Michael Langford - The Direct Means to Eternal Bliss

These are my notes from Langford’s book.

Introduction

The purpose of an authentic spiritual teaching is to awaken insight.

Infinite Love-Bliss is available in this lifetime. It is possible to bring the impostor self to a final end. What remains when the impostor self ends is Infinite-Eternal-Awareness-Love-Bliss.

Chapter One: The Impostor

The ego is the idea of a separate, individual identity. The ego identifies with the body and with thought and calls the body and thought “I.” The ego is thought. The ego is thinking. Other words for the ego, as the word is being used in this book, are: impostor self, human mind, false self, false identity. There is far more to what the ego is than just thought, all that a human perceives is a part of the ego dream. However, for the purposes of this book the focus is on the ego as thought.

SELF: the Self (with a capital S) is infinite-eternal-awareness-love-bliss. Those are five words pointing towards one-awareness. Awareness-love-bliss are not three, they are one. The Self is the background of awareness.

The background of awareness that appears to wake up in the morning is there during all the waking hours until one goes to sleep at night. Thoughts come and go, but the background of awareness that is aware of the thoughts is there during all the waking hours and does not come and go. The background of awareness is the true Self. Technically one can say that the true Self is the infinite Awareness and your background of awareness is the doorway to that infinite awareness.

Before you learned the language you now think in, the background of awareness was there. Then you learned the word “I” in your language. Your body was given a name and when people saw that body they said “There goes John” (or Frank, or Jane, or Julie, or Kumar, or Radha) or whatever name they gave your body. Thus the idea arose “I am John, I am this body.” You existed as the background of awareness before that I-thought arose. The thought calling its “self” “I” is an impostor “self.” The background of awareness is the true Self.

All thoughts are opposed to your real nature. You know that thoughts are not part of your true nature because you had to learn them. That is why you cannot speak, write and think fluently in two hundred different languages: because you have not acquired those languages.

You can observe that same process in an infant. You can see that an infant is aware before it learns any language. Being able to see how the impostor arose in you and how the impostor arises in every human infant and child is a very important tool. The reason it is a very important tool is: you do not have to rely upon someone else to tell you that the ego is an acquired impostor. You can observe this for yourself. Thought is something foreign, alien to the true Self. Thought pretends to be the Self. Thought is not the Self. Thought is an impostor. Thought believes thought is a real entity and thought believes thought is a real self. Thought is not a real entity and thought is not a self. Living from thought instead of living from Awareness is the cause of all human suffering. The impostor (thought — ego) is the cause of all human problems, sorrow and suffering. The background of awareness is the true Self. The awareness, that appears to wake up in the morning, is the true Self. The awareness that appears to be looking through your eyes now is the true Self.

Ending the ego is ending the “I thought.” Ending the bodily life will not end the ego. The ego will create the dream of a new body when the old body ends. Thus, ending the body does not help to solve the problems.

Thinking that you are a body living in a world is a delusion, a dreamlike illusion. Thought has created those delusions. All sorrow, suffering and delusions have one single root. The single root is thought. The root of thought is the “I thought.” The root of thought is the thought “I.” Thought is not part of your true nature. Thought is something you learned. Do not allow something you acquired to pretend to be your self.

What a revelation this can be to discover that thought, something that you acquired, — now controls you.

Chapter Two: The Impostor’s Tricks

Because the ego is afraid of ending, the ego directs and creates thoughts, ideas, concepts, beliefs and opinions that will help the ego to continue its illusion of being real and that will prevent the ego from being brought to an end. Those concepts are ego preservation strategies. Those concepts are the ego’s tricks. Because thoughts can be combined in trillions of combinations, the ego can create trillions of preservation strategies. The ego has the ability to hide what it is doing from itself. The ego creates ego preservation strategies throughout the entire day.

Due to the ego’s fear of ending, the ego creates strategies to preserve its imaginary self. Distorting spiritual teachings is one of the many strategies the ego uses to preserve its imaginary self.

One of the ego’s preservation strategies is the thought “This does not apply to me.” Maybe it does apply to you and the ego is blocking that fact out as a preservation strategy. Challenge the thought “This does not apply to me.”

The ego is like an inchworm that lets go of one thought only when it has grabbed hold of the next thought. Therefore, when rereading every chapter many times over and over, don’t be in a hurry to proceed to the next sentence. Stay with each sentence for a long time before reading the next sentence.

The ego is fundamentally dishonest in humans and the ego has the ability to hide what it is doing from its imaginary “self.” Therefore, many people fail to see that their primary reason for studying “spiritual” teachings is because they enjoy the concepts. The desire to go quickly to the next concept and to gather more and more information and to read more and more spiritual books and to think about what has been read and to discuss what has been read and thought about, are symptoms of the intellectual appetite and intellectual “spirituality”.

Ideas are not what this book points towards. This book points towards the awareness that is prior to thought, and how to directly experience that awareness.

The ego likes to scatter attention. Scattering attention is one of the ego’s preservation strategies. Thinking scatters attention. To bring the attention to a single point and to dwell on that single point for a very long time is the way to awaken insight. Insight is not thinking and insight is not belief. Insight is a permanent new perspective.

Keeping the attention directed outward is one of the ego’s fundamental tricks. Creating unnecessary activities is one way the ego keeps the attention directed outward and is another of the ego’s tricks. Dropping all unnecessary activities to create the maximum amount of time for spiritual practice is an essential key to success in bringing the ego to its final end.

Pretending that a journey through thought is an authentic spiritual journey is also one of the ego’s tricks. Choosing belief instead of Direct Experience is one of the ego’s tricks. Wasting time is one of the ego’s tricks. Spending time in entertainment that could have been spent in spiritual practice is one of the ego’s tricks. Almost all thoughts are just the ego’s tricks.

Reflecting means looking. Reflecting does not mean thinking and reflecting does not mean arguing. Stay with each sentence until you have an insight into it.

There are a few key principles to be understood and a little reading may be required for that. However, to go on and on reading more and more spiritual books, one after another, is an ego preservation strategy; another trick the ego uses.

Most reading, discussing and thinking about spiritual teachings are ego preservation strategies (tricks created by the ego to preserve its imaginary self). The ego keeps people lost in an endless maze of concepts. Spiritual concepts do not lead to Freedom. Only practice leads to Freedom. However, it must be the most rapid and direct spiritual practice and not a practice created by or distorted by the ego.

Chapter Three: The Impostor’s Tools: Thought, Thinking and Beliefs

Thought is the primary tool the ego uses to preserve its imaginary self. Thought is not a means to discover the absolute Truth. The ego has convinced almost all humans and almost all spiritual aspirants that thought is a means to know the absolute Truth. They have confused knowing-insight-awareness with conceptual “knowing.”

For those few individuals who are seriously intent on Freedom, It Is essential to stop using thought as a means to know the absolute Truth.

It is also essential to stop believing in thoughts, ideas, and concepts; including those thoughts, ideas and concepts you Imagine being your own.

The How Do You Know Method is also an excellent way to see that thought is not a means to know the absolute Truth. Thought is like a great pretense or house of cards. One idea is supported by another idea. One assumption supports another assumption. The How Do You Know Method is a way to see that when you trace each idea back, you find there is actually no real foundation at all.

Seeing that thought can create evidence and reasons to support any belief is a very powerful key. The Arguing Both Sides Method is another way of revealing that thought is really baseless. The Arguing Both Sides Method also demonstrates that thought forms conclusions based on motive. Evidence is not the primary factor that determines what conclusions and beliefs will be formed. Motivation is the primary factor in the forming of beliefs. Evidence will be gathered to support the motive. The ego will gather all the so-called evidence and reasons to support what the ego wants to believe.

The ego’s primary motive is to preserve its imaginary self. Therefore, the ego directs thought to create concepts that will help to preserve its imaginary self.

One of the ego’s preservation strategies is selecting spiritual paths that are not direct.

When you form a belief, you are no closer to discovering the absolute Truth than you were before you formed the belief. When you form a belief, you have created an obstacle to discovering the absolute Truth. If you were honest, instead of a belief, your view would be “I don’t know.” If you really wanted Truth, you would insist on Direct Experience. If you really wanted Truth, you would never accept a belief. A belief is only a group of symbols. All words are symbols.

Your motivation while reading is very important. The correct motivations are:

• Extremely intense Self-honesty.
• An extremely intense desire to directly experience the infinite-eternal-absolute Truth.
• A willingness to let go of all the ideas you have accumulated in the past.
• An extremely intense longing to be free of suffering and sorrow and to live in eternal-joy.

If the extremely intense desire for Freedom is awakened in you, it will bring clarity, honesty, insight, integrity and earnestness.

The ego projects thoughts and fantasies and the ego interprets. One way to stop this distortion is to ask, “Is this thought I am having about what I am reading really in the words I am reading, or have I added a thought that is not there in the words I am reading?” Another way to stop the distortion is to ask, “Have I added a concept or interpretation to what I am reading?”

Chapter Four: The Desire for Freedom

Awakening the extremely intense desire for Freedom is the most important first step that can be taken towards being liberated now in this lifetime.

The extremely intense desire for Freedom is:

• The extremely intense desire for the direct experience of the absolute Truth.
• The extremely intense longing for the final end of all suffering and sorrow.
• The extremely intense desire to experience eternal-love-joy.
• The extremely intense desire to experience who or what you really are at your core and to live eternally as your true Self.
• The extremely intense desire for Freedom from all illusion and delusion and Freedom from the ego (impostor self) which is the source of all illusion and delusion.
• The extremely intense desire to awaken from the human nightmare.

All obstacles that appear in your Journey to Freedom are caused by too little desire for Freedom. Even a little increase in your desire for Freedom is helpful. As your desire for Freedom grows in intensity, the ego creates fewer obstacles. When your desire for Freedom becomes very intense, your desire for Freedom demands that you take no detours.

When your desire for Freedom becomes extremely intense, for the first time you can see what is essential for Freedom and what is not essential.

You will be able to see how before the awakening of the extremely intense desire for Freedom, the ego selected spiritual teachings that would help to preserve the ego. When the desire for Freedom becomes even more intense you can see all of the ego’s preservation strategies. When the extremely intense desire for Freedom is awakened you will marvel at how it was possible you did not see the ego’s preservation strategies before.

When the extremely intense desire for Freedom is awakened, you will be surprised at how little the ego let you see before. When the extremely intense desire for Freedom is awakened, you will see the endless maze of concepts the ego created to trap your attention. When the desire for Freedom becomes even more intense, the ego will no longer create ego preservation strategies. The extremely intense desire for the direct experience of the absolute Truth will guide you to your inner Teacher.

Without an increase in your desire for Freedom, the ego will never allow you to see the Truth.

Another great key is Self-honesty. Self-honesty is being as honest as you can be. Self-honesty means to be 100% honest with your Self, all the time. Catch your ego using ego preservation strategies. See your ego creating arguments, reasons, excuses and concepts that lead you away from the Direct Path.

The wonderful thing is, that same extreme desire for Freedom that brings you the knowledge of what is essential and what is not essential, also allows you to see for the first time in your life. Before the extremely intense desire for Freedom arises, you think you can see, but really you are blind. After the extremely intense desire for Freedom arises all is made clear and you have no doubts! After the extremely intense desire for Freedom arises, for the first time you can see!

The only problem an aspirant ever has is a desire for Freedom that is too weak. An extremely intense desire for Freedom will solve all the other problems.

Chapter Five: How to Awaken the Extremely Intense Desire for Freedom

The primary means to awaken the extremely intense desire for Freedom is to carefully examine these two choices every day until the extremely intense desire for Freedom awakens:

• Choice A: To choose to end the ego (the impostor self) by dropping all unnecessary activities to create the maximum amount of time every day to practice the most direct and rapid means to eternal bliss.
• Choice B: Being identified with a body subject to suffering, disease, death, violence, anger, fear. Choice B is to allow an impostor called the ego to pretend to be yourself and to control you. Choice B is to have a temporary and therefore futile life that leads only to death. That is a summary of Choice B.

An aid to awakening the extremely intense desire for Freedom is to see the value of the Eternal and the futility of the temporary. The ego leads humans throughout their lives from one temporary trivial pursuit to another temporary trivial pursuit. To see the pointlessness of the temporary and the great value of the Eternal can be a great help. If you look into the future to see where all these trivial pursuits and useless activities will lead in the end that also can be a great aid in revealing the pointlessness of the temporary.

Ask of each activity and each moment, “What does this lead to?”, and after that “Then what?” and later, “What will this finally lead to in the end?”

Often remembering that the body can end at any moment can also help to awaken the extremely intense desire for Freedom. Living every day as though it is your last day, using each precious moment to prepare for the Eternal, can also be a great help. Imagine there are two businesses you could invest in. You can see that a wrecking ball is about to destroy the first business. You can see that the second business will last forever. The obvious wise choice is to invest in the business that will last forever. So it is with the choice between Eternal and temporary life.

The Awakening of the extremely intense desire for Freedom, which can also be called “really making Choice A,” is:

• Like a sign a trillion miles high stating NO MORE.
• NO MORE to all of the horrors the ego has created.
• An absolute demand that the source of all suffering, violence and evil, which is the impostor called ego, comes to a final end.
• An absolute devotion to the true Self that is the background of awareness.
• An absolute devotion that is turning the attention away from the world, the body, thought, etc., and towards awareness watching awareness.
• A demand for Truth that never compromises.
• A demand for the end of thought.
• A demand for the direct experience of the absolute Truth.

The ego is the source of all evil. The ego is insane. This is true for all humans. To produce so many trillions of horrors, the ego has to be evil and insane.

Cooperate with your Heart. Stop listening to your ego.

If you turn your attention away from thought and towards awareness watching awareness and sustain that look for many hours every day, eventually the ego dream will end and the true Self will be experienced. Then all suffering ends and what remains is the eternal perfection of awareness-love-bliss.

The suffering that life brings is also a means to awaken the extremely intense desire for Freedom.

Chapter Six: The Awareness Watching Awareness Discovery

Nisargadatta’s teacher (guru) told him to pay attention to the “I AM” to the exclusion of all else. Nisargadatta practiced focusing his attention on the “I AM” for three years. After three years of practicing in his spare time, Nisargadatta realized his true Self. Nisargadatta had to work to support his family; therefore, he could only practice in his spare time. He spent hours each day looking at the true Self.

In Zen Buddhism focusing the attention on “who is looking’ is found in the teachings of Master Bassul. In Tibetan Buddhism focusing attention on awareness is found in some of the Dzogchen practice instructions.

The importance of looking inward and knowing the “I AM” is also found in the Judeo-Christian teachings:

• “And God said to Moses, I AM THAT I AM. And He said Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.” (Exodus 3:14)
• “Be still and know I AM God.” (Psalm 46:10).

The entire book The Impersonal Life, a book of Christian Mysticism, is written around the single verse “Be still and know I AM God.” “Jesus said, Before Abraham was, I AM.” (John 8:58) “Jesus said, The Kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21). Jesus did not say, “Will be within you after your body dies.” Jesus said “is.” “Is” is present tense. “Is” is now.

The Prophet Mohammad said, “He who knows his Self knows his Lord.” Self-Cognition is a Sufi practice.

Ramana Maharshi had said Self-inquiry is more like feeling than like thought.

The author wondered: “is the ‘I AM’ the ‘I thought’ or is the ‘I AM’ just my present awareness?” The author thought: “if the ‘I AM’ is this present awareness, the awareness that is now looking at this room, then paying attention to the ‘I AM’ is just: My awareness watching my awareness.” This was a revelation! Instead of having some vague practice where one is told to pay attention to the “I AM” without ever being sure exactly what the “I AM” is and feels like, here was an absolutely clear instruction: My present awareness watching my present awareness.

The author shut his eyes, because the point was also to ignore the world. To turn the attention that normally goes out into the world around 180 degrees and to look inward. To turn the attention away from thoughts, feelings and desires and towards awareness watching awareness. If the author noticed a thought, he ignored the thought and brought the attention back to awareness watching awareness. Awareness paying attention to awareness to the exclusion of all else. Awareness paying attention only to itself.

The author practiced the Awareness Watching Awareness Method for two years, from December 2001 to January 2004. There were more days with twelve hours of practice than days with two hours of practice. In January of 2004 the author’s ego, sorrow and suffering came to its final end, and what remained is Infinite-Eternal-Awareness-Love-Bliss.

Another reason the author did not previously realize the true meaning of I AM is that he had read that the “I AM,” the true Self, is infinite continuous awareness. That made it seem like the “I AM” must be something different from the awareness that appears to wake up in the morning. However, the habit of always looking outward is what causes the awareness to appear to wake up in the morning and to seem limited. The awareness does not really wake up in the morning and it is not limited. Waking up, going to sleep and limitation are illusions created by the habit of always looking outward. If one observes the awareness for many years, eventually one discovers that the awareness is continuous and that it is not limited.

The awakening of the extremely intense desire for Freedom will make the Awareness Watching Awareness practice far more effective. Self honesty will make the Awareness Watching Awareness practice far more effective.

Chapter Seven: The Awareness Watching Awareness Method Practice Instructions

Preliminary Instructions:

It is better if you can be undisturbed and alone during your practice.

Bodily posture is not important in the Awareness Watching Awareness Method. However, since one wishes to turn the attention away from the body, it is important that the body is comfortable and relaxed and not causing any pain. Make sure the posture helps you to ignore the body and turn your attention away from the body. Make sure the posture does not cause your attention to be directed towards the body.

Awareness: When you wake up from sleep, awareness is that consciousness that woke up from sleep. Thoughts come and thoughts go. The background of awareness does not come and go. The background of awareness is continuous during all your waking hours until you go to sleep again. Awareness is you, your consciousness, just your awareness that is looking through your eyes right now.

Awareness is not thought. Awareness is that which is conscious of thought or conscious of the absence of thought. Both when there are thoughts and when there are no thoughts the background of awareness is aware. The background of awareness is continuous during all of the waking hours until you go to sleep again. During deep sleep, the thinker is no longer aware of the background of awareness.

Awareness is not emotions. Awareness is that which is conscious of emotions or conscious of the absence of emotions. Both when there are emotions and when there are no emotions, the background of awareness is aware, because your awareness is continuous during all of the waking hours until you go to sleep again.

Awareness is not the objects seen by the eyes. Awareness is that which is conscious of the objects seen by the eyes or conscious of the absence of the objects seen by the eyes. Your awareness is aware when the eyes are open seeing objects and when your eyes are closed not seeing objects, because your awareness is continuous during all the waking hours until you go to sleep again.

Awareness is not the thought “I.” Awareness is that which is conscious of the thought “I” or conscious of the absence of the thought “I.” Both when you think “I” and when you do not think “I,” your awareness is aware, because your awareness is continuous during all the waking hours.

Awareness is not desire. Awareness is that which is conscious of desire or conscious of the absence of desire. Both when there is desire and when there is no desire, you are aware, because your awareness is continuous until you go to sleep again.

Awareness is not something far away or mysterious. Awareness is that which is looking through your eyes reading this sentence. Just your ordinary, everyday awareness. Not some special awareness.

Awareness is not any of the things or experiences perceived. Awareness is that which is conscious of the things or experiences. Awareness is also that which is conscious of the absence of things or experiences.

The following practice instructions are the Awareness Watching Awareness Method described with carefully chosen slightly different words. The practice instructions are called Descriptions. Use only one Description per practice session. If you are going to practice for one, two or three hours today, then for that entire time, you should use the same Description. Try Description A first. Use a different Description each day until you have tried all of the Descriptions. Then choose the Description that was the easiest for you to understand and to practice, and from then on use only that Description.

The Awareness Watching Awareness Method is always practiced with the eyes closed. When you are observing your awareness, just remain with that. There is no need to do anything else. Awareness is empty. It is just awareness being aware of itself. It is not a special type of awareness. It is just your ordinary everyday awareness that you normally go through the day with, looking at itself.

The Awareness Watching Awareness Method Practice Instructions

• Description B: Look out at the room and notice your awareness looking out through your eyes. Now shut your eyes and notice the same awareness is still there that a moment ago was looking outward at the room. Observe that awareness. If you notice thoughts, ignore the thoughts and turn your attention away from the thoughts and towards awareness observing awareness.
• Description K: Shut your eyes. Your present awareness watching your present awareness, while ignoring all else.
• Description L: Look at the room. Notice your attention looking through your eyes. Shut your eyes and turn your attention around to look at itself. Attention attending to attention. Remain with that. Don’t move from that. Don’t attend to anything else. Don’t attend to thought. Attend only to attention.
• Description M: Look at the room. Notice your awareness looking through your eyes. Now shut your eyes. Notice that same awareness that was looking through your eyes a moment ago. Now turn that awareness around 180 degrees away from the world, the body and thought and towards itself, towards awareness aware of awareness.
• Description N: Look at the room, or if you are outdoors look at the sky. Your awareness is the seer. Shut your eyes. See the seer. Turn your attention away from thought and towards the seer.
• Description O: Shut your eyes. Turn your attention away from the known. Now know the knower.
• Description P: Shut your eyes. Awareness aware only of awareness. Remain there. Dwell there. Be there. Live there.
• Description Q: Shut your eyes. One awareness observing one awareness. Not two, one observing the other. Only one. Observe your awareness. If you notice thinking, do not attempt to complete the thought. Drop the thought, let go of the thought as though you had no interest in the thought. Continue observing your awareness.
• Description R: Shut your eyes. Observe your awareness. Relax into your awareness. Remain there in awareness aware only of awareness.
• Description U: There are the things you are aware of. There is the awareness that is aware of the things. Instead of observing the things, observe the awareness. Shut your eyes. There are thoughts and feelings. There is the awareness that is aware of the thoughts and feelings. Instead of observing the thoughts and feelings, observe the awareness.
• Description V: Shut your eyes. Do not observe thought. Observe awareness. Awareness observing awareness is empty. There is no thing to observe there. Don’t complicate it by thinking there is more to it. Awareness is subtle. In awareness observing awareness there is only awareness. It is simple. Remain in awareness observing itself.
• Description W: Shut your eyes. Focus on the awareness that thoughts are arising in. Do not focus on the thoughts. Thoughts come and thoughts go. The awareness in which thoughts are arising does not come and go. Be aware of the awareness that does not come and go. When there are thoughts, watch the awareness, not the thoughts. When there are no thoughts, watch the awareness. Thoughts or no thoughts, continue to observe the awareness. Continue to relax in and be aware of awareness. Remain there. Dwell there. Be there. Live there.
• Description Z: Shut your eyes. Let go of the idea that you own awareness. Let go of the idea that you control awareness. Let the infinite awareness be what it is without your trying to control it. Relax and observe the awareness. Let go of everything and observe the awareness. Relax completely and observe the awareness. With as little effort as possible and with a gentle, kind, easy, relaxed, loving approach; observe the awareness.

Chapter Eight: Further Clarification of the Awareness Watching Awareness Method

One of the things you might wonder about is what to do after you start watching your awareness. There is nothing else to be done. You just continue with awareness watching awareness. There are no objects to see. Awareness is empty. There is no thing to observe in awareness. Just continue for the entire practice session watching your awareness. Only awareness watching awareness and nothing else. The key is to be content just watching your awareness and not to move from that and not to add anything to that. Just be content with awareness watching awareness. You should look at it like awareness watching awareness is all there is, there is nothing more.

The best practice session is when there are no thoughts. If there are thoughts, turn your attention away from the thoughts and towards awareness watching awareness. Do not encourage thoughts. Do not try to complete a thought. Do not turn your attention towards thoughts. Do not think about thinking. If thoughts are happening, do not make a problem out of it. Just turn your attention away from thoughts and towards awareness watching awareness. Just remain with awareness watching awareness.

When awareness is watching awareness something extraordinary is happening. You are for the first time turning inward. The reason for pointing out that you are doing something extraordinary while practicing awareness watching awareness is because at first you might think, “what else?” or “so what?” Just continue to practice and forget about “what else?” or “so what?” By turning your attention away from thought and towards awareness watching awareness, you are doing something that will change your life completely, if you are sincere and continue to practice. Most humans live their entire lives always looking outward at people, places and things. By turning your attention away from the world, body and thought and towards awareness watching awareness, you are doing something extraordinary.

It might take a few days, a few weeks, or for some people a few months to start to feel something. At first it is subtle and you won’t know what it is. You will know that you like it. It is pleasant. A new subtle feeling. You are beginning to feel eternal-life-love-peace.

While you are practicing the Awareness Watching Awareness Method: Just stay there. Relax there. Don’t seek something other than awareness watching awareness. Don’t seek any other state. Just remain in awareness watching awareness. Be happy that it is simple. Don’t seek more than that. It is just a simple state. Just remain with awareness watching awareness, and every time a thought arises turn your awareness away from the thought and towards awareness watching awareness.

If you continue practicing the Awareness Watching Awareness Method every day, eventually you will start to enjoy awareness watching awareness. How long it will take to begin enjoying awareness watching awareness is different for different people. It may take days, weeks or for some people months before they begin to enjoy the practice. The point is, if you find it difficult to remain with awareness watching awareness in the beginning, don’t give up. Practice every day on the good days and on the noisy-mind or turbulent-feeling days also. Just continue turning your attention away from thoughts and towards awareness watching awareness.

The best kind of awareness watching awareness practice session is one that is empty. Awareness watching awareness and nothing else. Just stay there. Just be there. Dwell there. Remain there. Don’t seek anything different; just be content with awareness watching awareness. Relax and continue watching your awareness.

Here is a way to look at it: Awareness watching awareness is similar to falling in love. You spend time with someone. You watch them. You observe them. You do not yet know them. You continue to observe them. You don’t have expectations, because you don’t know them well enough yet to have expectations. You continue to observe them. Some days you have pleasant feelings while you observe them. Some days you have unpleasant feelings while you observe them. You continue to observe them. Every day you come to know them better, even though you may not be aware that you are coming to know them better. Then one day, suddenly and unexpectedly, you fall in Love.

Progress may be imperceptible to the practitioner. Some people will reach the point where just closing their eyes brings awareness-joy even before they have started the practice. Some people may experience turbulence for many years before peace or vice versa. Persevere and continue to practice.

You can look upon your awareness as something that wants you to watch it without expecting anything from it, like someone who wants to be loved for what they are and not for what they can give you.

Awareness watching awareness is awareness being awareness. Because of the long ancient habit of looking outward towards people, places and thWatching thoughts is not looking inward. Watching feelings is not looking inward. Watching breathing is not looking inward. Only turning the attention away from the observed and towards the observer is looking inward. Only awareness watching awareness is looking inward.

Chapter Nine: The Abandon Release Method

The reason practice should continue for as long as the body lives is: There is a false state of Freedom, where the ego has not come to its final end, and has only been temporarily submerged in the infinite awareness. This temporary state is very similar to eternal Freedom, there is no suffering and one only has the experience of infinite-awareness-love-bliss. One in this temporary state will usually have the perception that they have been liberated. However, one in this temporary state has not been liberated. The ego will sooner or later reappear. In True Freedom, the ego never reappears. In True Freedom, the ego is gone forever. That is the reason one should practice for as long as the body lives, even if one has the perception that one has been liberated.

The preliminary instructions for the Abandon Release Method are the same as for the Awareness Watching Awareness Method.

The Abandon Release Method Practice Instructions

• Description A: Shut your eyes. Relax your body. Now ignore your body. Let go of all effort. Let go of all sense of having to do something, as though there is nothing you have to do and nothing you have to think about. Letting go of all effort means letting go of all will and all desire, as though there is nothing that needs to be accomplished or changed. Let go. Relax. Let go more. Relax more. See how far it is possible to let go. Let go of all thoughts. Let go of all feelings. Whatever thoughts, perceptions, images or feelings arise let them go as soon as they arise or even before they arise. Do not follow thoughts, as though you had no interest in thoughts. Let go of all your perceptions as if your perceptions have nothing to do with you. Continue to relax more and more. Throughout the practice session let go more, then let go even more and as the practice session continues, see how far it is possible to let go. Relax completely. Let go totally.
• Description B: Release everything except your awareness. Letting go is giving up completely. Letting go is surrendering completely. Letting go is relaxing completely. Letting go is releasing completely. Letting go is letting go of all effort and all thought. Letting go is letting go of all feelings, desires and images. Letting go is letting go of everything except your awareness. The difference between falling asleep and the Abandon Release Method is that when you fall asleep you let go of everything including your awareness. In the Abandon Release Method you let go of everything except your awareness.
• Description E: Shut your eyes. Let go of all thoughts. If a thought arises, let it go. If another thought arises, let it go. Continue to let go of thought. Relax thought completely. Continue to release thought throughout the practice session. See how far it is possible to let go of thought. Do not try to complete a thought, let the thought go immediately when the thought first begins. Let go completely.
• Description F: Shut your eyes. Let go completely. Totally let go. Let go of everything except your awareness.

Chapter Ten: The Eternal Method

Lying down on your bed with the lights turned off is the best position.

The Eternal Method is a secondary practice, not a primary practice; therefore, the Eternal Method should not be practiced more often than once per week.

The Eternal Method Practice Instructions

Shut your eyes. Imagine you are traveling back in time. Go back in time one hundred billion years. Go back in time one hundred billion more years.

Realize that no matter how long you continue to travel into the past, even if you travel at the rate of eight hundred trillion years per second for a hundred trillion years, you will not come closer to the eternal past, because the eternal past always was, forever. Look into the eternal past and see: always was. The objects in space come and go; however, the space is eternal. Realize the meaning of the eternal past. See: the eternal past goes on forever and ever. Look into the eternal past, which goes on forever and ever, and see the meaning of always was. Look into the eternal past and see the eternal past has no beginning. Look into the eternal past and see the meaning of no end. Realize: the eternal past has no end. Look into the eternal past and see: the eternal past goes on forever and never ends.

Now come back to the present time. Imagine you are traveling forward in time.

Look at how all those problems you had when you lived on earth did not have any real significance. You only imagined those problems had significance. What has real value and significance is the eternal. The eternal infinite space-awareness, which is eternal life, is what you are and what you always have been, and that is where all real significance, Truth, meaning, perfect safety, love and bliss are.

Realize, no matter how long you continue to travel into the future, even if you travel at the rate of eight hundred trillion years per second for one hundred trillion years, you will not come closer to the eternal future, because the eternal future continues forever.

Now look into the eternal future and see the meaning of always will be. The objects in space come and go; however, the space is eternal. Realize the meaning of the eternal future. See that the eternal future goes on and on forever. See the eternal future that goes on forever and ever and realize the meaning of always will be. Look into the eternal future and see the meaning of no end. See: the eternal future has no end. See the eternal future and see the meaning of the eternal future goes on forever and never ends. You are that eternal infinite space-awareness that never ends. See the beauty of eternal life.

In your daily life don’t let the impostor; who is the mistaken identity called ego, take you through distractions, detours and activities that lead to the temporary, because the temporary is meaningless, futile, and leads to suffering.

Chapter Eleven: The Infinite Space Method

When people practice the Awareness Watching Awareness Method, they often tend to have the perception that awareness is located in their head. Your awareness is not in your head. Your awareness is infinite. The Infinite Space Method helps to remove the perception that awareness is something in your head. The Infinite Space Method helps to provide a sense of the limitless nature of space.

Look in the same direction and see infinite space. Look in the same direction and see: space goes on forever and there is no end. Realize: space is never ending in all directions. That infinite space is your awareness. That infinite space is infinite love. That infinite space is eternal life. See the infinite Freedom of infinite space. See: infinite space is open to allow everything. Whatever wall or boundary you imagine; there is infinite space on the other side of that boundary. If you imagine a circle, there is always a larger circle, and there is always infinite space on the outside of the circle.

There is only one space. Space is the source of life. Space is alive.

All the boundaries are imagined. There are no real boundaries. In Reality there is only the infinite Freedom of infinite space. From time to time in your daily life, focus on the space, instead of on the objects. Space inside the objects, space outside the objects, and space in the imagined boundary. Never again imagine that space is just nothing. Space is that which is truly valuable. Space is eternal life-awareness. Space is infinite Love. One being, one space, one infinite Love. Focusing attention on space is focusing attention on infinite Freedom. Focusing attention on space is focusing attention on infinite Love. Your awareness is space. All limits are imagined. All limits are a product of delusion. All limits are a type of dream. It is possible to wake up. You can wake up to the Reality of infinite-eternal-space-awareness-love-bliss. You can wake up to perfect peace.

Because of the long habit of imagining you are a thinker living in a body in a world, waking up requires spending much time in the direct spiritual practice. You are not a thinker living in a body in a world. You are infinite-eternal-space-awareness-love-joy.

Chapter Twelve: The Loving All Method

The Loving All Method is the most effective method that can be practiced while one is engaged in other activities. The Loving All Method can be practiced everyday, during any and all types of activities.

The Loving All Method can be summed up as follows: Love everything you perceive, exactly as it is. Love everything you experience, exactly the way it is.

If you don’t understand how to practice using the word “love,” you can substitute the words “emotionally allow” for the word “love” in the practice instructions. After practicing every day for one month using the words “emotionally allow,” you can substitute the words “emotionally accept” for the word “love” in the practice instructions.

The Loving All Method refers only to emotions. No changes in external behavior are required. If someone were to try to punch you in the face and you would normally duck, you will also duck while practicing the Loving All Method. Loving the fact that someone is trying to punch you does not mean you will not duck. You also love ducking to avoid being punched.

The Loving All Method is emotional acceptance. The Loving All Method is not changing actions. The Loving All Method is like any skill: the more you practice, the more skill you gain.

Love as much as you can love. Continue to practice every day, trying to love everything and every experience exactly the way it is.

For some people, it may take years of practice to be able to love all experiences. However, great benefits come right from the beginning, from the very first time you love an experience that you would have previously rejected. There is more love and energy in your life; and life is lighter and easier. Therefore, it is not as though you have to wait for some big payoff at the end of the Loving All Method. Each day you gain more skill at loving your experiences, you have more love and energy on that very day.

Every day, try to love everything and every experience that happens exactly the way it is. The key word is try. Try means do it. You will learn how by trying. You will learn how by doing it. It might take some time to gain skill. It might take some time to succeed.

Emotional acceptance does not prevent you from trying to change whatever you wish to change. What you wish to change, you will still change. Whatever action you would normally take to change something, you will take that same action while practicing the Loving All Method.

You should not look inward while engaged in daily activities. You should look outward while engaged in daily activities. In other words, it is important to pay attention to what you are doing while engaged in daily activities. The Loving All Method is not looking inward. It is important to pay close attention during your daily activities to minimize errors and problems. If you try to look inward during your daily activities, your activities may not flow smoothly.

The Loving All Method does not require much thought either. In the beginning you might need to think something like “Love every experience” many times every day while you are learning the practice.

However, after much practice you will not need that thinking reminder. The Loving All Method is a new feeling habit. The practice is feeling, not thinking. Because the practice requires little or no thought and is not a looking-inward method, it can be practiced during all daily activities.

The Loving All Method is a way to develop the habit of feeling love towards everything you perceive. In the beginning you could try practicing “no emotional resistance” during all of your daily activities. In action you can resist all you want to resist.

Loving every experience exactly the way it is, frees energy that used to be wasted. Thus, the Loving All Method can fill your life with energy, ease, love, and joy. Love is far more than just emotional acceptance. From time to time throughout the day think of the person you love the most. Get in touch with the love that you feel for them. Then use that same feeling of love when practicing the Loving All Method.

Chapter Thirteen: The Reminders

The purpose of spiritual practice is to experience infinite-eternal-awareness-love-bliss in this lifetime, not in the afterlife or some future lifetime. However, for those who do not succeed in bringing the ego to its final end in this imaginary lifetime, their efforts have not been wasted because they will be much more ripe for liberation in the next imaginary lifetime. All delays are tricks of the ego. All detours are tricks of the impostor self. All distractions are tricks of the false pretend self.

The pretend self is very tricky and tries to lead people away from spiritual practice.

Awareness watching awareness, which can be described in many ways such as; awareness aware only of awareness, consciousness conscious of consciousness, awareness aware of itself, was taught in a very small number of the spiritual teachings of the past. It was ignored in those very same teachings, buried by the ego in thousands of non-essentials. To remove all the non-essentials and restore awareness watching awareness to its rightful place as the most direct and rapid means to eternal bliss is new.

Making a simple spiritual teaching into something complicated is a trick generated by the ego. Reading this book at different times in your life can produce different results.

All of the methods in the book except the Loving All Method are to be practiced when there are no other activities going on. The Loving All Method can be practiced during all activities. Thus the Loving All Method is a means to use all of your time productively towards your awakening.

Chapter Fourteen: Experiences, the Journey and the Final Goal

Many spiritual teachings have maps or lists of stages or signs of progress. For a teaching that has as its goal bringing the impostor self to its final end all such maps or lists are false. There are no uniform signs or stages.

What are the signs or indications that you are waking up from a dream or from sleep? There may be such signs, but they differ not only from person to person but even from dream to dream.

Either you are dreaming or you are not dreaming. Either you are sleeping or you are awake. The notion of signs of progress towards awakening is not valid and not helpful to the aspirant.

The most helpful view for the aspirant is not to be concerned with signs of progress. The human dream is a delusion. Looking for signs of progress in a delusion is an error.

Almost all experiences during spiritual practice are illusions. Thus to look towards illusions for signs of progress towards awakening is folly. This is true regardless of whether those illusions are blissful or sad. When a list of signs of progress is not given, what the aspirant has to fall back on is: What was it that gave the aspirant the confidence that the method they are practicing is the most rapid and direct means to eternal bliss? In the case of the Awareness Watching Awareness Method, it is the fact that one’s attention is focused exclusively on the background of awareness that makes it the most direct and rapid means. In other words, your true Self is awareness. The most rapid and direct means to the direct perception of your awareness is your awareness. That makes it the most direct practice with no distractions or detours.

The goal is to perceive the seer. Almost any experience you have, including those you consider to be spiritual experiences, are the seen and not the seer. They are the perceived, not the perceiver. Therefore, they should be ignored. Experiences can be created from the power of suggestion. Two different spiritual groups, who as part of a spiritual teaching are taught that they can expect two different kinds of spiritual experiences, will tend to have experiences that match what they have been told to expect, even if they are practicing the same method. This is an example of the power of suggestion. This is also an example of the power of illusion.

All realms, all places, all dimensions and all entities are temporary illusions. The Reality is not a place and has no places in it.

There may be entities in the beautiful realms that try and convince you that those realms are eternal. Don’t believe those entities. No place is eternal. No realm is eternal. All realms and all places had a beginning in time and will have an end in time. Keep in mind that you may never experience any realm or place or entity. That which is temporary is not the goal. That which is temporary will not free you from sorrow.

A temporary entity or place may seem to help, however; in the end they will not have produced any real help. It is best to ignore all that you experience during spiritual practice by turning your attention away from the experience and towards the experiencer.

What is the goal of practice? It is to bring the impostor self and its suffering and illusions to a final end so that only the true Self whose nature is Infinite-Eternal- Awareness-Love-Bliss remains.

If one cannot convey the taste of pineapple juice through words, how can the final Reality be described through words since the final Reality is not within the human frame of reference? Describing the final Reality as Infinite-Eternal-Awareness-Love-Bliss is the closest one can come in words without straying too far from the human frame of reference. In the final Reality, which is the only Reality, there are no worlds, no places, no dimensions, no universe, no realms, no forms, no time, no things, no beings and almost nothing that any word in the dictionary points towards. In the final Reality, which is the only Reality, there are no humans, no animals, no planets, no stars, and no earth.

The final Reality is infinite awareness aware only of infinite awareness. The final Reality, which is the only Reality, is infinite awareness aware of itself and itself is infinite awareness. In all of eternity the final Reality has never been aware of anything other than infinite awareness-love-bliss. Awareness-love-bliss are not three, it is one.

When the ego comes to its final end, there is no longer the perception of a body or a world. That is not the same as saying the body dies. If you go to sleep tonight and dream of flying camels, when you wake up the flying camels did not die. They just disappeared.

The awakened sage has not gone to some other place. In the case of an awakened sage the dream has ended that contained the place. Both the sleeping-dream and the waking-dream have ended for the awakened sage.

The difference between the deep dreamless sleep state and the final Reality is that in the deep dreamless sleep state there appears to be unconsciousness. In the final Reality there is awareness that never changes and is always aware.

Because the true Self is eternally perfect awareness-love-bliss and eternally free of all suffering, some people think there is no need for spiritual practice. Such a notion is an ego preservation strategy. The purpose of practice is not to gain the true Self. The purpose of practice is to remove the illusion of a body, a world, suffering, etc. so that what remains is only the eternal experience of the True Self.

Your own everyday background of awareness is the path to Infinite Awareness, as a beam of sunlight is to the Sun.

If you are in a dark room, spiritual practice is like opening the drapes or curtains. If a person says the Sun is there, therefore there is no need to open the drapes, that person will always live in darkness. So it is with those who say there is no need for spiritual practice.

There was a spiritual teacher who for more than fifty years gave talks around the world. He said there is no need for practice. He said any movement of the me center (ego) helps to perpetuate the me center. That might sound logical; however, what are the actual results? Towards the end of his life it was this teacher’s view that none of the people who had attended his talks or read his books had succeeded in ending the me center. Practice is essential. Talking you out of spiritual practice is an ego preservation strategy.

Practice Instructions for the Loving Consciousness Method

• Shut your eyes.
• Love your consciousness.
• Continue to feel love towards your awareness throughout the practice session.
• Worship your consciousness.
• Cherish your consciousness.
• Value your consciousness.
• Your awareness loving your awareness.
• In this practice you are not loving thoughts, feelings, etc. You are loving the background of awareness.

NOTE

Do not confuse the Loving All Method with the Loving Consciousness Method. They are different Methods.

The question may arise who or what does the practice? It is the ego that leads one to practice. Usually the ego leads one to practice a method that will allow the ego to continue. Thus the human delusion and human evil continues. However, it is possible for the ego to see the need for its own end.

Thought is something insincere and deceptive with sinister motives. Thought has thousands of layers of self deception. When something that is basically deceptive and dishonest has such a vast network of thought to work with, it is not difficult to see how thought has been able to keep almost all humans prisoner for all of human history. Seeing the extent of the self-deception, thought’s layer upon layer of self-deception, dishonesty, insincerity and thought’s ability to hide what it is doing from its imaginary self, is the key to understanding the ancient human trap.

The very fact that humans pretend that human insincerity is not omnipresent is one of the factors that has always allowed human insincerity to flourish. Making excuses and creating explanations, rationalizations, and justifications for human evil has been one of the primary factors that has allowed human evil to continue. If one sees and rejects all those excuses, explanations, rationalizations and justifications and instead just sees human evil as evil, that is a first step towards the ending of human evil. If you do not like the word evil you can use the words cruelty, deception, hurtfulness, harmfulness, lying, cheating, conning, violence (both physical and verbal), insincerity, dishonesty, pretense, apathy, hatred.

Read books about Memes or Memetics to learn more about how religious and other beliefs are spread from human to human much like a virus. Thus the beliefs of a particular religion become a basic part of the person’s mind. There is usually a lifetime bias towards the religion the person was taught. Sometimes the religion contains terrible threats of eternal punishment. Thus the person can no longer see clearly the evil that the religion or spiritual teaching is perpetuating.

Human thought can always find an explanation or justification for evil. If every time thought tries to explain evil away you do not believe the explanations but instead Just say no to the evil, then everything will start to change for you. You would then walk away from such a religion or spiritual teaching and never return.

Science can be very helpful to navigate the waking-dream and make the waking-dream less painful. If your body has symptoms of illness, go to see a modern medical doctor. Where science fails is in being helpful with waking up from the waking-dream. The ego in the scientist is just as dedicated to continuing the waking-dream as is the ego in the religious believer, the philosopher and almost all other human beings. Science is constantly changing. Science is for the purpose of discovering that which is relatively truer. Science is not for the purpose of experiencing the Absolute Truth that has never changed in all eternity and that will never change in all eternity.

Conclusion

Self-honesty is the cure. Self-honesty begins by actually becoming aware of the layers upon layers of self-deception. Devote your life to Truth and Freedom. It is not all gloomy and bleak. There is something wonderful and extremely beautiful. You can wake up and live eternally in Infinite-Awareness-Love-Bliss, free of all suffering. Your true Self is that now. Wishing you success in bringing the impostor (ego) to its final end.

• Start the day with love.
• Fill the day with love.
• End the day with love.
• Treat every human and animal you come into contact with with tenderness, kindness, care, love and gentleness.