by Wu Hsin
To see oneself as one is would be to perceive what is real, a direct perception that is possible only in a state free of all conditioning. In the conditioned existence, what is perceived is filtered and can therefore be said to be a fabrication.
Let this be your contemplation for today.
The Master began:
We are most eager to believe and far less eager to know.
We cannot fully understand something while being involved with it. It is only when we move out of it that we can begin to see clearly. With our heads in the clouds, we can't see outside the clouds.
When it is seen that everything outside is experienced inside, ideas of inside and outside lose their meaning.
When one is wholly identified with the body and mind, one is completely absent from one's essential nature. How can anyone awaken until they see that they are asleep?
When the attention is moved from there, that being the world, to here, that being Conscious Existence, not a single problem can be found.
Let this be your contemplation for today.
The Master began:
With the arrival of clear sight, only the reflections change, only the false dies. What is true, what is real, is eternal.
There seems to be a seer and an object. But upon direct investigation, nobody experiences a seer, only seeing.
Thought impedes the flow of reality.
Realizing that the thinker is just another thought obliterates the concept.
With regard to the perception of any object, the senses provide the form whereas the mind supplies the labels and concepts. Yet, there are no objects without the subject, no phenomena in the absence of noumenon. As such, for anything to be, Consciousness has to be there first.
Whatever is known is in the field of consciousness and is therefore known by consciousness. It is the actualization of infinite Potentiality.
The ideas of exterior and interior, of inner and outer, exist only so long as you do not accept an absence of separation.
Let this be your contemplation for today.
The Master began:
I cannot speak of the mind's natural state. The mind's natural state is thoughtlessness. No thought, no mind.
In clarity, one's mind becomes like the moon at noon.
Only imperfect knowledge requires a load of words.Reality is everywhere except inside one's head.
Reject all second hand knowledge, all hearsay, all the knowledge that has been acquired.
Begin with the only firsthand knowledge one has: I am and I know that I am. Don't add anything to it, stay with it and see where it takes you.
Those seeking clarity are well advised to remember: "You can't take you with you".
Those who are asleep rest in what is known while those who are awake bask in the unknown.
Those who have apperceived their immortality no longer worry about death. It would be like worrying about falling off the floor.
Let this be your contemplation for today.
The Master began:
True happiness is unassailable because it is not conditioned upon this or that.
When I-am is attached to anything creating "I am this" or "I am that", another delusion is formed.
With clear sight, the world doesn't matter.
The only impediment to lasting happiness is unhappiness. Unhappiness is nothing more than the thought "I am unhappy". When the thought goes, unhappiness goes.
All thought begins rooted in memory, in the already-known, the past. In it, everything is defined, labeled, and filed away. In this manner, re-cognition is facilitated.
Let us now return to the silence for a time.
The Master continued:
Soul, mind or ego are words only. There are no entities that they correspond to.
Spirituality with the intention of improving the individual in any way is not spiritual.
"I-am-this" is the Primary Thought, the central reference point around which all perspectives evolve.
The challenges may be new, but the responses are too often old, having been accessed from memory.
The ego comes and goes; that which observes its coming and going is what one truly is.
Let us now return to the silence for a time.
The Master continued:
The so called witness that is enmeshed in what he perceives is merely the ego in disguise.
The witness who is unmoved and untouched, is the guardian of the real, the contact point between the unmanifest and the manifested.
There is no individual consciousness because there is no individual.
There must be something to say “There is nothing”.
This arrival of self-consciousness is the source of all dissatisfaction, unhappiness, etc. Is there dissatisfaction while asleep? When one sees through the deceit of self-consciousness, one returns to inherent peace and silence.
To sleep is to give up identification with name and form. Seeing everything as yourself is sleeping while awake. In other words, when everything that comes has gone, what remains is what I am.
Let this be your contemplation for today.
The Master said:
To what does "mine" refer? "Mine" is what belongs to me. But what belongs to me cannot be me. So what is required is to investigate what constitutes this "me" that is different from "mine".
We create the ideas of "inner" and "outer" by setting the body as the central point of reference. Yet, we fail to question the validity of this.
We know ourselves by the ideas we hold about ourselves. When we abandon all ideas about ourselves, we really get to know ourselves.
We overlook what is inherent in us and give our attention to what truly is not "ours".
We say that we see because we have eyes. This is, of itself, not true. A corpse has eyes, yet does not see.
Likewise, it can be said that we must have a brain in order to see, but here again the example of the corpse proves otherwise.
The sense organs know their respective sense objects and the brain knows the sense organs. But in the absence of the Being Knowing Energy, nothing is.
What I am is not at all affected by the actions, perceptions, thoughts and feelings that appear. As such, nothing need be done about them.
Let this be your contemplation for today.
The Master said:
What is real is real to everyone; what is false is always personal.
When "I" ceases to be, the notion of "mine" has no meaning. Embodiment is merely a temporary phenomenon that masks one's eternal nature.
When it becomes clear that one is not the body, there also ceases to be "others with bodies".
When subjectivity is unaffected by the coming and going of phenomena, what is left over is referred to as peace. Yet, one must make a sincere declaration: am I the subjectivity or am I an object?
Waking, dreaming, and sleeping pass before me. Something continuous exists throughout the three discontinuous phases. I am That.
What can wake up can fall asleep again. What never sleeps has no need for awakening.
Let us now return to the silence for a time.
Master Wu Hsin continued:
That which one is doesn't need enlightenment; it is only for that which one isn't.
Birth and death relate to the individual, and since the individual is a delusion, birth and death lose their meaning.
The I-idea is always seeking proofs of its validity. All "my's" are such attempts. The end of I is the end of ideas.
Investigation results in seeing that "you" cannot be located in either time or space, neither inside nor outside. This not-finding is the doorway to what one is.
The body is the clothing of Being Consciousness. Seen in this light, identification falls away.
Let us now return to the silence for a time.
Master Wu Hsin continued:
Most of those who come to Wu Hsin are desirous of improving their personal condition.
Had they realized that success here requires the givin
g up of all personal conditions, they would never have come.
This much cannot be overly stressed. The house becomes a prison when one can't leave it.
Wu Hsin advises to view the body as your house. You can come and go as you please.
It is only when you are identified with it that you are imprisoned.
Let this be your contemplation for today.
Today, the Master began:
Consciousness is the expression of the Absolute. The world is the expression of Consciousness.
Attending to the world is mind. Attending to attention itself is Being
The latter is the only so-called practice that is needed.
When the self directs its attention to the Self, the self dissolves into the Self, taking with it all its imaginations.
What remains is the Silence that cannot be disturbed by any amount of noise.
You can’t walk towards It and you can’t walk away from It. You are It.
Ponder this; more tomorrow.
Today, the Master began:
Regardless of the species, there is no "who" that is distinct from the organism. Naming every water buffalo on the rice farm doesn't make each an individual.
We create a world related to an erroneous subjective object, me.
All ideas of "who" are merely a product of human imagination, reinforced by memory of former imaginations.
Inquire: "What am I?"
Think on this deeply. Wu Hsin will speak again tomorrow.
The rains have been unrelenting and have created some hardships amongst us.
The Master entered the Great Hall and began:
What is realization? One regards as real that which is unreal. The cessation of this is realization. It need not be given; it is available to all in every moment.
One cannot clearly see the contents of a room filled with smoke. With the removal of the smoke, only then can one enjoy clarity.
Your view of the world is smoke-filled, so to speak. This smoke is comprised of "I" and other. Their removal is the requirement.
In life, we progress from the no-knowingness of an infant, to self consciousness, to the accumulation of concepts. This results in binge thinking and must be reversed.
It is impossible to fill a mind with Self that is already filled with myself. The emptying and subsequent refilling yields the Self without any sense of myself.
The idea of being an individual is the primary distortion of reality. From this, endless other distortions emerge. However, in the absence of imagination, it becomes clear that there is existence, but no individual existence.
Let this be your contemplation for today.
Today, the Master began:
The "I" is the conscious awareness of being in the present moment and having the authorship of actions.
Then there is the notion of "me", the personal identity, which is who you are based on all your past information and experiences. This is the story of who you are, the owner of all "my's". But both the "I", as actor, and the "me" are constructions.
Certainly we know that memories are always constructed, reinterpreted, reframed; so, information is reformatted to fit with a characterization. The sense of 'I,' and having free will is also constructed.
This "I" has meaning for us on three levels: the person thinks and feels "I", the touch of beingness is the experience of "I" without thinking, and the Ultimate is "I", without experiencing it.
This means that the Real which we are is always so already.
Let this be your contemplation for today.
The Master began:
Objective attention is the malady and subjective attention is the remedy.
When you are no longer someone, what remains?
So many ask Wu Hsin to prescribe a practice. What is there to be done?
It is like cooking a stew. Ingredients must be gathered, prepared and mixed together. Then the cooking process begins. It is only at a finger snap that the dish is deemed ready.
In the same way, all practices are mere preparation whereas the result of the preparation is sudden and spontaneous.
Using another image, the task is to fray the rope; the snapping happens in its own time.
Let us now return to the silence for a time.
Master Wu Hsin continued:
When we examine the notion "I am this", we observe that the "I am" is constant whereas the "this" is constantly changing. When the attention is moved from the latter to the former, one faces knowingness.
It is consciousness cognizing what appears in consciousness.
What you really are is that by which you know you are. You are the very consciousness through which the world is expressed.
Where would the picture be without the canvas on which it is painted? Consciousness is the wordless message "I am".
At its root, knowingness is the foundation of everything. In the absence of sugar, what can be made sweet?
Let this be your contemplation for today.
The Master began:
All questions belong to the mind and the mind belongs to the person. The end of the person is the end of questioning.
For as long as one is satisfied with the fruits of the world, this line of investigation will hold no appeal.
Although our image of ourselves changes over time, something subtle remains unchanged. Rabid pursuit of this yields a final understanding.
An individual dies only once. But if he chooses to die before he dies, then he will never die.
Yet, we continue to cling to our individuality, failing to realize that we are, in fact, the avatar of Conscious Being. When the shift occurs, it is from being the actor to being the witnessing of the action.
As water remains present between two successive waves, Conscious Being is present between any two successive appearances, be they mental or physical.
Let this be your contemplation for today.
The Master began:
Energy moving through water we call wave. Energy moving through air we call lightning. Energy moving through the body we call person.
Every "me" points to Me. Every "mine" points to Mine.
The arising of self consciousness produces a shadow-I seemingly apart from I Itself. This shadow-I is, in fact, the avatar of I Itself.
Gleaning the latter from the former is not difficult. Remove the mass of beliefs, interests, tastes, pretenses and reactions; what remains is I Itself.
Now, let us be silence.
Master Wu Hsin continued:
All experiences require the use of the senses except for the experience of being conscious.
As such, this Being Consciousness must be prior to the body and its sense organs.
All problems are personal, that is to say, they all arise from the concept of the person. Prior to "becoming a person", no problems existed.
Remembering and forgetting is always about some "other". One never remembers or forgets oneself.
Now, let us return to silence.
Master Wu Hsin continued:
I am is undeniable Truth. Anything that appends this "I am", such as I am this or I am that, is false.
I am not in a body; a body is in me.
If pressed to state a goal, I would say it is to be alive and conscious, but no longer self conscious.
If you seek for yourself outside of yourself, how can you ever find yourself?
Now, let us return to silence.
Master Wu Hsin continued:
Me can be deemed to be a physical object or a mental object. But it must never be taken to be the subject.
Most thought is merely the egoic micromanagement of "me". Recognition of this is a movement away from it.
Need anything be done in order to experience? Things need doing only when we desire to customize experience.
