michaelg's Blog

When you return to your true home you stand with Jesus as a single one, in the place where there has never been a second. Without a second you are free. If by your direct experience, you know the meaning of I, you will know exactly what Jesus was talking about. That’s because you will be looking through the eye of Jesus. From here you will see things the way they really are.

When you look to the core of the world, you find unbroken Love, Consciousness, and Life that was never born and will never die. The rest is just a story created out of ignorance. The way to truth is to find out what you are even now. Then beyond a shadow of doubt, you will know the meaning of the teachings of Jesus. The word I is a pointer to the place where you really stand.

Best wishes for your meditations,

Michael

Thank you for these long messages on purification and the teachings of Jesus. It is natural
that when you feel suffering you feel impure and want to cleanse yourself with the goal of
ending that suffering.

But you should know that Jesus, as well as every other sage, taught a secret, and people
who discover this secret become exceedingly joyful. It is, “The kingdom of heaven is within
you.” This means that when you feel suffering it is a pointer to look within and discover what
you already have.

Suffering is like a shoe that doesn’t fit. It is just irritating. You feel that you have to find an
answer. Few people realize the simple fact that happiness does not come from the objects
that they see. These objects cannot destroy your happiness either. You find happiness in
the exact place that you experience it, in your own heart.

This happiness comes from a source that is so deep that we just overlook it. Trace this
happiness to its source and you will find out how things are before they get divided up into
separate religions; into young and old; rich and poor; well and sick: and smart and dull.
Here you will find a joy that does not depend on the condition of the world, your mind, or body.

This is truly, “The peace that passes all understanding.” Stand here and you will find the joy
that never ends. Here you will find a deep oneness with your Lord. This oneness was before
the world was. Now that you know of this possibility, look within and return to your true home.
Here you will find the deepest meaning of the teachings of Christ.

Best Wishes,

Michael

Yes, looking within yields amazing results. They occur outside your
normal and expected frameworks. That’s what makes these results
fresh and always interesting.

Best Wishes,

Michael

Here is my blog on karma. I hope that this begins to clarify this term:

Is there an end to karma?

Lately people have been asking me questions about karma: “Are these situations in my life the result of bad karma?” “I don’t mind dying because I know that I will be born again.” I don’t usually sit around trying to define technical terms but since karma has almost become an English word, I think it is worth knowing what it means and how you experience it.

As far as waking up to your original nature is concerned, any limiting concept that you need to examine and let go of, you can do in this lifetime. Whether the concept apparently came from past lives or from this one is irrelevant. You only need to see that limiting conceptual frameworks are unnatural thought patterns that you can let go of in an instant.

So what is karma anyway?
So with all of this being said, let’s take a look at karma. It is often said that karma is the result of your actions that fructify over time. But karma is more subtle than that. After all people can do the same action for completely different reasons. For instance, killing to protect your grandma is different than killing as you attempt to rob her. So karma is really the effect of your motivation as you act. 

The karmic results of your actions could affect your physical environment such as the type of body you are born in, human or animal, the family you are born into, and your county etc.

Karma can also affect your mental environment such as your fears and desires, your talents, and how your concepts will affect you in this life. Any parent can tell you that children born in the same environment can have completely different personalities. This may be due to different Karma.

The three types of karma
There are three types of karma. Parabda karma is the karma that plays out in this lifetime. Then, as you exhaust the karma in this lifetime, you desire new things and fear new things too. Thus you create new karma to be resolved in the future called agami karma. This agami karma gets put in your bank account so to speak, which is your storehouse of karma for the future called sanchitta karma.

And thus, according to the laws of karma you go from lifetime to lifetime in an endless cycle fulfilling some karma and taking on new karma. Sometimes you are born as an animal, sometimes as a human, sometimes rich and sometimes poor, sometimes happy and sometimes sad, sometimes sick and sometimes healthy, all to fulfill a certain measure of karma.

Can you put an end to karma for good?
But now that I described the law of karma, here is the good news. There is a way out of this cycle of births and deaths. The key to finding your way out of the ups and downs of life is to know yourself. This is not an identity that you create. It is what you were in the past when you appeared to experience karma and what you are even now.

It is the discovery that the happiness you thought came from the world actually comes from your own being; that the sense of reality that the world seems to have comes from you and not from the world, and that consciousness, which seems to come from your mind actually comes from your own being, which is the seer of the mind. That’s why sages sometimes call your identity existence, consciousness, and bliss.

Seated firmly in your real identity you gain everything that you thought you would get from things in the world. You gain the kind of freedom that is so rich that it cannot be put into words.

Fate or freewill?
And finally you get to resolve the age old controversy, is your life a matter of fate or free will. You get to see that when you resolve the conceptual frameworks that seem to box in your mind, you gain a freedom that you could not have dreamed of. And that is the end of the story. The body may live on until this life draws to its natural end. But you know for sure that the suffering of the body is not your suffering. Indeed nothing can ever bind you again. You are now and free for ever.

Other resources available to you
If you need a more basic understanding of this Self-Knowledge or if you just want support for your practice, go to www.light-up-your-life.com and read down the main column. Also check out the different links that we provide as resources. They can help you to sharpen the focus of your meditation practice.

 Another resource that we offer is the book, Making Your Wisdom Come Alive, a step by step guide taking you from your everyday experience to the highest wisdom and truth. To find out more, click on the link below:

wisdom.light-up-your-life.com

To join our mailing list go to: http://www.light-up-your-life.com/join.html

Please Tell Your Friend
Please tell you friends. Although we don’t have an advertising budget, we hope that everyone who wants to can find out about and wake up to this wisdom.

You have my best wishes,

Thank you for your comments and insights. Sometimes when we treat people
nicely we have ulterior motives. We could be afraid of the people that we
treat nicely and afraid of what they will do to us. We could also be afraid of
karmic retribution in the form of future misery.

Sometimes we act in a way that we think will be spiritual. But this is the ego
trying to imitate our own self-nature. It may seem overly saintly. I think
that people can sense when our niceness comes from a false place with false
motives. That may be when they start to take advantage of us.

But as you are seeing, when you abide in love you find a connection, in
oneness, that is deeper than the mind. Then you can act is a way that is
natural without pretence. That’s how Christ could get angry at the money
lenders in the temple without losing his enlightenment.

So when you find this deeper connection there are no rules about how
you should act. The distinction is that you abide as the source of love.
This is your nature, not a construction in your mind. Being your nature
it never comes to an end.

If you act in a way where you feel limited and out of sorts just examine
what you are taking to be true. Are you taking your self to be a limited
person in a limited world that is somehow opposed to you? Once you
see limitation as limitation and not as your identity, you are free.
That’s because your nature is as the seer of limitation, not the one
caught in it. The seer and the source of love are a single one and
that’s who you are. Stand as your true nature and tolerate nothing less.

Also look for my blog on karma as lots of people have been asking
me about karma recently. So this is a more traditional understanding
of karma set in modern English.

Best Wishes,

Hi Huggie,

These are great comments. Happiness and alertness are signs that you
are on the right track.

Did you know that it is possible to step beyond birth, death, and
rebirth right in this lifetime? That is by discovering what you are. The
one that sees the changes in the world, your body, and your mind is
innately free from change.

Abiding here you find that you are free from the ups and downs in life.
You also get to see that the very purpose of life is to return reality
and happiness it its source.

This discovery is not a product of thinking. Rather you discover that
your direct experience is much richer than your mind can tell. Standing
here you die to one who you thought you were. This is sometimes
called dying to the ego or 'I' thought.

Here you discover that when you die to limitation, you never die again.
You realize that you are the ever-present self that always was, is right
now and will always remain. You become certain that the things that
occur to this charter, whether good or bad, do not occur to you. No matter
what seems to happen you remain in your innate freedom. This is the
ultimate purpose of meditation.

If this seems difficult you should know that it is just a matter of turning
the door knob in the other direction, and the door to freedom opens.
As you have seen, you do not have to line up your thoughts in any
particular order. Just return your identity to its source and you will find
things that you never thought possible.

Keep this conversation flowing, it is a good one.

Best Wishes,

Michael

I thought that you might find this information useful:

Hi Huggie,

I am sorry to hear about your misfortunes. From what you told us we
cannot tell if there is a relationship between your meditation practice
and your misfortunes.

However, you should know that some meditation practices will tend to
dull your mind, especially if you misunderstand the nature of watching.
If you take watching to be a state of mind then you bifurcate your
mind. Half of your mind attempts to watch the other half. The overall
effect of this watching is that you will appear to get duller.

But fortunately Consciousness is not a state of mind; it is your identity.
That means you can allow your mind to be fully engaged in your
relationships and in the things that you do like driving, and you are
still aware.

To prove this the next time your have a conversation with someone,
allow your mind to be fully engaged in that conversation.  Afterwards
take a few minutes and notice how you were aware the whole time.
This is the non-volitional Awareness that comes from your being.

You can also do this if you have a complex job to do. Allow your
mind to be fully engaged in the job at hand. Afterwards meditate
and notice how you were aware the whole time. Although your
mind was fully engaged in the task at hand, you were all of the
time abiding as Awareness. By following this practice your mind
will appear to get brighter and you will actually become more aware.

And now to address your misfortunes: Few people, when they choose
a meditation technique ask, what technique will serve me well when
my life goes smoothly and when I seem to face an unbearable
amount of misfortune. Or when they face misfortune they never
ask if they can find their freedom and peace right in the midst of
their problems.

When they practice they may feel good for a while but the test is
what happens when you face an unfortunate situation. Can you
still be at peace? When you practice self-knowledge you are
stepping out of the ups and downs of the world and into the
place where you actually experience reality and peace. Here
you discover a peace that was always there. You just looked
right past it and now you have the opportunity to abide
there forever.

So take advantage of the material in this forum, the blogs,
in www.light-up-your-life.com, and if you wish, in my book,
“Making Your Wisdom Come Alive.” Take the time to meditate
and to learn until you feel that you can confidently abide here
at your source. Also feel free to ask questions when it is
necessary for your growth.

You have my best wishes,

Michael

Hi Lena,

Thank you for your comments. Politics seems to be a collective conglomeration
of people’s desires and fears. So you never know how the political structure of
the world will work itself out. All you can hope for is that world leaders will have
a sense of compassion and the ability to see beyond their personal desires,
and to act in a way that is best for the world as a whole.

And what’s the best way to get beyond personal desires: to find the actual
source of happiness. This happiness lies in the place where you actually
experience it, not in the objects that you see. In www.light-up-your-life.com
I talk about the Kingdom of Heaven being within you. It’s about halfway
down the page.

The reason Self-Knowledge seems murky is that you can’t see yourself as
a separate object. You know yourself in a more direct manner. This is like
the sun knowing light without the need for a separate light.

Your mind just can’t grasp your innate Consciousness. The only way that
room space can discover its real nature is by standing free of the limitations
of the room. In the same way when you stand as the Consciousness that is
free of the limitations of the objects that you see, like your mind and body,
you become the freedom that you were looking for.

Unlike a murky swamp, when you stand as your innate Consciousness things
become very clear. All your questions get answered in a way that you could
not have imaged. So I hope that this gives you something to consider and
meditate on. And of course you comments and questions are always welcome.

Best Wishes,

Michael

Hi Ruchika,

Thank you for your comments and questions. Of course it is better to treat
people well and let the good effects of your actions grow in this life and if
you believe so, in future lives. But there is one thing that stands completely
outside of karma and that’s the one thing that we often overlook. It is our
own Being, which is Consciousness and Bliss.

When we return to our nature we find what people were actually looking for
when they treated you well and when they treated you poorly. Standing here
at the source, we find an unbreakable connection to harmony and bliss, not
as a separate thing, but as our real identity.

Here we can stand at the source of the opposites that our mind thinks makes
up reality. That means that this harmony does not depend on our life being
easy and is not the less when our life is tough.

The good news is that no matter what condition we find ourselves in, whether
we are rich or poor, young or old, healthy or sick, we can wake up and find the
freedom that comes from our identity. It is just a matter of standing as the
one that sees limitation, not the one who is stuck in it.

We assume that reality comes from what we see but now we can find that
reality comes from what we are. When we discover this we can put an end
to Karma, both good and bad, forever.

I hope that you will meditate on this and see how it is true. See if you can
find a freedom that does not depend on the ups and downs that Ruchika
seems to experience in her mind and in her life. You are the seer of Ruchika
not the one caught in her limitations. Does this begin to answer your question?
Of course comments from everyone on  this forum our welcome.

Best Wishes,

Michael  

This is just a topic for your input. In a society where so much value is placed
wealth and material goods, why would a person want to discover his or her own
Self-Nature. It doesn’t guarantee fame or fortune. So what is the value of Self
Knowledge anyway?

Can meditation really affect your life? I’m looking forward to hearing from you.
What are your experiences?

Best Wishes,

Michael

Michael