Reality

my tuppence-worth

One of my father’s nick-names for me was ‘Tuppence.’  Perhaps it was because I was always eager to offer my “tuppence-worth” (i.e., the state-of-the-world according to my all-knowing self), and irritatingly persistent with my questions – “But why?” “Who says so?”  When he was really mad at me he’d say, “For two pence I’d give you the hiding of your life!”  I was always relieved no one came along with those pennies.

I never out-grew the tendency towards contrariness and insatiable curiosity.  From here I regard them as having been essential companions – both tools and fuel – on the rather erratic life path that unfolded for the ‘Tuppence’ character.

The days when I held court in my pram are ancient history, but the questions that matter for me remain fresh and alive.  My responses to them are an ever-morphing ontology.  Here’s the current version – a crone’s tuppence-worth.

 

Tuppence (Miriam Louisa)

Tuppence in her pram: Well then. What’s this all about?

 

What does the “God” word mean for you?

The Unknowable

dressed up and dancing as the knowable.

…

Is Consciousness all there is?

I don’t know.

I can only say it’s all I ever experience.

…

But what knows the contents of Consciousness?

You’ll never find it.

(You’ll never escape it either.)

…

What is “enlightenment”?

An idea those who believe they are not already fully alight

like to entertain.

…

“Already fully alight” – how can one know that?

It can’t be known.

It’s quietly evident when all hunger for knowing drops away.

…

Can there be a partial or ‘damaging’ awakening?

Presence is already perfectly and completely just so.

But ideas about it can be experienced as wrong/bad/incomplete.

…

The sages say the observer is the observed. How is that so?

I’ve spent a lifetime on this koan…

I only ever experience all-inclusive observing.

…

Is there an Almighty God?

Too constricted and limited a notion, I’d say.

How about an Unlimited and Almighty Godding?

…

Is it true there’s “only One”?

From the perspective of Presence,

One is one too many.

…

Is there a purpose to life?

I ask Life. It grins:

Get onstage – it’s The Full Monty and you’re the star!

…

What is death?

That’s easy because I’ve been across and had a look.

It’s a little side-step, from one theatre into another.

…

Is it true that thoughts create reality?

Reality transcends thinking entirely.

However, thoughts and beliefs determine the quality of experience.

…

Is life a dream?

Maybe.

We’d know if we could find a dreamer.

…

What is surrender?

Abdication. Effortless, voluntary relinquishment

of the ME-project.

…

Is the world an illusion?

If it is

you’re the magician.

…

What’s the difference between illusion and delusion?

Illusion is the mirage in the desert;

delusion is believing it’s real.

…

Is there anything sacred?

Nothing knowable

could ever be sacred.

…

Is it true that “I am That?”

No.

You are the glorious “am”.

…

Are there any true concepts?

I don’t know

any.

…

Is there any valid aspiration / intention?

Yes.

K I N D N E S S

…

What is freedom?

Being 100% present as the capacity for passionate engagement with life

and not minding what happens.

…

What brings your greatest fulfilment?

Nothing ever brings fulfilment.

It’s one’s natural state when there’s no need of fulfilment.

…

And your deepest peace?

S I L E N C E

(no contest)

…

Do you have any plans?

The GPS is set to nth – now! this! here!

Presence is driving.

…

What is Grace?

The Beloved

sneaking up for a kiss.

…

What are you?

I am whatever Presence wants to be

in response to whatever It meets.

 

[The words Awareness, Presence, the Unknowable, Reality, Grace, the Beloved, all point to the same ‘thing’. Except it’s not a thing. If anything (ha!) it’s an event-ing.
I like the Godding word; I might patent that one!]

memo from IT to ITself

 

IT is not understood until IT is forgotten

 

IT is not understood
until IT is forgotten.

When IT is forgotten
IT can express ITself.

When IT expresses ITself
you won’t recognise IT.

If you think you recognise IT
you are mistaken.

Realising you are mistaken
about everything

 

cracks open

 &

deconstructs

 

your many-layered
me-isphere

revealing IT to ITself

perfectly.

 

“IT” in this context = reality, big R.
This post might read like a madwoman’s rant, but those who have free-fallen into Unknowing will simply smile at the play of paradox.
Such is IT’s way.

Image sourced from Facebook, where credit was not given. Please advise if it’s yours and an appropriate link will be added.

after the fall into calamitous clarity

302

after the fall
into calamitous clarity
one cannot call either the state of war
or the state of peace ‘real’

the only reality is the knowing
of war or peace

this unknowable knowingness
which hosts and populates
perception’s phenomena
never takes sides
and has nothing to lose
or to gain
ever

~

life boils down to a cup of tea

292

By the wondrous old age of 90 both my parents have seen enough of life to know that it unfolds according to its own agenda.  Having been through a zillion shatterings and upliftings, they quietly confess that nothing much turned out the way they thought it would or wished it might.  They like to say that everything in Life happens of its own accord.

To say “of its own accord” is another way of saying “by Grace” – and we can’t understand either the cosmic laws that orchestrate “happenings” or the dynamic of “Grace.”  But we can have fun with concepts, while keeping the difference between concept and Reality in view.

My concept of Grace:  active, dynamic, non-local information/intelligence.  Primal Power.

My concept of Life:  unborn, unmoving, immeasurable Primal Potential.

Without Grace, Life remains impotent.

Visual concept:  Life’s omniscient and omnipresent Potential sit at the two corners of a triangle’s baseline, and Grace – omnipotence – forms the apex, transforming the connecting lines into form and unleashing creative energy.

When I show this bunch of concepts to the aged wise ones, they simply smile and make a cup of tea.

~

whole and holy! halleluiah!

266

The penny slipped through a crack in the basket-case I used to take for ‘me’.  It fell, spinning like a dervish – one side chasing the other in the cosmic dance of dualism.  And eventually, obeying the laws of entropy, it ran out of momentum and stopped.

It came to rest in the Real, the changeless,
where both its sides are equally true and valid.

It came to rest in the Real, which had been its home all along,
and it knew as much.

It knew it had never,
in spite of all its spinning and spending,
ever for one nanosecond left the Real,
because the Real is one without a second,
the Real is all there is,
the Real is totality, wholeness.
Whole!  Holy!

What a gobsmacker to realize that the two-sided penny called duality,
with all its stories, is inseparable from the Real.
Neither is the basket-case.

All Holy!  Halleluiah!

~

gimme proof!

251

Many folk of skeptical disposition ask for proof that the Teachings of The Great Perfection are ‘true’ – in other words, proof that there is there something sacred, changeless, timeless and immediate.  They ask for proof that Awareness is fundamental and inescapable.  They ask for proof while being the very proof they seek.

Being a contrary creature by disposition, rather than requesting proof for That which is so obvious and in-your-face, I have a different question:

Does anyone claim to have scientific proof that anything has solid, permanent and ‘real’ existence – from quantum particles to cosmic galaxies – apart from the technologies of perception within the Awareness of sentient creatures?  Speak out loud.

~

the Reality within the illusion

246

Someone tells me, migraine-wracked me, “It’s all an illusion.”

In spite of vomiting and pain I have to agree, since there’s no suffering happening.  I have learned that to avoid, to move away from whatever suchness is presently presenting, is to suffer.

But in the contrary way of unbidden questions something asks, “If the experience of sickness can be said to be an illusion, what’s aware of the illusion; what knows it to be an illusion?”

The Awareingness that’s aware isn’t a thing.  And nothing can be found outside of this Awareing-Knowing, so, how could any experience be said to be an illusion or not-an-illusion?

“Don’t overlook the Reality within the illusion!”
said someone very wise

and this is the most powerful and comforting
mind-medicine one can offer

~