them seem to be very personal, but in the end they are not yours.
What you think you are is just a role you play, but what you really are is That in which all these experiences (including your character) are appearing. And That is not a special state, it is not something you can experience or see, it is what you are. It is the Light in the images of the film you believe you are playing in. So you will never experience Oneness – there is only Oneness. You will never attain enlightenment, there is only Light. All 'your' experiences – from sitting in a bus to the highest state of consciousness – are the content of Awareness, not Awareness itself.
The recognition of Beingness may (or may not) influence your concepts and belief systems. You may realize that all your
thoughts and perceptions are just ripples on the surface of the ocean. After Oneness is seen, the need to look for a spiritual goal is gone, the desire to imitate your spiritual heroes has vanished. It becomes ridiculous to compare yourself with others because it is seen that comparing is also a conceptual game. As a result, all your spiritual frustrations, all your religious pride and seriousness melt away. All the old thought patterns are now seen in a different perspective. You may realize that some spiritual teachers gave you more concepts about what you are, and added more concepts about how you should be. Being fascinated by all these concepts and belief systems, you added more weight to your precious collection of spiritual achievements. Stimulated by the belief you can reach a higher goal in the future, you tried to become more holy, more radiant, more peaceful, more intelligent, more spiritual, and tried to get rid of your bad habits or your bad karma. One day you see it is all about yourself. You are only playing an egocentric game. All this seeking is finally about your 'me' trying to become better, to be in a higher state. But the 'me' you think you are is just a ghost. It is just an actor playing in a movie. When the 'me' is unmasked, where is there to go?
The daydream is the common idea that you are a separate person living in that body, and that the others are living in
bodies, too. But as said before, nobody ever found this person. When the separate you is recognized as a construction of the
mind, the spiritual seeking is over, and automatically all the importance you gave to your religious growth is over. The
'normal' everyday life habits seem to go on, but all the ritualistic, hierarchical and dogmatic aspects of formal religion lose their importance when it is clear that it is all part of a conceptual game. You were only trying to feed your own materialism – no matter if it was through devotion, altruism, prayer, discipline or understanding. This doesn't mean that now you are going to criticize these organizations, or try and convince their followers that they are wrong and you are right, because that too would be a struggle with what is. What happens is that all your religious ambitions lose their impact on you. They are like toys you used to play with as a child. The whole game of trying to be more awake has simply been seen through. In a way, the old magic of following a path or imitating a spiritual hero is gone, and that may feel like you lost something, but what you've lost was only another construction of the mind. When all the spiritual authorities and traditions are put aside, you can just be. Just be in all simplicity without any plans, formulas or answers.
TEACHERS OF NONDUALISM
The teacher you are attracted to is just a reflection of what you are looking for. If you had a major transcendental experience while being with a particular guru, you are likely to get hooked on that teacher, or hooked on such an experience. And if that teacher is not satisfying any more, you may go and look for a stronger or more resonating leader. As long as you are looking for something, be it bliss, resonance or peace, you will encounter teachers or masters who will claim that they can give it to you. As long as this process is going on, it is OK to follow them. It is also OK to have spiritual experiences, and to look for more of those until there is the recognition that the 'final it' is not attained yet – and never will be. Until it is recognized that blissful experiences are appearing in It but are not It, it seems that all this seeking and all these special experiences can bring you closer, but not close enough.
Other teachers may look more ordinary, and focus on the intellectual approach of the spiritual search. They can challenge
some of your belief systems. Finally, one can encounter someone who leaves you with nothing whatsoever. No prescriptive
measure is given since it is made clear that there is no such thing as a spiritual path. There are only a few around who
don't compromise in this matter, who continue to say that there is nothing to chase because there is no spiritual seeker in the first place. Here the seeker's mind may be disappointed because there is no more hope, no more future. Even special experiences are not considered important any more. Even your most extraordinary spiritual achievements are not encouraged nor labelled as higher or more profound than your most ordinary sense of everyday life. Even comparing yourself with the
teacher falls away. This is the teacher who gives no basis for a maintenance of your personality. Then all that is left is presence. It becomes clear that searching for something special or trying to be peaceful and openhearted doesn't bring you closer to the very natural state you are always in, no matter how you feel or behave. Beingness is not something you can acquire as a result of your personal effort. The actor on the movie screen isn't able to walk up to the lamp in the back of the theatre. Nobody can bring you closer to the Light and nothing can take you away from It because Light is what you are. Beingness is what you are. And this Being is completely beyond any sense of values.
When all beliefs and expectations are abandoned, all the usual efforts to improve your life or to achieve a higher level of
consciousness evaporate. When the spiritual search is no longer important, there may be a resting in the immediacy of what is. Seeking the extraordinary, you overlook the splendour of the ordinary in everyday life. You overlook the simplicity of the open secret, which is available right here and right now. Enlightenment is not something you can reach and that will
make you special, something that will make you stand out in the crowd. It is just the opposite: you become nobody and
everybody at the same time.
ORDINARY AWARENESS
All this comes down to is ordinary present awareness. It is as simple as that: the awareness that allows you to read these words right now, that's it. That is really it! It is the same awareness that is glimpsed in your most spectacular mystical experience. It is the same awareness as the avatars and sages 'have'. The reason why I can say so without proving it is that this awareness is limitless, borderless, and as a result there is only one awareness. That's why 'your' awareness equals the Awareness. No need to look any further.
So if there is only one and it's limitless, nobody can be excluded. The Beingness I refer to in this book is not a personal
thing, and as a result It can't be limited to an exceptional few. It's not something I have and you don't have. It is not something 'out there'.
This book may help to break up many of the myths some spiritual seekers still have about enlightenment and their admiration of the 'awakened ones'. Liberation is just a matter of melting into what is, leaving behind the usual stories and beliefs about awakening. So really one doesn't awake, one simply stops pretending to be a separate person who needs to advance on the spiritual level. We are the Light, and the person we identify with is just another role the Light seems to play. And once it is seen that all the various costumes people put on are but temporary roles, it doesn't matter anymore what kind
of costume you are wearing. It is clear then that there is no need to change anything whatsoever in your play. The Light
doesn't care anyway. And that doesn't mean that you will lose your sense of responsibility, respect or compassion for others
after reading this book. Although there are no strict rules, most people who see what this book is about come to a natural
respect and compassion for others, not because their religious codes tell them to take care of others but because it is clear that there is only one Awareness and that we are all That.
The Liberation I am referring to is not something I have attained or even glimpsed, it is That in which the concepts about Jan's life are appearing. It is the infinite Space in which the images of 'getting enlightened' or 'not getting it' are
appearing. One could say that when the belief in the apparent separate person drops away, the presence of Oneness becomes
clear and obvious. Sometimes that recognition can be very spectacular, but not necessarily so. Many seekers have reported
similar 'experiences', but most of them don't realize it happened to nobody. So if I talk about Liberation, it didn't become clear and obvious to Jan but rather to Itself. The paradox is that it seemed to become clear to me while I wasn't there. That seemed to bring the spiritual search to an end. When that became clear, it was also obvious that the person I believed I was, is purely conceptual and always has been – although there is still on the screen the appearance of individuality for purely practical reasons. There is nothing wrong with the concept of being an individual appearing and disappearing. It is simply part of life happening. It's part of the opera. Both identification as well as non-identification are allowed to appear. The Jan I usually believe I am is not in charge. It is just an image appearing on
the screen. Whether this image still appears on the screen or not is absolutely not relevant at all. The Light doesn't even
know about Jan and all the others, the Light just shines. And that Light is what I really am.
There is only one player in this play, and that one player is doing it all. Even when the appearances of everyday life suggest that we are all separate doers and creators, there is only one Presence, one Beingness. And when you look at your own experience right now, there is already Presence available in its full glory. Nothing is lacking! And that can go with a sense of being open and feeling unlimited, but not necessarily so. Such a sense may even be confusing for the mind because the mind will associate a sense of peace and openness with being enlightened. Anyway, there is already Awareness here, and you don't have to do anything for that. When this is understood, it is obvious that it is unnecessary (and impossible) to improve Beingness in any way at all. There is nothing you can do for or against It, there is nothing you can do with It and nothing you can do without It. How could the actor on the screen ever be able to improve the Light?
The Light is so available and at the same time nobody notices It. Nobody ever notices It because Beingness cannot be noticed or recognized. It is closer than you can imagine since It is what you are. At the same time, It is reflected
everywhere. That is the open secret. So, the personal life story goes on, the role you play is not interrupted but there is less personal engagement in the individual role because the rigid belief in your life story falls away. The movie of your life goes on, but you know that you aren't a character, you are the Light, and the Light has no borders, which means it is reflected everywhere. When I say everywhere I really mean everywhere: nothing or nobody is excluded. When that is clear, there is truly nowhere to go, no more seeking approval, nothing to attain, nothing 'higher' to hope for. Now you may stop
believing that Liberation is all about 'you'. Once the whole game of the mind is seen through, there is no way back. Then
there is just this, just Presence. Just Beingness.
Copyright© 2004
Jan Kersschot
All Rights Reserved
Watkins Publishing, London, UK
ISBN: 1 84293 093 1
Reprinted with permission
Ordering
You can order Jan Kersschot's This Is It from either Amazon.com or Book Sense.
Additional Information
www.kersschot.com
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