“Our real nature is mukti (liberation). But we are imagining we are bound and are making various, stenuous attempts to become free. This will be understood only when we reach that stage. We will be surprised that we were frantically trying to attain something which we have always been and are.”

– Ramana Maharshi

James Wood:

“People often say “Don’t judge.” You get in certain quasi-spiritual circles — and actually this happened to me when I was nineteen. I was at this workshop and I was very new to all this stuff. I said something about “higher consciousness,” and a woman who had a lot more experience with this kind of thing said, “Oh, that’s judgmental. We don’t judge here. Nothing’s really higher than anything else.” All is one or whatever. And I didn’t know what to say because I was so new to the milieu.

But it struck me. It bothered me. I just kind of let it go, but it started a dialogue within me. I wondered about it. What does that mean? What is a judgment? Eventually it became clear to me that it’s important and necessary to describe our experience accurately and honestly. That’s what I would call a descriptive judgment. It’s not ultimately true, but it’s useful and it matches my experience. And without that, we’re really in trouble.

When people say “Don’t judge,” that’s what I call a value judgment. And that’s saying that something is wrong or bad, which is actually just saying that it shouldn’t be what it is.

It’s important to distinguish that. If someone said, “John and Fred had a footrace. Fred crossed the finish line first and won the race. John came in second place.” That’s not a judgment. That’s just a description of what happened. But if I said, “John is a loser,” like he’s not okay, something’s wrong with him, that’s a value judgment.

Or “John is taller than Fred.” Is it true? Well, you could measure them and find out. But if you said, “John is taller and therefore superior as a human being,” that’s horror. It’s the foundation of misery. It’s a value judgment.

It’s subtle, perhaps, but we’re doing it all the time. If you look at the media, it’s everywhere. So what I like to say is it’s not whether things are right or wrong, it’s about what works and what doesn’t.”

– James Wood, Ending Suffering

From Skepticism and  Doubt: A Misuse of Power, excerpt of a discussion with John de Ruiter

John: Skepticism and doubt is a misuse of power. You can always ground your self by breaking something. Anybody can break something. As soon as they break something, they’re grounded in themselves. Whereas for someone to go about not breaking anything, whatever they do, they’re only contributing or building something to do with goodness. That’s really extraordinary and it’s really difficult. It requires so much. It requires a lot of character.

If you’re going to be building something, you’ll be moving past your self. If you’re not given to building something and contributing to goodness, then you’ll ground your self and you’ll give your self meaning by having the power to take something down. So then you’ll bicker or complain or doubt or find fault, and then you always have your own ground and that always makes you higher than that which you’re speaking about. So you have your instant account of moving past your self, moving past someone else by just being higher than them and speaking down.

Q1: Feeling superior…

Q2: Is that a sophisticated way also of being safe? Not taking responsibility for what you know.

John: If you’re loyal to skepticism and doubt, you’re separate then from everything that you’re looking at, and within short order you are alone in the universe. People don’t view it that way because they don’t follow through the natural process that skepticism is. So it’s all worked out as actually having some kind of virtue.
Q1: Without carrying it through to its logical end.

John: People masquerade their skepticism with care. And they’ll even say “I’m concerned about this and that” and it’s not concern. It’s an escape from real knowledge and using concern to cover up the trail.

Q1: To pose as concerned.

John: And then use power and be comfortable in your self by even thinking that you’re doing something good.

Q2: If that’s a strong and heavy pattern, is there anything to be done actually with it? So that’s why in a way there’s not much value in actually dealing with the skepticism? It’s actually about coming from something deeper?

John: It’s about meeting someone instead of dealing with their skepticism. If you deal just with someone’s skepticism then you’ll be feeding into what they’re feeding into. If you’re not able to meet with someone then you’re not able to help them with their skepticism, because the bottom line with skepticism is it doesn’t want help.

Q2: That’s clear. But then if that pattern is rare, then rather than dealing with the pattern, it’s only about what you said at the beginning: giving your heart only to what you know.

John: Giving your heart only to what you actually know the truth of.

Excerpt from the talk Ending Suffering, by James Wood:

“Questioner: Would an awakened person get upset about poverty in their neighborhood and organize a food bank to make it better for the neighborhood or just let it be what it is?

James: Like social activism?

Q: Yeah, like you see a problem and you do something to make it better or just accept that it’s the way it is?

James: Well, you can radically accept it.

When I say “acceptance,” I don’t mean a superficial resignation. You accept the existence of social ills: poverty, hunger, disease, and so on. You can still do something about those things, but if you angrily say Poverty shouldn’t be happening! and then go out and start killing people you think are responsible — there’s always an enemy, and it doesn’t work.

But the enemy is the self. So you’re working on that, and if there’s a food bank in your neighborhood and if it’s part of the flow of your life and you feel drawn to it — sure, why not? But there will probably be less ego in it, right?

Let’s face it: There are people who do charity work in order to make themselves look more compassionate — which isn’t compassion at all.

The way I define compassion, which is really at the heart of this work, is an awareness of others’ suffering coupled with a willingness to do something about it. It’s a willingness. I mean, you can’t feed everyone. Right?

The thing is, I don’t hear you talking about actual things going on for you personally, so it’s a little bit abstract. To go deeper, it would have to be something that you’re facing.

But generally speaking, radical acceptance is not an impediment to that kind of activity, and you’ll probably be drawn to the ones that will actually do some good. And some don’t, or don’t do as much. And I think that’s part of it. That’s part of it.

So when you accept things as they are — the way I’m talking about it — you become acutely aware of suffering in the world — but less and less do you feel that suffering shouldn’t be happening — because suffering is caused by an attachment to the thought that what is shouldn’t be.”

“The only thing you fear is the unreality that you yourself have invented.”   ~ Byron Katie

“What matters is where we’re stressed-out, tense, anxious, violent, and negative toward ourselves and others.

And at the root of all of that is an idea that disagrees with Reality, and that’s all it can be. Because if your ideas merge with Reality, it’s completely and utterly peaceful and functional.

The world is inherently imperfect. It has a certain sloppiness about it. And it’s natural, so it flows. It might not look like what we think it should look like — and that’s a good thing, because it never does.”

– James Wood, Ending Suffering

“Egotism is taking one’s thoughts so seriously that it becomes like a bubble that isolates you from others.”

James Wood Teachings

“We have a habit of judging things as wrong or bad, and this stresses us out…Nonjudgmental awareness helps to act compassionately.”

James Wood Teachings

“If you straighten yourself out, if you are no longer putting out hostility or deception, then you are putting out something that is helpful, therefore that is the only thing you can do to help society… Your anger is the cause of war.”

– Vernon Howard, The Esoteric Path to a New Life

“Compassion dictates that we relieve suffering. Who among us isn’t moved by daily news stories and images of misery across the globe?

But most of us probably feel that there’s not much we can do about it.

If I see an image of a starving child, an oppressive regime, or a grieving mother—what am I to do?

There is something you can do. You can work to eliminate your own suffering.

In fact, it’s the only way.”

– James Wood, Why Awakening?

THE TRULY GOOD WOMAN

“A woman who felt guilty over past misdeeds said to herself,
‘I must repent. I will start by doing good to others.’

So she joined charitable organizations and said nice things
to people. But to her surprise she felt a vague resentment
toward her activities. She felt forced to be good. This
doubled her guilt, for now she felt guilty over her resent-
ment toward doing good.

Though confused, she intelligently reflected, ‘There is
something dreadfully wrong. This is not goodness at all;
it is self-enslaving stage-acting. True goodness must be
something entirely different.’

So she began a search for true goodness, which she finally
found. She explained to herself, ‘True goodness blooms in
the absence of an unconscious self-picture of being good.’

Abolish conditioned thoughts about personal goodness and
badness and authentic goodness flourishes.”

                                        –Vernon Howard, Inspire Yourself, p. 45

“The primary task of any good spiritual teaching is not to answer your questions, but to question your answers.”

– Adyashanti, The Way of Liberation

“…attachment to the body is a main attachment. It’s also a prior attachment. The concept of “body” comes from a need for — an attachment to or craving for — self. So prior to birth, that craving is already there.”

– James Wood, Importance of Body, Part 2

Vernon Howard:

“Well, let’s just relax and want to hear. Now you may think that it’s easy to want to hear, but it becomes very difficult when that hearing requires you to set your entire past aside.

Now, you of your usual, habitual nature, you do not want to set your past aside, you want to think about it, you want to roll in it, get excited about it. You want to recall past experiences, miserable or happy, because they seem to confirm that you are a continuous self.

This is only the repetition of thought, not the repetition of you. And if you understood that one thought from this talk it would be worth driving ten thousand miles to come to hear just that one thought and understand it.

There is a way to be happy, it actually exists. You haven’t found it, you’ve found thrills and achievements and you found ego-victories and you found a few relationships that seem to satisfy you, but you’ve never found happiness, you don’t even know the meaning of the word in the true meaning of it.

And I can prove it to you, and I want you to do better than that, I want you to prove it to yourself as a part of your intensive listening tonight. I want you to prove to yourself that you have no idea what authentic happiness and contentment is.”

– from a talk given 1/6/1988, Vernon Howard’s Higher World, talk 412

“So there are two points about how to view the body: There’s a listening — what I find in meditation, for example — a listening into the body to the point where it becomes unknowable. Because the body is an object of the mind to some degree. If I’m listening into the body-mind, I’m meditating, listening within this sense of self that includes the body and mind — that could be considered esoteric. You’ve heard the doctrine of “no mind”; well, that could just as easily be “no body.” A palpable peace.

The other way to look at the body is just as a meat vehicle, or a bag of bones or something like that. Shitting meat tube. (laughter) I mean, let’s be honest.”

– From a new talk posted on the James Wood Teachings website: Importance of Body

“Compassion is an awareness of others’ suffering coupled with a willingness to help ease their suffering. Compassion is powerful because it takes you out of your selfish tendencies and recognizes other beings as essentially the same as you. Compassion destroys the tendency to view others as objects. Cruelty persists in the world through seeing others as objects instead of connecting through a shared humanity, and compassion is the solvent that destroys this objectifying tendency.”                                          ~ James Wood

We live in a time of that asks us to change radically. Emotionally, self and collective are at many levels one. Rarely can any of us truly know that what we feel is me and not also WE as all of us live in a field of shared hopes and fears. This means we must outgrow becoming self-involved when we feel fear and instead open our hearts. We can practice staying present in a relaxed yet alert awareness so that we don’t grasp for security from an old consciousness that is about self-interest and separates us from others. We must each decide that while FEAR is a great god, he is not our god.

-Richard Moss

“Spiritual awakening doesn’t happen because you master some spiritual technique. There are lots of skillful meditators who are not awake. Awakening happens when you stop bullshitting yourself into continual nonawakening. It’s very easy to use disciplines to avoid reality rather than to encounter it. A true spirituality will have you continually facing your illusions and all the ways you avoid reality. Spiritual practice may be an important means of confronting yourself, or it may be a means of avoiding yourself; it all depends on your attitude and intention.”

–Adyashanti

“Fear is the feeling generated by the ego’s resistance to Freedom.” ~ James Wood

“Always be willing to have your eyes opened. Life is only asking one thing of us really, and the only thing it’s ever asking is “See. See. See.” Don’t be afraid. If you’re afraid, see that. That’s all it’s about.” ~ Adyashanti

Buddha has defined compassion as love plus meditation. When your love is not just a desire for the other, when your love is not only a need, when your love is a sharing, when your love is not that of a beggar but an emperor, when your love is not asking for something in return but is ready only to give – to give for the sheer joy of giving – then add meditation to it and the pure fragrance is released. That is compassion; compassion is the highest phenomenon.”

– Osho Zen, Zest, Zip, Zap and Zing 

‎”Truth is in the moment, this instant in which there is no meaning, no cause, no implication, no necessity, no motive to any effect. The Radiance of Ignorance Is the Reality, and all phenomena only test our Realization of the necessity and sufficiency of That. It is the Condition of all conditions. It is neither subjective nor objective relative to this moment. It is Only, and It is unspeakable.”

– Adi Da Samraj

“Beyond mind, there is an awareness that is intrinsic, that is not given to you by the outside, and is not an idea – and there is no experiment up to now that has found any center in the brain which corresponds to awareness. The whole work of meditation is to make you aware of all that is “mind” and disidentify yourself from it. That very separation is the greatest revolution that can happen to man.”

– Osho

“If you try to change difficult feelings then they are defining you. You therefore are confessing that you’re not already whole – you have to first defeat this negative feeling to be whole – and there’s no winning that one. The ego will so much enjoy trying to defeat some problem or some negative feeling in order to arrive at the promised land of wholeness that it will forever have you trying to solve your own suffering in order to keep itself in place, in order to keep itself intact.

So there is, in this present moment, the art of being in relationship to what you’re experiencing, gradually over time, not fighting against it. In Zen they talk about when you reach a barrier, when you reach an obstacle, you stop. You soften the belly, you sit down and slowly you touch the barrier until you can embrace it. Not go around the obstacle, not retreat from the obstacle, but embrace the obstacle. What’s the obstacle to my open heart?”

–Richard Moss, An Open Heart

“Subdue the stubborn waves of the mind on the patient shore of your attention.”

– James Wood

“You are not a thought. You are the Truth that sees thoughts as lies, the Reality that sees drama as illusion. You cannot know Truth because you are Truth. Give up thinking that you know ultimate truth or even can know it. Some students grasp at ultimate truth intellectually, thinking they can somehow “get it.” You cannot get it. Do not clutch or grasp. Instead, see that your false ideas are false and let go of your struggle to know. The thought of “I” is not who  you are. Assuming you are an I-thought is like thinking you are a character in a movie. It may seem real, but it is an illusion. Your character is fictional. Can you verify yourself? Can you prove that “you” independently exist? Your essence cannot be comprehended by thought, belief, or knowledge. Awakening clears away the cobwebs of false ideas, revealing who you really are.”

– James Wood, Ten Paths to Freedom

“The Way is not fulfilled by the efforts of the ego, but by the ego transcending itself in communion with its Ultimate Help.”

“No concern for spiritual life or spiritual attainment ever became spirituality or truth. All concerns are founded in the same dilemma and must be understood.”

– Adi Da Samraj

“The plain fact is that if you don’t have a problem you create one.    If you don’t have a problem, you don’t feel you are living.”

–U.G. Krishnamurti

“The word “Nirvana” means “extinction.” It means ending the reign of your conceptualized world. Realize that words can point you toward awakening, just as a highway sign can point you toward a destination — but by themselves words have no ultimate value. The best way to get rid of fear is to notice that it’s caused by a thought that disagrees with Reality.”

– James Wood

“When you are in what heart is and you are in that while you’re with others, you will find heart in others, despite what selves they have, despite what thinking they’re in, despite what level of emotion they’re in. You’re able to find nature in others. When you’re relating to what nature is and that relating continues while you’re with others, you’ll find it in everyone.”

–  John de Ruiter

“It doesn’t matter whether emotions are considered positive or negative; all emotions are disturbances in the feeling-body that detract from the natural peace of conscious embodiment. For example, people often pursue things or experiences that give them positive emotions, thinking that this will satisfy them. But eventually things are lost or experiences end, and the positive emotions give way to negative ones, leading to a tumultuous, roller-coaster experience of life. The key to lasting satisfaction is to become conscious enough that you no longer attach to things or experiences, and then it doesn’t matter, because your oneness with Being brings you joy regardless of what arises within the field of your experience. Any emotions that arise, whether positive or negative, are mere disturbances to be made conscious. They are what they are. Their roots are dissolved into serenity. Just remember that an intense emotion is neither good nor bad; it just is. To be with it without judgment is a fundamental aspect of spiritual work, even if it feels “negative” or “bad” to do so.”

–James Wood, Ten Paths to Freedom

“A person’s life consists of the thoughts and feelings which govern him.”

–Vernon Howard, Cosmic Command, # 2148

“If you’re truly serious and intelligent then no matter what arises you will bring the discipline of that great commitment. And soon you will find that it’s even more interesting to discipline yourself and overcome things than it is to indulge yourself and have things. It’s the self-overcoming that’s interesting. The rest is bullshit. That’s what it is to grow up.”

–Adi Da

“You are not your mind, but you are responsible for its behavior, in the same way that you are not a vicious dog, but if you own a vicious dog, you are responsible for watching it and keeping it from attacking others or responding appropriately if it does attack someone. As you go through your day, notice what the mind is doing. Keep it on a leash. Discipline it by developing discriminating awareness. Often, the mind lies in wait for you to let your guard down. If your mind suddenly rages out of control, just notice it. Like a vicious dog, it’s not who you are. It may feel like you, but it’s not. You must witness it impersonally and see it for what it is, without judgment. This keeps you from beating yourself up when you see what it’s up to.

Judgment obscures your true nature and keeps you from having permanent peace and satisfaction, like a pond that is clogged with trash. If you unclog the pond and tap into life without judgment, you will taste the sweetness of Freedom like spring water from a pristine well, the Truth you have been looking for as long as you can remember.”

 -from Ten Paths to Freedom by James Wood

“For all anxiety and fear,

And pain in boundless quantity,

Their source and wellspring is the mind itself,

As He who spoke the truth declared.

Therefore I will take in hand

And well protect this mind of mine.

What use to me are many disciplines,

If I can’t guard and discipline my mind?”

-from The Way of the Bodhisattva by Shantideva, Chapter 5 verses 6 and 18

James Wood:

“Resisting what happens now is stress. Accepting what happens now is peace. Although what flows through the Now changes constantly, the Now is identical to consciousness – the Great Space in which all things live, move and have their being…

The past is not a problem unless you live in it. Living in the past means you derive a sense of self from past events, such as family history. Anything in the past is not the essence of who you are. If you find yourself dwelling on painful memories, you are giving them a power that they don’t have. Of course, like a physical wound, emotional wounds take time to heal. If you lose a loved one, grieving is natural and appropriate. In the awakened state, you grieve; you just don’t derive a sense of self from it. Feelings pass through you, but you don’t judge them.

Another way to live in the past is to indulge in fantasies about pleasurable past events, reliving scenarios that have already happened over and over again because there is an emotional payoff, but not enduring satisfaction, in doing so. If you do this you are perpetuating your suffering.

Living in the future usually takes the form of anxiety or hopefulness. Either one of these is a form of pain. Anxiety usually turns out to be unfounded, and hopefulness at best leads to a gratified desire that quickly fades.”

– from Ten Paths to Freedom  by James Wood

If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.

– Jesus, Gospel of Thomas verse 70

“Great fiction usually conveys something about the bleakness of the human condition while hinting at the potential of consciousness through struggle and suffering. Literature reflects the evolution of our understanding and shows us how to live more authentically. At the same time, realize that fiction can sometimes be an escape into unconsciousness, into the fantasy of drama. Let it wake up you instead of lulling you to sleep. Focus on quality. Use literature just as you would use your own life by asking, “What is authentic? What is valuable? How can I use this fictional experience to grow in consciousness?”

–James Wood, Ten Paths to Freedom

I am deeply grateful to my Teachers, who point the way to freedom from suffering with endless, tireless compassion, honesty and love. I am grateful for my friends who see me and have patience with me. I am grateful for guidance that keeps me going and reminds me what’s important. I am grateful for my family. I am grateful for this place to share Teachings that inspire me and for everyone who visits here. I am grateful to be alive and healthy and supported in countless ways.

May we all find freedom from anger and fear. May we all find peace, joy and freedom from suffering!

Vernon Howard:

“Now is the time. Tonight is the night when you will decide that you no longer want to be kicked around by the world. And do you know what you just thought? You just thought of the exterior world, didn’t you? You slipped into it just like that because you don’t think clearly.

Well, of course, you’re weary of being at the mercy of things out there, but you do not realize that the world that you’re tired of is you. Oh, I know how easy it is to lie. You know how easy it is to deceive yourself.

Let’s try it again. The world that wearies you, that wears you out, that confuses you, that gives you more questions than answers, that world is inside of you. Now, if you reject that, you’re just going to have to waste the rest of your life as you’ve wasted it heretofore.”

from a talk given 10/14/1987
Vernon Howard’s Higher World – MP3 CD Volume 15, talk 362

“Peace is native to you, buried beneath all your thoughts about Reality that aren’t true. Beneath mental noise is the Stillness that is like a tranquil lake, like golden sunlight streaming in through a clear window into space. Your thoughts about Reality form a web of deception that ensnares you, and you’re in the middle of it. In fact, you’re the one spinning it. Since you are creating it, you can stop it.”

-James Wood, Ten Paths to Freedom

“You may lose something or someone in your life that will show you what space is. Instead of rushing to fill the void in your life with things – possessions, concepts, stories, people-allow yourself to sit still with the space and just be with it. Breathe into it. Allow your awareness to deepen, without judgment, into the feeling of absence. Your mind will try to convince you that it is nothing, but if you sit with it consciously, you will notice a stillness, a domain of peace and wakefulness that is also a quiet joy and gentle brilliance within your awareness. Recognize it as the glimmerings of your true nature If you experience pain, be with it without judgment. When you lose something or someone, meditate on the space created by the loss. When disaster comes, let it be your best friend. Invite it in for tea.

Ultimately, you don’t need anything but what you have in the moment. Learn to live with less. Be with the feelings of loss and notice how within grief and mourning is a stark sense of beauty that bleeds through your inner awareness. Notice how alive you feel when you can be present for loss without judgment. Notice that it shows you how to treasure what you have – and especially how to treasure Emptiness the value at the heart of all mourning. See if you can feel the Emptiness in loss, death, and poverty.”

-James Wood, Ten Paths to Freedom

Franklin Merrell-Wolff:

“Before all other objectives, man should seek that Goal known as Enlightenment. Before the attainment of this Realization, all effort, all experience and all knowledge has durable value only in so far as they may serve to bring nearer that culmination. All which serves not this End is, at best, empty or actively injurious. The life which produces no slightest advance toward this Goal is wasted and without worth. Such a life is like the journey of the squirrel in the rotating cage, which ends just where it started, or it is a descending course to the darkness of oblivion. That joy or pain, success or failure, gain or loss, peace or struggle, whether small or great, which leads on, little or much, to the luminous End is good.”

“Keep practicing.

Develop a deep commitment to Truth instead of a tepid desire for comforting ideas.”

– James Wood, Ten Paths to Freedom

“In awakening, there are no hierarchies of attainment. There is one goal, and that is Liberation. Once Liberation occurs for that person, it’s over. Some schools teach that there are degrees of enlightenment. There are no such degrees. There are, however, levels of depth of expression that are gradually refined and eventually transcended completely. This gradual refinement occurs on the relative level of the person, not on the absolute level of Truth. These are not levels of attainment; they are degrees of refinement and occur naturally, like the falling away of leaves.”

–James Wood, Ten Paths to Freedom

Hangout on Google+ with James Wood!

Are you reading Ten Paths to Freedom? This Sunday August 26 from 12-1:30pm pacific time is the next Google+ hangout to discuss chapter two. 

You can find instructions on the James Wood Teachings website for how to join the book study.  

The online book study is a great way to ask James questions and connect with others who are reading the book. James’ clarity and compassion are truly inspiring. His teaching has helped me more than I can possibly say! I hope that you take advantage of the opportunity to spend time with this amazing Teacher.

♥  ♥  ♥

Fire postcard from Jen McKenna’s website

“You flee within through contraction, through inversion, through dissociative emotion, in order to protect yourself, and then you focus your attention on your own self-sense and the products of it—the thoughts, the tendencies, the reactions, the self-imagery, and everything associated with self-possession. You are all fleeing from your parents—not just your blood relations, but the meanings in your own body-mind—and yet you do not escape. You imagine yourself to be escaping somehow because you are withdrawn. But your withdrawal can never be so far within or away that you actually escape these meanings, because the meanings are in you. They are you, you see.”

–Adi Da    

The Primary Components:

1. Cultivate interest in that which is most universal and least affected by the wearing of time.
2. Cultivate a feeling and practice of brotherhood in the most universal sense possible.
3. Subordinate personal self-interest to impersonal and general interests.
4. Cultivate detachment.
5. Lay the primary emphasis upon integrating principles rather than upon the differentia of things

– Franklin Merrell Wolff