The Freefall No Point of Reference

I encourage anyone reading this site to visit Jeff Foster’s site at Lifewithoutacentre.com. Jeff calls the truth "THIS." He "gets it." He gets that there is nothing to get, that there is no one to get it, that everything is gotten in that nothingness, and that getting and not getting, and no one and someone arise within it. Ha! The mind may think what I said is nonsense. But THIS "gets it" and is never mistaken about it.

The heart knows because it moves with it. The mind has a tendency to get stuck . . .

Jeff calls it “Life Without A Centre.” It’s the same as when I say “no point of reference” or the “freefall.” And yet all of that pales in comparison to what it is. There simply is no point of reference for "THIS." Yes, it's beautiful, brilliant, peaceful, joyful, loving, simple, unremarkable presence. Yes, its the end of suffering, the end of self. But those are just words, yes? Nothing more. You can make a point about it, but if you get stuck on that point, making it into a mental certainty of any kind, THIS will destroy you and your points. It's no wonder Zen masters used koans to stop the students' minds. "The intellect will never grasp the vastness . . . ."

I once saw a teacher say to a student, “yes, you have had a realization of oneness, now recognize that you are the awareness in which it happens.” The teacher was surely being helpful. What a great pointer, “you are the awareness in which it happens.” I use that all the time. And that might have been just what the student needed to hear at that point. Yet I wondered if there was anything within the teacher that really believed that the word "awareness" (or for that matter, "oneness") has any more importance than the word "hairball." In seeing the point of reference in my mind which created that question, the answer didn't matter.

Thought virtually always has a point of reference. Thought is past. So a point of reference is the past coming to meet this moment. The self is coming to meet reality. Conflict is inherent in that meeting, no matter whether the point of reference is "people should behave in public" or "it's all One." I am not proposing that we vilify or suppress thought, but rather only that it be seen for what it is. It is self-centered in nature, which is funny given that there is no self separate from the rest of life.

So the teacher who believes his ideas about the truth is just as delusional as his student who believes the idea that he is suffering. The truth cannot be expressed. In the moment the teacher believes his own bullcrap, the teacher does not see the self he has made out of his nonduality or enlightenment concepts. It's wonderful to hear a teacher give a subtle, but critical direction to a student to realize the awareness that is looking, but there must be a followup direction which allows the student to jump off the pointer "awareness" and all other pointers. The quicker the teacher does this, the more the student sees that no time is needed for enlightenment. Enlightenment is only ever about what is arising now, including any thoughts about enlightenment itself.

The real truth is "I don't know."

Not knowing is a fact.

The mind will do anything to avoid freefalling in the true “I don’t knowness” of it all.

Yet once it starts the freefall, it knows it is in the truth. And yet it sees that "freefall" is no more inherently important than "hairball" except for purposes of communication.

THIS is a deeply silent, vast Oneness, within which a beautiful array of apparently differentiated forms arise. That's a pretty good description.

But is that what THIS is?

We can use all sorts of words: heart-knowing, love, oneness, spirit, awareness, THIS, freefall.

But only "not knowing" allows consciousness to see itself as One. When thought comes back in to take hold of that seeing, and carry that insight forward, it becomes accumulated knowledge. And the separate self is reborn in that. It begins to believe again that it knows. It stops freefalling. It gets stuck. It makes points. It doesn't see that there is no such thing as teacher, any more than there is such a thing as a student. Those are masks consciousness puts on.

Use words and concepts to show you that you are liberation itself. But then jump off all of them, and play in that liberation.

If we can admit that we are playing, then we can use any words we want, right? There is no getting stuck when you realize that THIS is just play.

Teachers, students, paper, frisbees, hairballs, awareness, seekers, gasoline attendants, and accountants. All playing. We are playing with these roles, these things, like little children who play cops and robbers. This is not who we are. Is it? These are masks. Language creates only the illusion of knowing.

We can put on these masks, wear these titles, and use any words we want when we realize this is play. We are freefalling in the truth.

The phrase "no point of reference" is not just another point of reference. I'm pointing to the jumping off of all points. Nutty, isn't it? The truth is insanely all-encompassing. Anything you place upon it, in some attempt to capture it, gets swallowed by it.

Freefalling is like seeing a fragment of the whole (and even the word "One" is a fragment), and never, ever mistaking that fragment for the truth. It's like a pinball that effortlessly bounces off of concepts, things, and fragments. It doesn't get stuck anywhere. It uses the concepts to communicate, but it is ultimately free of them. And in some mysterious way, the mind quiets in this freefall. Silence folds in on itself. Or it doesn't. Only thought (noise) would care either way. Only another point of reference would care.

Language has a way of pulling the mind into a dream. For example, with even just a little freedom, it is easy to make the use of words like "me" and "you" and "we" into the "personal pronoun problem." This is the mind trying to escape itself. Thought is trying to make sure it stays in the One, or that it correctly communicates "no self." That is fine. But nothing will pin the truth down. And what obscures truth more than anything is our effort to understand conceptually, or to make a point out of our conceptions. Is it true that there is no self? Is it true that it's all One? Does it matter? Are you looking for a point to make in the phrase "no self." There is nothing there. Nothing there but you. The point. The separate self. The self will not see the One. The fragment cannot see the whole. Ultimate liberation is not some grand perspective about the nature of the universe as all one. It is liberated from making any of that matter. It is free to live freely, without the dead weight of belief. It is free to play with all perspectives and beliefs. This is true objectivity. True spiritual intelligence. No self. Only true objectivity can look at life the way that it really is, free from the bounds of a self that is seeking some identity, position, or point of reference out of the seeing. But don't make that into just another point of reference. ;)

We can play in the “I don’t knowness” of it all, and really be free. And not even care if we are free. Not care if there is a me or you to be free. We can freely use pronouns. Build pronouns the size of venus. Use the words "nonduality" and "liberation" and then wink as if to say, "does it really matter?" Not mattering is not apathy. It is the greatest love of all. It is no longer attached to fragments, concepts, ideas, beliefs, perspectives. It is therefore the whole in love with itself. The whole is free to see itself through you, without the veil of a self-centered, self-serving point of reference.

You see, you can insist that you are this or that. You can repeat your conclusions, and rest in your false sense of certainty. You can insist that there is no "we" and no "you" all you want. But the insisting will never freefall. Conclusions do not play, until they are seen as the emptiness they are.

And if you repeat nonduality language long enough, you might start to believe it. Then you are really screwed. One day you wake up realizing that you are arguing in your head with Christians or Buddhists or the guy next door, all in some attempt to get the world to agree with you about your concept that all is one or that you are pure awareness. Fundamentalism is fundamentalism, no matter how you dress it up in enlightened language.

I just read in a Buddhist book that some traditions divide enlightenment into two categories. Enlightenment with a capital "E" is the total transformation found by Buddha himself. Enlightenment with a small "e" is reserved for those who see on a regular basis beyond the world and the self. The author then said something like, "this gives us all hope for growth."

That is fine. Differentiate between these levels of big "E" and little "e" if that is helpful. In the end there is no such difference. These levels are made up by the mind. The whole notion of enlightenment is a mind made construct. Nothing wrong with that. But see it for what it is. If there is something extraordinary which the concept of "enlightenment" is pointing to, and there is, the concept is standing in the way. Ultimately, any and all of these words are pointing to something very simple, which is "what is in this moment, here, THIS."

So use this notion of a capital "E" and small "e" if it helps you to see that you are life now. Then burn it with yesterday's trash.

To see what is true means to burn up everything standing in truth's way. So burn up "Buddha," "enlightenment," "growth," "hope," "liberation," "beingness," "awareness," "God," and "oneness" in one celebration of truth. That is not blasphemy. That is the realization that there is only God and that ideas to which the mind attaches create a self, which is a barrier to God.

Then you are free to play. Play with "Buddha," "enlightenment," "growth," "hope" and all the other words. Play with capital "E's" and small "e's." God is playing through you.

So let's play. You. Me. We. Wallet. Awareness. Hairball. Paper. Oneness. Aloneness. Love. Self. No Self. Play.

Just play, and don't make a problem out of any of it. Or make a problem out of all of it. What does it matter?
Inquire into who this self is that is making things matter, that is nothing more than a set of ideas acting as an obstacle to the divine.

To liberation, liberation does not matter.

Think of your favorite description of the truth. Maybe for you it's God, enlightenment, awareness, oneness, or truth. Use it to help you notice what is. But jump completely off the point. Any of it can become a point of fixation.

To have no point of reference is to be free, even from wanting or not wanting to have a point of reference.

That is the freefall. But I'm just playing. <wink>