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June 2010 Q. I have some questions arising out of my reading of 'The Book Of No One'. Your book says that there is no method for becoming enlightened. In that case, could it be said that every so-called 'master' who claims to be enlightened and who gives people a method to become enlightened, is not really enlightened themself? Or if they are enlightened, why do they give people these methods?
And why did I feel better when I began to read your book, as if there was more distance between myself and my problems?
A. Enlightenment, or liberation as I prefer to call it, is only seen when the person falls away. It is seen impersonally, and this impersonal seeing can never have anything to do with any person. Therefore there can be no such thing as an enlightened master. Anyone who describes themself in this way is disqualifying themself from having anything authentic to say on the subject.
However, people who think or believe that they are enlightened are often tempted to give methods to others. There are several reasons for this. For example, some so-called enlightenment methods are very helpful to people psychologically and are taught out of goodwill. Some methods may be given simply as a response to so many people desiring a method and requesting one because it can be very difficult to disappoint people and send them away empty-handed. It can be much easier to fulfil people's desire for help, hope and meaning.
If the master runs an ashram or other community, giving techniques for people to practise can also be an effective form of crowd control. Groups of people living together without enough to do tend to get up to all kinds of shenanigans. Devotees who are kept busy meditating, chanting and performing seva for the guru for many hours a day while being fed a diet of rice and lentils are unlikely to have much time or energy for making mischief. Rice and lentils are also very inexpensive.
And let's not ignore the fact that selling people methods for becoming enlightened can sometimes be a very good business, as a brief time spent on the internet will show.
If you'd like a method from me, I'd suggest that you go to the park and then eat a piece of cake and drink a cup of coffee. It won't do you any good, but it won't cost you very much and you might enjoy it.
You probably feel more distance from your problems when you read about non-duality because there is a resonance between you and this communication, and a recognition that this is the communication that cuts through everything and leaves you with nowhere else to go. It is always a mystery as to why this resonance should arise for a certain person at a certain time, but it sounds like your head is now in the tiger's mouth.
May 2010
Q. I would like to ask you whether the life of a person is already written in advance.
A. No, the life of a person is not written in advance, because there is no person who has a life. As soon as we start speculating that our lives may be written in advance, we engage with a story which takes us away from presence, from the miracle that is 'this'. We might also notice that the idea that our life is written in advance is only one of many different possible stories. Why should we choose that story rather than any of the others?
When it is seen that there is no person who has a life, our fascination with stories about the future or the past tends to drop away and what is left is this ever-changing play of consciousness.
Q. But I think that what we have to experience from birth to death is already written when we are born.
A. That is a story which appeals to many people. There are other appealing stories, such as that we can create the reality that we desire through understanding and practising 'the laws of attraction' or that we should accumulate good karma and avoid accumulating bad karma.
But what I am pointing to is that there is no person who has a life, or who creates their own reality, or who accumulates or avoids karma. And there is no birth or death or time. All there is is this, whatever is apparently manifesting in Oneness, this present outpouring of unconditional love.
Q. Then why are there people? Surely it's because Oneness wants to have the experience of being a person.
A. The mind lives in a world of time and of cause and effect, so it cannot help asking “Why?” It is its inescapable fate. The mind loves to entertain itself with questions about meaning and purpose and it creates ever-greater complexity in its answers so that it can silence its doubts. Its answers may be religious or spiritual or existential. They are immensely varied and colourful, and they often contradict one another. If one of them appeals to you, then have it, but meanwhile the joy of presence is likely to be missed and this moment becomes a shadow, drained of energy and glimpsed only through a veil of speculation about meaning and the future.
You can have stories about meaning and purpose and endeavour or you can have presence, the simplicity of the leaves rustling in the breeze. You cannot have both.
April 2010
Q. I have a couple of questions for you, Richard. Firstly, the event that you describe as liberation happened at a definite time and place. Have you come across other individuals for whom similar events have happened? And if you have, is this becoming more common?
A. Tony Parsons describes an event (he was walking through a park, then there was just walking through a park but nobody walking). Nathan Gill describes an event (he was riding a bicycle down a lane, then there was just riding a bicycle down a lane but nobody bicycling). I describe an event (I was walking through a country town, then there was just walking through a country town but nobody walking). Others also report events like these. The realisation of liberation may come with such an event, or afterwards, or not at all. Or the realisation of liberation may come without any event - there are no rules in this, because liberation is all-embracing and therefore excludes no possibilities. But the trouble with hearing these stories about 'liberation events' is that they can set up an expectation that something has to occur and this can lead to yet more searching. However, if searching for an event happens, then it happens - sorry about the tautology, which perhaps expresses the hopelessness of our case. If that hopelessness is realised, then there might be some relaxation and relief .
It is becoming more common for people to report these events. It cannot be known whether that is because the events themselves are becoming more common or because more people are communicating about them. For other people there is no event, just a gentle gliding into the realisation that liberation is already the case.
Q. My second question is what is the difference between liberation and death? If these two events are equivalent, what is the point of even talking to you, for instance, about your realization? I know there is no 'point' to liberation, but if this body-mind is extinguished at death, why work to see what will happen at that instant?
A. The difference between liberation and death is that in the first case the dream-story continues, but now it is seen to be a dream-story. In death the dream-story ceases. There is no point in talking to me about realisation (it is not "mine") or in working to see what will happen at death, but once again, if that happens, then it happens. In other words, everything is exactly as it is and cannot be any different.
March 2010
Q. I've read your website, and I found something that really resonates with what is happening for 'me' now.
I have experienced a spontaneous shift in perception, and it is clear now that I'm not this body-mind organism, but awareness itself which witnesses everything. This has brought a great sense of freedom. It is clear that there is only 'now', and that the past and the future are just present thoughts. It is also clear that everything is simply happening, so there has been a dramatic reduction in the sense of responsibility and guilt.
Nevertheless there is still a sense of separation. I relate to what you write about a period of being in a desert, without hope, help or meaning. I see that nothing can be done to bring about the end of searching, but I am still waiting for it to happen, and this is sometimes very painful.
I would be really grateful if you could comment on my hopeless situation.
A. In awakening it is clearly seen that there is no doer, there is only the unfolding of whatever is apparently happening, and you give a very clear description of this. But awakening is the seeing of the emptiness from everything arises; the fullness, the loving unconditionality of Being, is not seen in awakening. This leaves a sense that there is still something to be realised, yet it is also known that there is nothing that 'we' can do to realise it. Hence the sense you have of being in a desert, without help or hope, still waiting for liberation.
I don't give advice, but if I did it would be to relax and take enjoyment in whatever simple every-day things you like doing - a walk in the park, a cup of coffee, a trip to the cinema, a drive in the car - whatever it might be for you. You'll recognise, I think, the paradox in my writing this, because of course there is no one who can choose to do any of this. But if it should happen for us, then we are really blessed.
