Buddha: So, what have you been today, a Rose or a Lily? The truth is you have been unconcerned with all. There is a reality beyond that of knowledge, beyond that even of acceptance. It is the reality of just being-ness.
One knows when one has reached this stage for one is neither concerned with the state of the lily or the rose, one simply just is. Up until then be aware of who you are.
It is important for all of you to have days of rest. Days where you allow the mind to calm, even be listless, where you enjoy game playing, where you give yourself nothing much to do. You refer to these times as holidays. Yet even on holidays you can seemingly charge the mind, believing that because it is different information such as that picked up at a historical sight than what you’ve previously known, it’s a break.
Ensure that at all times that you give yourself breaks. It is through breaks that you will prosper. Perhaps not in the material sense, but certainly within a health and well being sense. And from all that I have seen and witnessed this is what you need more than anything else. So enjoy your times of rest and give them to yourselves deliberately and guilt-free.
Conversation with Buddha and Zoe: Right Use of Mind
Buddha: We need to get to the bottom of why people do not choose to use their minds correctly. A well working mind is like a well-oiled machine: it takes you clearly, decisively and definitively to where you need to be. Yet people choose to allow their minds to rust and take them down roads and paths to oblivion. There needs to be recognition, first, that the minds of men need to change.
Second, there needs to be a clear understanding that change can exist and thirdly, there needs to be easy to use methodical, logical, dependable, un-debatable tools. You cannot escape the mind although the mind can escape you. This is not something to be feared or fearful of.
Mind simply exists. It was created as a means of allowing humans to rise above that of the levels of animal. As I’ve said before, this has happened. However, for many this has meant dipping below the level of animal. With needless violence, killing, disgracing, maiming and shocking. What for? For the purpose of satiating an out of control ego.
Buddha: Lets speak more about mind. As you know there is no one conscious reality, there is no one consciousness. Instead, there are interlinking realities. And what is that interlinking reality? Love: love inter-relates all. What do we mean by love? The ability to be joyous in just being.
The flower is just a flower. A rose doesn’t try and be a lily; it simply extends the best of itself to try and meet the sun as a beautiful expression of the creative wonder of God. And this is what we want for humanity. If you are a rose don’t try and be a lily. If you are a lily don’t try and be a chrysanthemum. Simply be, learn to be.
There is nothing to do there is no way to be, other than through the suspension of mind. Yet, interestingly, it is mind that inter-relates all. There are many paradoxes to this as there are many layers of reality. What is real for your cat Zoë, is real. What is real for the bird that the cat is watching, is real. What is real for you watching the cat watch the bird, is real. What is real for me is the connective force that unites all of us, of which I am part, and the willingness for a transcendence. The transcendence of the current state of humanity. This current state is nothing but a state mind. When enough people change their state of mind there will be a change in the state of reality. This is not hard. It is easy to do and it starts with every individual taking account of their lives, their works and choosing to wake up.
Spending your time as a rose trying to be a lily is exhausting. Ultimately you will fail. But understanding that you are some sort of flower that through becoming peaceful with the self turns out to be a rose will be a wonder. And this is what we wait on: the return of the rose.
How do you know if you’re a rose trying to be a lily? It hurts. How do you know if you’re a lily trying to be a rose? It hurts. You are reaching for something that is beyond your form, beyond essence, beyond your blueprint, yet you bend and twist and dye, and contort. And ultimately there will be no peace, there will be no stillness, there will be no wholeness- there will only be pain for a rose cannot be a lily and a lily cannot be a rose. How do you know if you are a rose? You are a rose and you have peace. How do you know if you are a lily? You are a lily and you have peace.
What is peace? A fundamental feeling that all is well and all is well with you.
All that is not well can be resolved. Some things will take large efforts, some things will take smaller efforts. But ultimately only a rose can be a rose and ultimately only the lily can be the lily. To try and be something else is to inflict pain. This is not the purpose of a rose even though it has thorns! This is not the purpose of a lily even though its pollen can be toxic! A rose is a rose and a lily is a lily. Let that be for now.
Conversation with Buddha and Zoe: It Simply Is (Part 3)
Buddha: So once peace has been established, once there is recognition of it is, then there can be resolution. But this resolution need not be the end point, for what does this resolution mean? In some cases the end of suffering will come from having peace with what simply is. When the mind can let that go there can be an immediate and everlasting end of suffering with this issue. However, in other cases this will not be so.
There will be an immediate end of suffering and then there will come the realisation that action, rightful action, action borne out of the desire to end forms of suffering entering into one’s life, to end one’s karma with these particular issues will ensue. An example is, “Why, why, why, this hurts, this hurts, this hurts. I want this car, why can’t I have it. I feel so unhappy I can’t have this car. Life is poor, I am poor.”
When there is an understanding of it, there will be a resolution and for some this will mean an acceptance that a perception of poverty is acceptable. And for others there will be the understanding that, ‘Yes, it is and this is not the way I wish to live my life therefore I will take action’. But rightful actions are very different from the actions coming from the needs to satisfy our desires that will lead to suffering. So some actions will end suffering, some actions will lead to suffering.
This is why we ask you to consider the concept of rightful action. Does this lead me out of my karma of pain or does this lead me into another karma of pain? How does one distinguish which is which? One simply knows. If one is unsure one finds a place of stillness and asks the question once more. There is nothing difficult in this. If one is unwilling to find a place of stillness to ask a question of oneself, then one is creating karma of pain and suffering. This must be made clear. This is the end of this lesson.
Buddha: The aim of my discussions with you, Zoë, is to bring stillness into the lives of many, and as I was on earth, to relieve the suffering of the many. The suffering that is just and unjust. By that, we mean the suffering that is created by us and that which life unfolds for us.
Man was not made to suffer. So why does he we hear you ask. Over-development of the intellect: plain and simple. It has become a muscle that has become too strong, too strong for the creative urges of man, too strong to be able to let go with any ease. Intelligence was given to you as your species came down to exist here on earth. Your gene pool was taken from that of the animals and you were developed, given the gift. Yet though the gift was given from God, from all that is, it has become what has taken you away from all is, and fundamentally this needs to be rectified. We need you now to use your minds to learn to train and control your intellect. To take that muscle and through work, through dedication, allow its control to become flaccid and its repartee- its ability to distinguish what is right and wrong in a situation- to remain. So if you like, what is needed is a lobotomy and this muscle needs to be halved in size. Once halved in size it will become equal once again and be able to balance with mankind’s other gifts, its creative urges, its flows, the intuition, and the instincts. There is nothing that cannot be achieved on earth. Not through the intellect but through the creative flow and then the utilization of intellect henceforth.
I listen to the suffering of many. “Why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why?” No answer comes. However, “Why, why, why? This hurts, this pains, this hurts, this pains, this hurts, this pains. I wish for, I wish for, I wish for, I wish for, I wish for.”
What does this get?
“Why, why, why, why, why, why, this hurts, this pains, this hurts, this pain, I wish for, I wish for, I wish for.”
The resolution to suffering is not within the mind it is in the end of mind.
This is short today Zoe and it is very straight. We end this suffering from the cessations of mind. By this we mean the cessations of mental desire. Pointless mental questionings that are incapable of answers. “Why?”, “Because.” “Why?”, “Because.” “Why?”, “Because.” “Why?”, “Because.”
From now on when someone asks, “Why”, say, “It simply is.” This need not be pain, this need not be suffering. Accept the simply is and find the peace there in. There is no movement from this point for mind, except to take you away from this point. When you are taken away from this point the suffering and pain will begin once more. “Why, why, why?”. “It simply is”. Find the peace from this point and be aware that only the mind can take you away from this and you will resume pain and suffering. “Why, why, why?” I needn’t go on now Zoe.
Do you know that all enlightenment is this simple? Goodbye for now.
Buddha: What you’ve to understand is that all is here. All is neither waiting nor ready, it simply is. This is what can be tapped into. You have been fed information about slipstream and how all exists within the slipstream below the level of conscious thought. By bringing consciousness to the fore, thought becomes secondary, and an awareness of slipstream becomes primary. Now what happens in slipstream? Different ways of being: you simply are; it simply is. All is expansion; all is contraction. All is resonance and all resonates with the beat of God. It is within this slipstream that you can tap into being one with nature; but even nature is another level to be moved through.
For, as thought presides over consciousness, for many of you nature presides over reality. Reality, I hear you say, isn’tthat the domain of conscious thought? There is a truth, there is a harmony, there is an equinanimous resonance deeper than all of that. As deep as the deepest part of the sea, as wide as the widest part of space: yet it is neither space nor sea, but existing beyond form and beyond the levels of form.
Within this reality, within this stream, you will meet me. We will talk again.
So we all exist, all of us, as one but in the slipstream below the level of conscious thought. I say below for we are always there underneath the conscious thought. The conscious thought is like the interference on the television screen of old that becomes all absorbing. Imagine a person who, rather than watching the screen, begins to watch the interference around the side of the screen, and so misses the main show. This is what’s happening. The main show is missed. To some extent this has always been. However, there is more at stake within your world at the moment. Hence, my return.
So I say that we are all here existing below the level of conscious thought for if you take away conscious thought and begin to breathe, “da-da” there we are! (I do have great humor Zoe and I like to use it.)
So what do you need to do to become mindful of the show? Breathe: simple as that. This has been heard many times before and it will be heard many times after this has been recorded and typed.
Breathing, breathing, when one is conscious of breathing and one opens ones eyes life is simply happening; it just is. In this case Zoe as you have opened your eyes there are birds flying in the trees, the clouds are moving across the sky, there is traffic on the road nearby, in the reflection in the window you can see the palm trees waving in the wind. This is all simply happening; it is all simply being. Now if you were to become involved in the interference of your mind where would this go? Nowhere! It simply would continue to happen without you noticing it and what would you have missed? You would have missed being in the present in your own life. So what is the price of this? For many there is no question, the price is too high. But others choose to become involved in the interference and we move on to the subject, Zoe that we have been making you aware of, the pursuit of pleasure.
How do you feel Zoe opening your eyes, breathing?
Z: Peaceful.
MB: Yes, are you concerned?
Z: No.
MB: Are you worried?
Z: No.
MB: Are you desiring?
Z: No, not even that cup of tea.
MB: Simply by breathing and opening the eyelids. Isn’t that amazing? Now let’s put you into a different situation Zoe. Let’s put you into a busy office. Imagine one where the phones are ringing, people are talking, there’s artificial light, there is work in front of you, your in-tray is bigger than your out-tray. Imagine you sitting in this situation at your desk and picture yourself breathing and opening your eyes. How do you feel?
Z: Peaceful.
MB: What is happening around you?
Z: Life.
MB: Do you have any desires in that moment?
Z: No.
MB: Now let’s move you into a different situation- one that my forefathers are said to have experienced. Let’s put you into the middle of a battle zone. Open your eyes and breathe.
Z: Don’t know if I could do that Buddha.
MB: What would you be doing if you couldn’t do that?
Z: I would be looking around me to see if anyone is going to kill me. I wouldn’t feel I was capable of relaxing or switching off my adrenaline system. I feel I would need the heightened reality to live.
MB: Ok, what would it take for you to breathe? A God to visit you?
Z: Yes.
MB: You know the story Zoe and I know the story too. There are times when the human system is built for dealing with such stress, such chaos, and such heightened senses of the need to survive. You have, after all, evolved from the animal kingdom where this is a highly necessary part of their reality. To switch off your sensory system may involve in your own death.
