Excerpts from Waking
Up to Life
From the Introduction
“We use words to “circle around the ancient tower” as Rilke
says it. Words can only point to what we know but cannot express
in words, if they point from what we know. Spiritually, words
can be helpful; our hearts and Being can resonate to them. Through
the vibrations of the words and the silence between the words,
we can respond to this felt awareness with a “knowing” or illumination.
This increased awareness, your waking up to your life and the
truth of what you are, is what I hope will be the primary outcome
of your reading these essays.”
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From Waking Up to Life
“When we live every moment as new, we live it from our Being;
we live outside of time. Here there are no separations; each
moment is an expression of our Being, and the moment is eternity.
Here we are free of the stories, the historical patterning of
our past and judgments created by the ego and the mind. We can
now experience our phenomenal life through our awareness and
know the openness and eternal newness of the present moment while
we at the same instance, knowing the forms in the moment, as
they exists in time. We can see each moment as something always
being born anew, indescribably beautiful, light, and fresh.”
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From The Sacred Silence
“Silence is not just being quiet while waiting in anticipation for the next thing,
idea or word to happen or unfold. When anticipation is our state of being, we
are not in the present moment but are in the future with the fantasy or illusion
of our expectations. True silence is to be open in a state of internal quietness.
It is to be one with the no-thing-ness of silence and to surrender oneself to
the unknown. It is to be present in the spaciousness of silence.”
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From Consciousness, Knowing and Being
“To know that in essence, the “I” that I am has no ego or personal
self is my final, full, absolute and ultimate freedom from all
phenomenal forms. It is to “know” my “I am-ness” at a deeper
and more encompassing plane than my conceptual mind can ever
understand or comprehend. To live in that awareness is to wake
up, “look in the right direction” and uncover the truth of my
true essence. It is, as St Paul says, “to know (what I really
am) as I am known”. It is to know what I am in the way that God
knows the “I” that is in me. It is to have a felt oneness with
Being or Pure Consciousness. It is being fully present at the
intersection of the phenomenal (horizontal) and the noumenal
(vertical) world which is the “now” moment that does not exist
in time.”
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From The Pain Body
“The driving force of the pain body is the “stuck” life energy
of which the person is unaware. The pain body is made up of the
hurts, pain and suffering of the past. These hurts may be real
or imagined. It does not matter. They exist and function as if
they were real through our unconscious mind. Although the pain
body is an illusion, it functions as an “entity” in our life.
Yet, it is not a permanent part of us. Presence is the solvent
that can annihilate it”...
“Pain is a necessary and positive component of life. We need
it to live in this world. Even the pain body can be a positive
element in the person's spiritual development. It can lead one
into the practice of presence or even result in a state of enlightenment.
A strong or well-developed pain body can be an intense teacher
and a powerful motivator for waking up. Whatever one allows completely,
even though we may think of it as negative, can take us into
a state of presence.”
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From Spiritual Surrender
“What then does spiritual surrender mean and how do we do it?
It simply means letting go of the world of form, time and space.
To do this, all we need to do is be awake and surrender to the
now, to what is, to the God aspect within us. When this surrendering
occurs, a spontaneous spaciousness open up in our life and a
flowering of our consciousness takes place in the world of form.
This phenomenon can only take place when we are at the intersection
point where the vertical, eternal world of the Spirit and the
time-bound horizontal world of phenomena meet. This is the moment
of “now”.”
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From Love is God is Love
“Love is a manifestation of our Being, a distinctive attribute
that we share with God. Love, as manifested in our phenomenal
life, is an expression that can be degraded by the mind and the
ego into a manipulative process or can be thought of as a characteristic
of a profound and meaningful relationship between people. The
love I am pointing from and pointing to, is much more then either
of these; it is Pure love, the love of and from Being. Love is
the ultimate and supreme grace”….
“All that is required of us is to accept the existence and presence
of the grace that is love. This affirms the truth of what we
really are. When we do that, we can awaken to what we are, to
what is real in the universe and in our life. Then we can know
that just as God is love, love is omni-present in both our noumenal
and phenomenal life.”
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From Enlightenment, Spiritual Practice and the Enlightened Life
“Being open, we may be blessed with enlightenment. Not because
of striving, but because we have, sometimes with the transmission
or help of a teacher, turned around and are now “looking in the
right direction”. We then can awaken, know what we are and know
that which is real. The expressions, “awake” “enlightenment” “asleep” “realization”,
then become mere labels. One is aware and one lives in the awareness
of the Oneness that is beyond words.”
“It is not our right, duty or responsibility to be enlightened
in this life nor can it be our goal. Being open, present with
awareness in the “now”, is all that we need to do or can do.
Enlightenment, realization or waking up, is a gift… it is a grace… it
is the unfolding and preeminence of the Spirit in our life. Our
only responsibility is to be present, aware and live our life
consciously, openly and fully. Accepting this, we can, regardless
of what occurs, do as Wordsworth the poet did, walk the path
of life … “in blessedness, which even yet remains”.”
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From Discernment, Integrity and Integration: Keeping on the Spiritual Path
“When we awake and present in the now, we are in the oneness
of our Being, outside of time and “in touch” with eternity. Here
there is no path for a path implies going from a place to a place.
When we are in the “now”, we are no longer in the phenomenal
world of form and so there is no place to go. “There” and “here” no
longer exist; only “oneness” is present. “The kingdom of God
is within you” Jesus said. If this is true, where is there to
go? When we are awake and truly present with the truth of what
we really are, we are present in the oneness of our Being, we
are fully conscious and present in the Oneness of God.”
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