Questioner: I keep trying to rest, but my mind just keeps going. Another teacher told me that this pointer to just rest will lead me astray. I’m afraid I’m not getting it. Vince: Look, everyone who is talking about this stuff has his/her own way of trying to help people see what they have seen.Continue reading “There Isn’t Really Anyone Who Rests in Amsterdam”
Author Archives: Vincent Flammini
No Experience Necessary
What you are can never be experienced. Looking for a particular experience as confirmation of what you are – whether peace or love or anger or irritation or rain or cold wind or sand between your toes or terror or calm or equanimity or hunger or sublime spiritual visions – takes you in the wrongContinue reading “No Experience Necessary”
Awareness Is Stuff, Stuff Is Awareness
Even though Awareness cannot be “experienced,” this doesn’t mean that Awareness-Being is somehow separate from all of the stuff of life. On the contrary, life is Awareness/Beingness itself. Absolutely everything is known in, by, and as Awareness. Nothing is separate from this Everyday Awareness present here-now…It is never anywhere other than here. A line from the Heart Sutra says that “form is nothing other than emptiness andContinue reading “Awareness Is Stuff, Stuff Is Awareness”
Isness Is Infinitely Is-ing
Being what you really are is not difficult. Being what you are not and then arguing for or against it is what is difficult. Notice that right now, if you just rest and welcome everything (really – everything – including your rejection of anything), there is nothing else that needs to be done in orderContinue reading “Isness Is Infinitely Is-ing”
Stop
Wherever you are right now, reading this, stop. What do you notice? Sounds, sights, sensations, smells…allow them all. What notices? Thoughts probably stumble through that say “I do” or “me” or “my brain” or “my senses” or something similar. What notices those thoughts? Welcome home to the place you never left.
Awareness is Everything
Awareness is present when the “me-sense” is present. Awareness is present when the”me-sense’ is not present. Awareness is present when the sense of “beingness” is present. Awareness is present when the sense of “beingness” is not present. Awareness is present when there is a sense of “knowing.” Awareness is present when there is no senseContinue reading “Awareness is Everything”
Don’t Be Fooled By Smoke
Regardless of our understanding, difficult states continue to come up, but we don’t focus on them. We just allow them to be there, allow them to arise and do whatever it is they do, but continue to practice short moments of resting as we are again and again. We begin to see that it allContinue reading “Don’t Be Fooled By Smoke”
Shiny Objects
You are already what you’re looking for. You can’t ‘become’ it, ‘find’ it, ‘create’ it, or ‘lose’ it. All that is ever happening is that our attention gets caught by shiny objects. Misdirected attention. When it happens – and it will – see that only the attention has moved. What knows the attention has movedContinue reading “Shiny Objects”
It’s a Binary Choice
As we go through the day we have thousands of thoughts coursing through awareness of all sorts – practical, happy, sad, memories, plans, judgments, criticisms, fantasies – the list is endless. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. The amount of thinking we have, the speed of our thinking, the tone of our thinking, theContinue reading “It’s a Binary Choice”
The Bricks in Your Head
About three years ago, my wife and I decided to brick our backyard. We have two big trees that cast shade across the yard throughout the growing season; those, combined with four dogs meant no grass and plenty of mud. We had a hard time finding the bricks we wanted to use, but when weContinue reading “The Bricks in Your Head”
Vince Flammini 