The Advaita Channel is the official RSS feed for the teachings of Francis Lucille. It is a multimedia channel featuring dialogues and updates as texts, MP3 audio and/or video clips. You can view it below, or subscribe using a news reader such as Google Reader, or by email.
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Posted on: 2010-06-27 01:03:37 Hello Francis,
Where should one stand on political issues?
I'm from Toronto Canada, and they're holding the G20 summit here; there is so much talk about it. It's pretty scary at times. Both sides are getting armed. When I watch the news reports you can see the hostility beneath all the propriety. The counter cultural side even uses words like: Press for Truth. They talk about educating police, and awakening them to the truth. But to me, that's not the truth at all, it's their version of the truth. When you watch the mainstream media it's the total opposite; it's the counter cultural side that needs to be educated. Does one have to take a side and make a stand?
Nicholas
Posted on: 2010-06-26 16:22:45 Location: Tampa, Florida
Question: The teaching given to me--Every new perception is a celebration. Consciousness is between perceptions. Only the truth has glimpses of itself and enjoys itself.. --Body sensations are the objects, perceptions; these objects are in the Space, the Silence , the Consciousness. Now the mind the object, the objectified subject ,the consciousness enjoying itself and the play of the subject, the perceptions. There is only ever new perceptions, the celebration. The mind that had the glimpses, the absence of itself that happens, without its volition, now-- cries for the lover to arrive again. When would this crying be satisfied permanently-alias consciousness be enjoying itself?
Posted on: 2010-06-24 06:16:16Location: Pismo Beach, CA Question: Hi Francis. I would like to understand more clearly by what you mean that consciousness is impersonal. Is consciousness the same as Life? My experience tells me that Life expresses through this form that is called Rosemary. So, it is not Rosemary who has a life, but Life that lives as Rosemary, as it does through many other forms. And, my experience tells me that Life loves this form called Rosemary, just as it loves all the other many forms. So this love, does not feel impersonal. It feels personal as it is felt through this form. It feels very personal and very intimate and at the same time realized that this Love, this Life loves everywhere and everything. So, perhaps, can it be that this Life, this consciousness, is both personal and impersonal? thank you for any clarification you can offer.
Posted on: 2010-06-24 06:00:19Location: East Aurora, New York Question: Dearest Francis, I just read your response to question 169. I know what your words point to by direct experience, I know what they point to as my own Self, and yet I still experience anger and fear on a very regular basis. Why is that?
Posted on: 2010-06-23 22:16:00Location: uk
Question: I can see that I am awareness and understand that all things come and go within this awareness but sometimes "things" seem so solid. For example there is a coffe table nearby which looks solid and it is quite heavy, so is the coffe table made out of awareness? How can awareness seem so solid and heavy? Also, is this computer made out of awareness? Or is it just appearance in this worldly dream? Thanks for your time. Cliff
Posted on: 2010-06-23 15:44:17The Silence of the Heart
A silent heart is a heart that is turned inwards towards its source and keeps facing that direction, like a sunflower tracking the sun. Our hearts are tracking the sun of all hearts inside...
Francis Lucille
Ottawa, Canada
2000
Our silence in meditation is not the silence of the mind. It is the silence of the heart.
Posted on: 2010-06-22 07:13:31Location: Belgium Question: Dear Francis, first of all, thank you very much for answering questions of people, for free! I'm in my early thirties and looking for answers of some metaphysical questions the last 12 years due to a severe existential crisis back then. Actually I've been in a existential crisis all my life but it is not holding me back from a practical living anymore. Still I have a couple of questions and interpretations, maybe you can set these more clear for me? I am curious for your answers. The notion of 'oneness' makes me feel sad somehow, I know it allmost sounds like blasphemy, but that's the way I feel about it. It is because then there is no other anymore, especially no MORE TOGETHER anymore, it is all me, me me (of I, I I). Only the self loving itself (and not another, because there is no other in the first place). If consciousness seperates itself into seeming individuals who interact with each other, I can only think of an analogy of a person who develops a multiple personality disorder due to a severe psychological trauma. Then maybe I ask myself, created the Self (The oneness) a similar multiple personality syndrom for himSelf (the universe with all its creatures who think they are seperated) in order to cope with its unalterable aloneness (the trauma). Then maybe when all creatures come to realization then everything is fine for a while untill it get's boring and lonely again and the Universe starts to begin a new cycle of ignorance and seemingly multiplicity of beings, because then there is at least a hope for something better in the future. Perhaps this cycle repeats itself into infinity? So in this theory there are two states of the All: or all seemingly seperate createres are longing for a better place (oneness) when the universe is in a seemingly seperate state. Or when the universe is eventually fully realized to itself, it then decides to consciously dissociates itself because in my opinion it will only do such a thing because it is unhappy with its own realization. It seems to me like an unescapable hell. I also think sometimes when I walk in the world, all those people think they exist but they don't, also the people who I love, this makes me feel sad. warm greetings, Jan.
Posted on: 2010-06-22 07:02:50Location: San Diego, CA
Question: Francis, is it illogical from an Advaita standpoint to aspire for a better life? I feel like we (or Consciousness) are here to experience whatever happens seemingly good or bad, so does that mean we shouldn’t bother striving for a better life? I want to strive for a better life but part of me feels it’s wrong to do that because that part believes we are supposed to experience whatever happens and not try and change it. If I could allow myself to believe it’s ok to strive for a better life, I really feel like I could do it but can’t get past this resistance. There’s the story of the Asian farmer who’s neighbors keep telling him that they sympathize with the seemingly positive or negative events but the wise farmer always replies that each event may or may not be positive or negative in the long run (i.e. “Maybe it is or maybe it isn’t”), so I understand that whatever I feel might be positive may not be in the long wrong. In fact, the story makes me wonder if anything is positive or negative in the long run. I’m not physically able to attend the sangas anymore so please reply or post your answer online. Thank you in advance!
Posted on: 2010-06-20 14:42:10Location: Tustin, CA
Question: Dear Francis, I realize that I am not my thoughts and I have been noticing that there is a flow in my life - things happen, choices are made, feelings arise etc. Are "choices" any different from other thoughts or mentations? I have the uncanny sensation of watching choices get made and wonder if through intention or will I should do something different, follow the flow or not. Or is all doing just an illusion? I wonder if the flow of happenings is just the worn groove of my personality? If divine inspiration comes into your life, doesn't that just get enacted as a choice - just another thought? How do you know the difference?
Posted on: 2010-06-17 07:40:57Location: Maine, USA
Question: Dear Francis, A thought occurred to me (as I was once again trying to come to terms with Consciousness and the suffering of sentient beings) that I wanted to ask you about. I realized that my concept of Consciousness had just expanded on the monotheistic omniscient, omnipotent "god" concept, as if Consciousness is a big brain in the middle of all this, knowing and controlling everything - and as such, wouldn't allow suffering. The thought that occurred was that Consciousness isn't operating from a core, but it is simply what everything everywhere is made of. I don't believe Neptune controls all water everywhere, so now I can drop the idea of Consciousness being Brahman (pick your top dog). When you speak, though, of "there are many possibilities open to consciousness to keep playing this game, or put an end to it. In Her infinite freedom and creativity, She tends to try them all." it sends me back to thinking that Consciousness is like our concept of god, the one thing that does have free will and choice and all sentient beings are merely (or wonderfully) her puppets. Help! With great appreciation, Sattva
Posted on: 2010-06-17 07:16:55Location: Maine, USA
Question: Dearest Francis, The answer you gave to question #168 is one of the most beautiful, limit-dissolving pasages I've ever read. I was thinking about your list of different gates, wondering what they had in common, thinking that it's the purity of energy involved in each - laughter, love, creativity, truth. But anger, fear, sadness, etc. can also be pure (not manipulated), so are they also gates? Is everything we experience a gate if seen from a place of openness?
Posted on: 2010-06-16 16:44:12 Dear Francis,
Thank you for taking the time to reply to my inquiry. I appreciate it very much.
I still have a feeling that there cannot be any 'should' or 'should not' as if and when we believe that everything is manifestation of the consciousness, and this world with its 'good' and 'bad' and 'right' and 'wrong' is only an illusion, is it not the consciousness itself that it is consuming flesh through another manifestation of consciousness to experience itself?
Posted on: 2010-06-15 08:03:06Although there are no more residential spots left for the German-English bilingual retreat (the current count is 42 participants), we have decided to open a few non-residential spots. There are many nice resort hotels in the area, and the meals can be taken at the retreat center.
For reservations contact Udo
udolandow@showdvision.com
For info on the retreat, visit the following link;
http://www.meetup.com/Advaita/calendar/12584543/?from=list&offset=0
Posted on: 2010-06-13 21:54:21Question: Is it truly possible to go beyond materialism daily while still involved in "being" a human ego being? I find this truly difficult to master even though I've been an advaita serious devotee and trying to NOT try to "be" SELF rather than living from "ego" mind
Posted on: 2010-06-12 21:05:29Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Question: Dear Francis, Thank you so much for sharing what you have experienced and understand in such a patient and thorough manner. One day I hope to join you at satsang. In the meantime, I study daily, you and other experienced teachers, and I feel more and more "at home" in the world and the events that surround me. Can you speak to the nature of faith and the nature of awareness. How do these differ for you? Love Chaz
Posted on: 2010-06-11 12:49:26Location: Orange County, CA
Question: Dear Francis, Some seekers believe that as many spiritual masters, both universal or historical sat-gurus recommend a vegetarian diet, it means that without being vegetarian, one could not possibly develope compassion toward all beings and thus is unable to become enlightened or self (God) realized. Although without any of my own volition, I suddenly became vegetarian in 2000 during a retreat with His Holiness Dalai Lama in India and never craved to return to my previous diet, it seems to me that their firm view will leave out many people in the past or currently, in different cultures and paths such as sufism, shamanism, etc. without any chance for realization of the Truth. I am not sure if I am right to defend a possibility of enlightenment without one being or evolving eventually to be a vegetarian! But could you please let talk about the requirements and characteristics of a person who has reached self-realization and what is the common traits of all those souls who reach the highest level of understanding? With Love, Nushin
Posted on: 2010-06-10 08:51:04 Dear Francis,
I am living in a very different world where the lives of everyone else make
no sense, yet my life makes no sense to me either....
Posted on: 2010-06-07 13:55:45Question: Can action be done without an impluse of a thought? Recently, I observed on myself that whenever I take some course of action, be it something spontaneous, or something planned, I can feel how thoughts arise in me, and they tell me what to do. It is very strange, because it doesn't feel really like a thought, it's more like an impulse, a recommendation. It is hard to give it a name. Anyway, does an enlightened being experience this? I can't imagine how you can exist in a meaningful way, unless I have something that tells me what to do. I guess it might be possible, for example when I do something using a reflex, I don't think about catching a ball when someone tosses it to me. Is this the way it feels? But then there is another concern: if I live from moment to moment, how can I know how to act with respect to the future?
Posted on: 2010-06-05 09:05:35Location: Australia
Question: I have read a lot about non duality & dreams. So do we mean that even the power of Masters such as Jesus, Buddha, Ramtha & all the other ascended Masters are futile as they are all in the dreams & illusions? in other words there is no point in following them? They are good only for those who are asleep... Please clarify
Posted on: 2010-05-27 12:33:31Dear Francis,
Can you tell me... Do we owe something to our parents? My seeking very often ‘hurts’ them. When I say I am going to a hermitage or to see a teacher: they worry, especially my mother. It seems that the right thing for me hurts them. Often, I think about moving away, quite far. In truth (I have very much guilt about thinking this) I would very much like to be apart from them, and not hear from them, and get rid of many of my possessions.
Posted on: 2010-05-24 01:45:02Location: Istanbul Francis answers the following question: when you awakened, (or later enlightened) has your Understanding that Consciousness is Universal and Divine came from an unshakeable Knowledge, and does it ever waver as time passes, thus allowing conflict (ignorance) enter your mind associated with the belief of being a separate, individual Consciousness. In other words, is "unshakable Peace," possible in this world?
Posted on: 2010-05-20 01:12:42Francis Lucille on consciousness. Excerpt from "Everything is a miracle", a new Blue Ray Disk. Click on the following link to buy the full HD disk. http://francislucille.com/publications.html#HD_Blue_Ray_Videos
Posted on: 2010-05-19 14:53:20Location: Florida Question: Greets Francis, I've been at this search for many years now, read countless books, been to a couple of satsangs, but the idea that someone or something is typing these words feels just as real as the keys themselves which my fingers are typing on. It's my understanding that what needs to be realized or seen is that there is no doer or self, just doing. While I can go as far to say that I believe that to be true, I cannot say that I know it to be true because I have never experienced or witnessed it first hand. I only have the words of other people to go on. Whenever teachers try to show that there is no self, their explanation always feels very vague to me. Saying things like the thinker is the thought, how can an eye see itself, what we are is where we are searching from, I'm sure you've heard these things before. I'm hoping you can offer me a more clear or direct way to see this. I know this probably can't be done in one email, but any help at all would be appreciated. Much Bests, Chris
Posted on: 2010-05-17 23:19:57Location: ire Francis answers the following question: Francis, thank you once more for your kind answers and time, i have a few questions around 'the now', a lot of teachings these days are using ' the now', but the neo advaita teachers are saying that there is no 'now', what do you feel is the truth about 'the now'? If there is a 'now' then is the mornings 'now' different to this evening's 'now', it seems like the 'now' is moving in time, is this the case? And if being is stillness itself, then why do we feel that time is movement into the future? thank you so much once again, lloyd
Posted on: 2010-05-14 09:37:55Location: NJ Francis answers the following question: Dear Francis, I can understand that locally, all is consciousness and that there is no personal I. Somehow I am having confusion as to the existence of an objective universe. It seems as though some who speak of Advaita point to the universe also being consciousness. And indeed, it is my experience that the universe arises in the very same consciousness that I arises in. However, there seems to be an objective universe beyond this consciousness. Can you please explain to me how two (I know there arent really two!) manifestations of consciouness identify the same illusion, like say, a tree, with intricate and identical description? Also, how can you explain an apparent manifestation of time that is inferred by the perceived growth of a plant from a seed? What about all the seeming interventions of science; i.e. from the Wright Bros. plane to landing on the moon? Sorry for all the questions, but they seem to point in a similar direction. Thank you for any help you can provide. Albert
Posted on: 2010-05-13 11:43:03Location: san diego Francis answers the following question: Hello Francis, How does one focus on that from which all sensations, thoughts and appearances arise since it cannot be objectified ? Thank you for your guidance.
Posted on: 2010-05-11 10:36:01Francis answers the following question: How can I overcome conflict with my spiritual brothers and fully forgive them if I am not shown that we share the same Universal Mind, and since we are of One Mind or of One Self, we cannot be in conflict? What can I do (what kind of surrender) in order to see this and to be able to fully forgive someone?
Posted on: 2010-05-10 01:11:33Location: Istanbul Francis answers the following question: A question that haunted me since decades is this: "As Consciousness is One and Universal," how can it be possible that the same Consciousness is Awake in the case of a sage, but ignorant in the case of the seeker. My experience of waking up from a dream at night is such that when I am awake, the entire mind or the dreamer is awake and there is no more ignorance left and the dream completely dissolves and yet the Sage continues to witness a dream in which Consciousness (of other characters and yet One with the Sage) is still experiencing "not-awakeness," or "ignorance," and the dreamt Universe survives His Awakening. This puzzles me and seem to contradict the teaching of my earlier teacher (who passed away): "When you wake up, the whole world will wake up with you."
Posted on: 2010-05-08 17:34:38Location: Istanbul Francis answers the following question: When I surrender to Truth within say in a witnessing meditation and when letting go of involvement happens and there is perfect stillness and peace, how would one know that this letting go is not initiated by a separate self (me), so that it can have some value. I ask this because I have noticed that both witnessing meditations and miracles and revelations have only temporary effect on the ego, which disappears in perfect stillness, peace and happiness but rises back after several days. Even the spontaneous Revelation I had that "if it doesn't exist now, it is not Real," and "God's Peace is eternally Within me and is all that I want," lasted for one week.
Posted on: 2010-05-06 11:13:46A few days ago, a conversation took place on Facebook following an Advaita Channel article on the required qualifications for a teacher. There were some errors in the posting of this thread due to the fact that the conversation was taking place on different websites. The following is the entire thread.
Posted on: 2010-04-27 23:59:26 Dear Francis, I have been listening to your satsangs and am quite happy to be in contact with you. I read quite a lot of Sri Ramanamaharshi's works. I have one question that has been bothering me lately. Hope you can take some time to answer.
I understand that my life if an extended dream. But one thing that I am trying to understand is that my dreams always consists of the same or similar surroundings. ( same faces, same workplace etc ). Where as my...
Posted on: 2010-04-25 20:24:34 When one is established in the impersonal Awareness, having gone beyond the distinction of teacher and student, but at the same time acknowledging the importance of it on the relative plane, what makes such a one qualified/ready to guide others on the Direct Path, as there isn't really a formal transmission involved, as far as I understand it?
Posted on: 2010-04-20 00:34:53Location: Istanbul Francis answers the following question: Dear Francis, I have several questions; I thank you for your kindness. What does it exactly mean to "witness," or to "welcome." For instance, when I am treated unfairly, and if there is anger rising, and if it has become a pattern almost habitual, how do I know that I am simply welcoming what rises as perceptions and emotions or that I am welcoming my involvement in the event which gets worse and worse. Sometimes, I witness my anger thoughts within rising and rising and my witnessing of the rising does not seem to cut my involvement. Where does one draw the line between witnessing and witnessing getting involved :-) ?
Posted on: 2010-04-08 21:13:38 Name: Thalia
Posted on: 2010-03-31 10:07:26Excerpt from the new upcoming HD (Blue Ray) Video "HAPPY AND FREE, LOOKING AT THE SKY" Dialogues with Francis Lucille. To purchase this video, click here.
Posted on: 2010-03-25 01:56:46
Is mentation the product of ignorance?
Love,
Chris
Dear Chris,
The answer is: no.
It is in most cases the product of Maya, which is the power of the Self through which, although alone, it appears to be multiple, thus making...
Posted on: 2010-03-22 08:12:15Location: Barcelona
You said in Barcelona that compassion is one of the aspects of love. I would like to ask which is the role played by beauty in relation to love, transcendence, God. Thanks
Posted on: 2010-03-19 21:26:38Location: Sweeden
I had been thinking about something similar, that is, if one does not achieve liberation during the "life" of the body, does it automatically occur upon death of the body and mind (brain). You answered the latest inquiry by saying: "death doesn't imply liberation" and "the letting go of the body in death presents an opportunity for the realization of our true self"
That being said, if liberation upon death is not a given and upon death the opportunity for realization of one's true self is not taken (you imply this possibility), what happens? ...
Posted on: 2010-03-19 09:10:34Location: Sweden
Question: Hello Francis, My question is short and concise: When consciousness leaves and the body dies, only the Absolute prevails. If the destiny of a jnani and a normal individual is the same - why enlightenment? If the idea of reincarnation is false, what is the use? Then there literally is no liberation in enlightenment; there is liberation in death.
Posted on: 2010-03-15 08:24:00Dear Francis,
In response to Question 165, you state that " Consciousness is the reality of our experience, that which truly perceives it. If there is only one reality, consiousness must also be the substance of everything".
Can you please explain the logic here more clearly? Why can't consciousness experience something that is "physical matter"?
Posted on: 2010-03-11 11:03:40 Location: Japan
Comments: I am always confused about the difference between "consciousness" and "awareness." Everything is consciousness. I understand that ...I guess. It is said that consciousness is that which makes the heart pump and allows the eyes to see and sense the world. And when we die, what is left? The corpse has no consciousness. But everything is said to exist in consciousness/awareness. A stone. A plant. So why not a corpse. So what is the difference between a corpse and a living person. Both exist as awareness, no? But there obviously is some fundamental difference. A corpse has no possibility of realizing non dual awareness....
Posted on: 2010-03-04 00:26:30Location: Forest Hills, NY
Question: Hi Francis, I'm a recently retired pharmacologist with more than ample time to indulge my decades-long interest in non-duality. The result has been a blur of books, websites, videos, and CDs running the gamut from Shankara to Wei Wu Wei to Douglas Harding, etc. My ultimate question remains, lo these many years "How do I bridge the (apparent) gap between a deep intellectual understanding of Oneness and my inability to realize the truth experientially. I've just finished "Eternity Now", and I'd like to pose a more specific, less grandiose question. My wife and I recently attended a meeting held by a teacher in London. Assuming you're familiar with his work, you understand that he is a non-dual "purist", as it...
Posted on: 2010-03-02 21:17:58Location: California
Question: Dear Francis, Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions, it is very much appreciated. During meditation I’ve come across a situation in which I relax deeply and I have almost no bodily sensations or thoughts. Then the question arises, Who am I? And the question seems to dissolve; it feels non-sensical, as if “I” was a concept with no real referent. I have heard you explain that this could be yet another object called emptiness (I thought this might be an example because the feeling of “I” comes back after a while). At other times, I have a quite spontaneous feeling of expansion, joy and satisfaction with no particular...
Posted on: 2010-03-02 10:39:48Location: Pakistan
Question: Hi Francis, Thank you so much for answering all our questions. It is wonderful to read your answers and 'be pointed in the right direction', if i may call it that. I have a couple of questions (which are probably very silly, but have been on my mind for a while): 1. What is the difference between personality and ego? As I understand, one has to see through the ego or mind to come to a realization of our true selves. But most enlightened masters or sages do have their own styles, teaching way, mannerisms, etc. Does one retain a personality after enlightenment, and if so, what does it mean if one has no self and is only
Posted on: 2010-03-01 07:59:43
Comments: dear Francis... thank you for your graciousness to answer any odd ball question, as I have seen on your website. Therein lies my question. I have been somewhat upset after reading some questions and answers. My true experiences of freedom are, of course, utterly simple, devoid of any knowledge about the intricacies of consciousness, awareness, etc. And in my life search for union, to meet the other, and lose the apparent separation, I have 'looked' for that state in others. Indeed, I have felt...
Posted on: 2010-02-28 05:54:31 When the goal, happiness, is lost sight of, there is practice, work, "staying with", "noticing". Not a bad thing, for it eventually will restore the perfume of Presence, happiness. I sometimes give the same advice to one who still believes to be a doer.
But this may take time, whereas...
Posted on: 2010-02-27 08:59:36Location: Belgium
Question: I understand that one needs to be very motivated to find Truth. I sometimes think I am not motivated enough or not disciplined enough. What to do?
Posted on: 2010-02-24 21:14:23Location: London
Question: Since attending a meditation retreat ten years ago and experiencing some very powerful energetic feelings which made me sure of being a part of the whole, I now have a constant inner sound like a distant whistle which increases when I shut my eyes. I also get pressure in my head and when I meditate I feel (or imagine) a cleansing process. Despite this I over eat (Binge) and still get tangled up in thoughts. It seems that I do not have any power to change my bad habits. Is the case that I am not an individual so I do not have any choice but to live in a way that is unhealty for my body and mind?
Posted on: 2010-02-23 10:32:49Location: Ojai, California
Question: Dear Francis, First, thank you for taking the time and care to answer questions. It is a wonderful gift. I have been seeking for many years. And my question is about seeking: doesn't seeking perpetuate division, the belief in a separate self? I feel incomplete, un-whole. So, I begin seeking wholeness. I am here. And wholeness or liberation are 'out there'--in the future. It seems to me that liberation is either now or not at all and that seeking prevents the result I am trying to achieve. Yet I cannot...
Posted on: 2010-02-18 07:57:18Location: Cork
Question: Francis, my questions have to do with the sense of 'me', the sense of me is felt very easily and I have the feeling that it is the same sense of the ' I am', is it a necessity to distinguish between the two? Also, I have read Nisargaddata, and he recommends 'holding on to the sense of I AM'; if this is practiced, is it the me holding on to the me? And is there goal to this action? Wouldn't that make it a dual practice? Thank you so much, LLoyd
Posted on: 2010-02-16 21:18:38Location: New Delhi, India
Question: Dear Francis, The defining characteristic of the way I now experience the world is spontanaeity. I do things and have thoughts, but there is no sense of choosing. In your experience, is spontaneous action the normal way that humans behave in the world? Is the feeling that one is making a choice inconsequential and unnecessary? Sincerely, Brian
Posted on: 2010-02-15 06:46:12English, Text
Location: Maine, USA
Question: Dear Francis, Why does Presence choose "to temporarily ignore itself by playing the game of ignorance"? Do we really have no control over anything? Blessings to all, Sattva
Posted on: 2010-02-14 11:46:00 Posted on: 2010-02-14 11:08:34English, Text
Location: India
Question: Dear teacher, I see that if I see or perceive an object or a person with memory and my own prejudices it is a foggy , conditioned view not a total experience of "what is". Objects have an existence which is not independent of awareness or consciousness and as you say they are consciousness itself. But I wondered then, Why do objects have unique properties if they are relative to perceptions. For eg: why are solids always hard, why does soap always give out lather, every time i perceive? This leads me to doubting as to maybe the objects do have an independent existence of their own? Please help me clarify this. Shiva
Posted on: 2010-02-12 20:33:03English, Text
Location: Girona - Spain
Question: Dear Francis: Here are Shankara's four pre-requisites to qualify for the spiritual life: 1. Discrimination; 2. Renunciation; 3. Earnestness (intense desire for liberation, and 4. A group of six attainments (tranquility of mind, control of the senses, cessation of senses, forbearance of the pairs of opposites, concentration, and faith). At the other end of the spectrum (and we are still at the phenomenal or empirical level), if in our midst we find someone exhibiting the following characteristics: pettiness, small-mindedness (the opposite of magnanimity), resentment, vindictivenes, insolence, passion and pride (we could call these the six counter-attainments), 1. Can a person with these character traits be still called a truth-seeker? 2. Can such a "person" be possibly redeemed? 3. Is there a limit to the patience and forbearance of a spiritual teacher?
Posted on: 2010-02-11 11:07:12English, Text
Location: Mexico City
Question: Hello Francis I have found great interest in your teachings, I wish you were my teacher, living teacher, not book or Internet, but I guess this forms of communication are the very next thing. =) My name is Carlo Mauricio, I am 32 years old, I was born in San Diego CA. an have always lived in Tijuana, and now I am living in the capitol Mexico City. Hope you can be over here some day with a lecture, or maybe I can catch one up north in California when I go up there again. This are my questions Francis: What is this receptacle if we can use that word where everything is happening inside of it, like form, inward outward...
Posted on: 2010-02-09 23:02:44English, Text
Location: Maryland
Question: Satyan Nadeen is quoted as saying that enlightment is a lottery. My question is whether attaining a sustained awakened state has anything to do with intention, devotion, or earnest effort? Does the individual have any choice about it at all?
Posted on: 2010-02-08 20:37:58English, Text
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Question: I "think" of Brahman as equivalent to a unified field of energy. That is, that all things in the universe are expressions of it, including consciousness. We, as sentient beings, have the "gift" of witnessing it and as such are Natures most forward expression of knowing itself. The more we pull away the separative fog of ego, the less conflict and more peace we shall live. Is my thinking in line with traditional Advaita philosophy and do you see any falseness in where I'm pointing?
Posted on: 2010-02-06 10:30:35English, Text
Location: california
Question: Hi Francis....I would so much appreciate it if you could tell me how I can confidently know that the universe is composed of love, when sometimes, I experience peace and harmony, and other times I experience the contracted fear that comes with identification with body and form, yet the experience of this all pervading love has not yet revealed itself. Thank you so much for your time and wisdom!
Posted on: 2010-02-06 10:02:55English, Text
Location: Seattle
Question: Hi Francis, Sorry for the long question, but it's something I've been mulling over for a while now. Thanks! According to the Direct Path, as I understand it, the self gets folded into consciousness, on the one hand, and external objects get folded into thoughts, which in turn get folded into consciousness, on the other. The result is that: all there is is consciousness. Folding external objects into thoughts and then into consciousness means that what we naively regard as external objects do not have independent existence. This is where I, and I'm sure many others, have a problem. There is an extraordinary coordination between various perceptions, between those of different agents, between those of the same agent at different times, and between different sensations of the same agent at the same time. Mary can tell me about a new statue in the park, and I can go there and...
Posted on: 2010-02-04 18:26:34English, Text
Hi Francis!
Happy happy christmas, first of all:)
I hope you have a moment for this little question, that has been bothering me..
As there is more presence in this space, it seems like at times life can give you a shock, and because that peace is available always, by "going there" it seems like one uses that as a shock absorber, and i´m pretty sure that is a sort of spiritual bypassing, or escape.
at the same time, if that peace is real, and one can
Posted on: 2010-02-03 19:34:57English, Text
Location: minnsesota
Question: Francis, I often hear you speak of the neccessity of earnestness. I feel all my actions are aimed at the benefit of the entity I believe myself to be. I can give lip service to the concept of selfless action without intention as put forth in the Bhagavad Gita but there would still be the intention of reaping the rewards that this is supposed to bring. ramana proscribed this type of action also but he also said only a jnani can be a karmic yogi. That seems to be a precise summation of the student's position. He is saying if you are selfless you can perform selfless actions so it seems any attempt at realization is self centered and would enhance the sense of self. so how to develop this ...
Posted on: 2010-02-02 21:11:16English, Text
Location: Greece, Athens
Question: Dear Francis, I don't even know what I'm asking for, but I'll try to put it into words and you might underestand my question better than me. When I'm looking to find myself I can't find anything. I find a "nothingness" in which everything appears. I wouldn't even call this empty space since it's dimensionless. I can understand that or better: see that, if I look honestly. Seeing that does not give me peace though, I don't feel that I've always been that (shouldn't I?), and I don't know if that nothingness is actually "me" since I feel...
Posted on: 2010-01-23 06:47:41English, Text
Dear Francis,
If it's true that everyone has had an experience of awakening, though some of chosen to ignore it, then there is no excuse for ignorance (?) Please comment. Thank you.
Posted on: 2010-01-20 05:52:49English, Text
Location: uk
Question: Having experienced an expansion of the heart and grief from the loss of my 25 year old son, I would like to know your thoughts on what happens when the physical body falls away; do we retain any of the personality we had, memories, emotions, love? While I guess much of this has to do with the mind, I would like to know what happens.
Posted on: 2010-01-19 03:20:04English, Text
Location: Spain
Question: Hello, Francis. My question relates the waking state and the "I Am", a concept which, I think, has different meanings in the different traditions. I use it to describe the pure feeling of being, of existence, that appears in the waking state before getting identified with thoughts, names, body, mental processes, etc. and disappears in deep sleep. I think this was the way Nisargadatta used it, too. There´s something that confuses me. Most teachers use to speak about the Truth from the waking state´s standpoint only and, as the ...
Posted on: 2010-01-17 04:58:26English, Text
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Question: How do "I" slip past Awareness as an object of thought to Awareness Alive and Subjective? I know that "I" can do nothing. I know that Awareness cannot be attained because It already is. Is it ego to practice being Awareness? Ego does not exist either. I feel that I am at "the gateless gate". How does one slip past it, past dualism, at last?
Posted on: 2010-01-16 09:55:44English, Text
Location: New Jersey, USA
Question: Dear Francis, I recently discovered your site after many years of seeking. Some kind of understanding about the nature of things has occurred, certainly in the realm of thought but also sometimes experientially. The abiding with this nature of things is mostly erratic. One thought that drags me into the mire is an emotional addiction involving food and excessive eating. I am working with...
Posted on: 2010-01-10 05:49:31English, Text
Dear Francis,
Thank you very much for giving me your address. What a beautiful way of starting the new year.
Some time ago I sent you a question to which no answer ever appeared on your website. Probably there was an error and my question did not reach you, or perhaps you had some reason not to answer. The question was about one Bernadette Roberts, who is a Christian mystic, and who to her astonishment discovered that what is regarded as the final 'stage' in her tradition -- which she thinks is the same as the Sat-Chid-Ananda of the Advaitins -- dropped away one day, swallowing up and dissolving
Posted on: 2010-01-03 22:48:13English, Text
Location: East Aurora, New York
Question: Dear Francis, It has been stated that Brahman and Atman are one. I wonder though, does this mean they are the same? I know the Atman that is myself and I sense that it is the same Atman that is every other one. But the knower (Atman) "in me" does not know the experience of all beings and hence seems not to be equivalent to the universal Brahman which I presume includes the experience of the entire universe. As a wave...
Posted on: 2010-01-03 02:23:52English, Text
Location: Cape Coral, FL
Question: Do you think a non-dualistic view of the world leads the individual to passivity in the face of the world\'s suffering?
Posted on: 2009-12-24 03:54:10English, Text
Location: Tampa
Question: Francis, I sit here wondering if I have the trust in my understanding of the state I am. Since about a year the Atmavichara is going on, and my ego is not on firm grounds any more and I have an understanding of homeliness and peace with me. But the distrust and lack of faith swirl around often. When they subside infrequently , there it is, such happiness. Atmavichara, inquiry continues amidst health problems ( brain) and the medications. But it is OK. Then, I decided to do the inquiry on ...
Posted on: 2009-12-20 03:01:42English, Text
Dear Formless,
Posted on: 2009-12-19 20:43:59English, Text
Location: Dubai
Question: I understand that you had the opportunity to meet sages in India. How was your experience and what made you to preach this ancient old vedic advaita. Rgds Ram
Posted on: 2009-12-18 00:44:26English, Text
Location: indonesia
Question: Dear Francis,
1. Is there any God?
There is only one God
2. Do you know something about the universe?
Very little...
Posted on: 2009-12-18 00:31:01English, Text
Location: Bogota, Colombia
Question: I am aware of mind activity; random thoughts: images and sounds, or a song playing in my head. When I observe this, I have a few interpretations: the mind creates a sense of separation: when the mind is happening (thought running or a song playing) it seems that this creates a private space that can't be shared directly with anyone else; I am the only one that "hears" the song that is sounding in my head. It is as if the activity of the mind serves the purpose of making me abandon the present moment, making me disconnect from life, from reality, and withdrawing to this private psychic space. It seems as if the energy that could ...
Posted on: 2009-12-17 14:13:24English, Text
The following is a question asked by Francis as a follow up on Q. 116
Dear William,
I believe we are now in agreement on the answers to your five questions, which would imply a de facto agreement on a wide variety of related issues. I was wondering whether there was an area where your and my experience or understanding would diverge, when I remembered something you said : " I spoke of individual consciousness and likened it to a drop of the ocean; the latter being Consciousness as such (two “meanings”)."
To clarify my incertitude, could you please answer the following question: in your experience and understanding, is the consciousness that really perceives these words the individual consciousness, or is it the Consciousness as such?
Posted on: 2009-12-16 09:07:53English, Text
Location: San Rafael, CA
Question: Francis, I am troubled by something that might seem elementary for someone who has been investigating spiritual matters for over 40 years. It is evidfent if we investigate our own experience that everthying we ever experience, whether "internal" or "external", is experienced by or within consciousnes. Consciousness is, then, the a priori reality of our human experience. Clearly, realizing this most profoundly leads to a life radically transformed by freedom from any sense of limitation. However, to go on to state, as you and all other non-dual teachers do, that consciousness is the a priori reality of all existence, would seem to be an extrapolation, not directly supported by direct experience. The fact that we, as human beings, can never experience anything outside of consiousness does neither mean that there is nothing outside of consciousnes, nor that consciousness...
Posted on: 2009-12-15 20:08:51English, Text
Location: Shanghai, CN
Question: Hello, Francis. I am stuck. I have been following Ramana Maharshi's teachings of self inquiry, and, at first, I was amazed by how quickly I was able to let go of thoughts. There was one instance in which I experienced being part of something so grand, but then it disappeared. Although it was brief, it was enough to fill me with such elation. I knew it was real, that this oneness existed, that all this here that I'd been living through up to this point didn't matter. That none of this mattered, and I wanted to laugh because it was so clear, how much I couldn't see that all made sense, and how much most of us can't see...
Posted on: 2009-12-15 05:17:42English, Text
Location: Chicago, USA
Question: Dear Francis, Is there something beyond, or prior to, Consciousness? I am referring to the seeming lack of Consciousness during deep sleep, or when one is under anesthesia where there is a lapse of Consciousness/Awareness. It is only after waking or coming out of anesthesia that one seems to be able to say that they were unconscious. In other words, consciousness seems to recognize its own absence only in retrospect. If I am not conscious of the fact that I am sleeping or unconscious due to anesthesia, is consciousness then only a temporary state? If there is more, how does one realize it? Can you please give your thoughts on this? I apologize if this has been answered before. I have only recently discovered your teachings, so I am therefore not completely familiar with all of them, but I am very grateful for what I have read and watched so far. Thanks, Mike
Posted on: 2009-12-14 16:55:32English, Text
This answers replaces the previous answer Q. 123 which was misleading due to an inadvertent logical error. My gratitude goes to William for making me aware of it and my apologies to all readers for the confusion it created.The following is the edited version.
Dear Mr. Lucille,
Thank you for your reply. Let me tell you, however, that there would have been nothing wrong with a well-founded, well-supported criticism of what I said in my letters; no quarters given to my ego. But for one reason or another, you brushed it all aside, wishing to “start from scratch” and “forgetting everything you and I know about the spiritual path to liberate a space in which a mutual understanding can blossom.” Still, even this would have been alright, were it not for the fact that you had no intention to keep your side of the bargain. It would have been fine as well, had I been talking about the ego without troubling myself with its diverse meanings. Fine too if, rather than trying as best I could to support my argument...
Posted on: 2009-12-12 06:23:42English, Text
Dear Francis:
My question is whether the natural body and what is superimposed on it, leading to error of perception, are both illusions from the perspective of consciousness, given that what is superimposed is a vritti (as an imagination, a thought, would be, would it not?), but that, at the same time, the reality of it (the vritti) and of the physical world (the natural object that undergoes the superimposition by the mind) is consciousness - would you not say this? The subject matter, and the answer you gave to Q. 111, would then be the same or closely related...
Posted on: 2009-12-11 20:47:50English, Text
Location: Manitoba, Canada
Question: Through the self-realization process, does the conditioned mind eventually cease to manifest, thereby making mind made suffering an impossibility? Dear David, A large part of the conditioning of the body mind is useful and doesn't disappear as a result of our stabilization in our true identity. We still know how to drive or speak language. Only that part which was a by-product of ignorance dissolves with the removal of ignorance, and ignorance made suffering vanishes with it. Love, Francis
Posted on: 2009-12-11 20:24:55English, Text
Location: Bucharest, Romania
Question: Dear Francis, I have sent you a letter a few weeks ago. I did not receive an answer to it yet, but since this is a continuation of that first letter, if you ever get around to it, I will be content if you just answer to this letter. In your book you say: “The world does not exist as an object that is separate or distinct from awareness.” Can you please help me see if the understanding (experience) I wrote bellow is pointing to the right direction? And whether it is or not, can you point me the way to go deeper? -Whatever I see or experience is an expression of my senses. The...
Posted on: 2009-12-10 10:44:44English, Text
Location: Ballarat, Australia
Question: I have been thinking a lot lately about the nature of reality and the implications on every day societal interactions. I am always intrigued by our conformist nature, our desire to fit in and the levels to which this is taken, especially in modern day western society. It's not fitting in or conformism I am questioning, because I don't neccessarily think that wanting to be like those you idolize for traits you love is a bad thing. What I am questioning is the out of control egotism and abuse of the human desire for community. I believe that we do create our own realities individually and collectively, but I am curious to know what you think about the tendency for human society to be idea imperialistic, to try to control other's realities to suit their own the best.
Posted on: 2009-12-10 10:13:28English, Text
Location: NY, US
Question: You say that we have no control over thoughts but what about the use of mantras during which other thoughts stop and the mantra goes on continuously? Other thoughts are stopped; that is, controlled. People control their thoughts all the time by suppression of anything they don\'t want to think about. There seems to be thought control going on all the time. People make themselves happy by remembering something good which happened or they can make themselves sad and depressed by thinking about something bad which happened. The Dalai Lama has said that the only freedom which human beings have is the freedom to choose what to allow into our mind streams. This entails the ability to control thoughts. The Buddhist practice of metta, loving kindness, is based...
Posted on: 2009-12-10 08:13:41English, Text
Question:
1. Dear Mr. Lucille, An admirer of your doctrine and method has told me that you deny that there is such a thing as the ego at any level of reality, be it at the level of the Absolute or the Self, or that of relativity and contingency. And he makes a distinction between his relative existence as a human being, which – true enough - has its ultimate reality in the Self, and that of the ego which, he claims, has no such claim to reality at all. What is more, he claims that the ego is a completely empty, psychological concept, a figment, so to speak, of the imagination. And yet, when I asked him, what is meant by your injunction: “Surrender!” or what, in other words, he thinks he is asked to surrender, he says that it is surrender “From the constricting...
Posted on: 2009-12-10 06:50:55Location: Maine, USA
Question: Dear Francis, Will you please tell us why you are vegetarian? Thank you and thank you for your kindness and generosity, Sattva
Dear Sattva,
Because I love cows and sheep and chickens and cats and dogs and you.
Francis
Posted on: 2009-12-09 13:19:07English, Text
Francis
IIf we are consciousness and the rest is illusion, what is the point of continuing on in body? I am truly only what I was before birth and what I will be after death and so why not just stop participating in the illusion?
Simone
Posted on: 2009-12-07 21:30:29English, Text
Location: Sydney, Australia
Question: Can you explain to me how you know this is all an illusion, how we arrived at being a human being and then told it is an illusion, that our ego's are an illusion, that we are not the body or the mind, that I am that? And what is 'that' and how do you know that is that? If consciousness is all there is, how do you know that? Stephen Wolinsky says the only reason we believe we are here is because we have a brain and a nervous system that buys into the senses, how do you know that? Why do you feel the way you do and I don't, and how do I get what you've got? Don't tell me I already have it, because presently I don't feel it and don't know what you are talking about? Please explain!!! Thank you from a very long term seeker.
Posted on: 2009-12-07 21:14:22English, Text
Location: Dorset,UK
Question: Dear Francis, In Eternity Now you speak of there being no evidence for a material world outside of awareness and that the body along with the rest of the world is made out of sensory perceptions. If something is being perceived does it not then have a certain "reality"of its own in order to be perceived? If something is locked away in a vault for 100 years we could know from eye witness testimonies know, that it is the same object when it is uncovered 100 years later. Our intelligence tells us that it remained in the vault during the intervening period, outside of anyone's conscious perceptions. Does this not then prove that it existed "outside of awareness" for...
Posted on: 2009-12-06 07:50:26English, Text
Location: Amsterdam, Holland
Question: Beloved Francis, There are two great theories regarding the external world in Vedanta : Is the empirical world the mental vritti objectified, or is the objective world a reality which the vritti receives and reports to the jiva?
Posted on: 2009-12-05 09:40:16English, Text
Question: Dear Francis, An apparent object arises in consciousness, for example, a sound. I ask the question 'What knows this sound?' I trust that asking this question leads to some kind of falling back into the true I, silence or subjectivity - that which is unknowable. I am then left with two questions: 1)What happens to appearence when the perceiver falls back into itself as the unmanifest? 2)In the original inquiry there appears to remain some fundamental duality operating between the unmanifest and the manifest with a privileging of the unmanifest over the manifest. If this is the case is the use of the question 'What is experiencing this?' enough to dissolve this apparent duality as it seems to privilege the unmanifest over the manifest? Could it be
Posted on: 2009-11-27 07:26:01
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Would it be fair to say that spirituality can become a trap. In that we can spend a great deal of our lives cooped up and trying to 'get it'. The contrast of the spiritual path seems to be the 'worldly' person. Someone with a DESIRE to go out and make something. That desire to create and do seems to be completely in tune with sexual desire as well. It seems like when I'm looking for God I'm deader than I am if I WANT something.
Posted on: 2009-11-24 05:56:50English, Text:
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Question: Dear Francis, all these questions about awakening and enlightenment, being present... all refer to people living with a body. You can stand as awareness more or less frequently, but you still eat, feel the temperature of the air, sleep... All this is temporary and lasts as the brain lasts. What happens when the body dies? Do you know it for sure?
Posted on: 2009-11-24 05:35:33English, Text
Location: Northern California
Question: Hi Francis, Last night I invited the king in and looked for the "I". What became apparent was that the "I" is not local to this body. The body became unreal, and all that was there was "me". Thought was happening. What was "me" hides within the body or seems to, appearing to be a person thinking. As the "me" outside of the body, things appeared to happen in front of me, and within me, as if a stage play was going on and "I" am both the theater and the director. Everything else, actors, scenes, dialog seemed to be conjured out of my imagination. When the physical body opened its eyes again, the awareness seemed...
Posted on: 2009-11-18 10:10:19English, Text
Location: Shanghai, China
Question: A couple of nights ago, I woke up in a panic. My mind was touching such a profound and powerful truth, and I quickly pushed it away. I was frightened. I wasn't ready. When I meditate, this is the very state I am trying to achieve, isn't it? I feel so frustrated because I know that the only way I will ever be truly free of the suffering I have attracted in my life is by going to that place, and yet, a couple nights ago it didn't feel like anything I have expected or wanted. There was such a deep and
Posted on: 2009-11-18 09:48:08English, Text
Hello Francis,
Can seeking be dangerous, can it come close to madness?
Like with the poet Rimbaud, or Nietzsche for example. The image of the sage is someone sitting peacefully and blissfully, and sometimes I get to thinking that some seekers are TRYING to be peaceful. It seems like the way can be very intense, uneasy, and passionate, more like the poets or artists. Can you comment on this?
Posted on: 2009-11-16 19:35:18Dear Francis:
English, Text
Location: India
I’m not sure if you respond to random emails but I will shoot it anyways knowing that it is sincere.
I have a couple of questions for you and I wonder if you would have the time to respond:
Dear Sudhakar,
Here are your questions and my answers
Posted on: 2009-11-15 23:35:14English, Text
Location: New York
Question: Dear Francis, I am awareness and all the sensing and thinking is myself through the objects defined as this mind and this body (at least from my understanding from Atma Darshan of Shree Khrishna Menon). The awareness that is reading now these words is aware of something else than the awareness that is writing them now? Or is the Francis Lucille just a mentation in the awareness that is writing this email and any reply to it is born from the same awareness that wrote them in this text box now?
Posted on: 2009-11-14 08:26:55English, Text
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Question: Dear Francis. When I was a child, I used to think, when in bed before sleeping, "how is it possible that the Universe has come into existence? If something exists, something else is the originating cause". Going backwards, I always arrived (and I still arrive now) to a conclusion: "something exists from ever. But this is impossible to my logic... so nothing exists." Many times I felt, just for an instant, a sudden vacuum when
Posted on: 2009-11-13 18:01:04English, Text
Location: uk
Question: Dear Francis, I was on the progressive path for many years untill discovering finally this more direct and simple and obvious way, but I have a lot of conditioning from the progressive path and just human conditioning, about being nice etc etc.... Do you have any advice on finding the balance, I seem to become withdrawn a lot when there are challenges with my close family and...
Posted on: 2009-11-13 17:46:59English, Text
Location: Nagpur, India
Question: Dear Francis, I understand from the basic tenets of Advaita that no efforts/practice (as they are in time & space) e.g. holding on to the 'I' consciousness, be oneself, meditation etc. are required to be done (or not done) (as there is no doer) in order to realize our true nature. The advaita seed of understanding implanted in the consciousness (and forgotten) is bound to bear fruit sooner or later automatically. However, I notice that various kinds of practices are advised by advaita teachers. Please will you explain the apparent paradox. What is your opinion? Or is the undestanding flawed?
Posted on: 2009-11-11 10:19:02English, Text
Question: Hello Francis: I am looking for direct experience now. I love someone, now he is gone overseas for four months. The love which comes through me, for him, is no different than loving "God." How do I access that love for "me" to be that love and live that love every day? I mainly seem to be aware of it when directly, "in love" in his presence. I am not where you are Francis, yet, regarding projections, and my mind requires understanding, especially the subconscious, which is often disturbed, especially at night. Thank you. Patricia.
Posted on: 2009-11-08 22:20:38
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Francis Lucille
Temecula, California
September 8, 2007
Go deeply into the present moment.
The only cause for suffering is our refusal or rejection of that which the present moment is offering.
We want it to be different. We want it to be according to...
Posted on: 2009-11-07 02:34:03English, Text
Have you had any experience with individuals who have "awakened" while taking medication, and does "self-realization" generally result in resolution of emotional difficulties?
Posted on: 2009-11-06 06:45:19Born around 515 BC., Parmenides, was a citizen of Elea, a small town in the south of Italy. His poem "On Reality" was probably comprised of three parts of which we have only the first two largely intact.
The first part takes the form of an allegorical poem in which we see the poet, impelled by a strong desire, travel toward the domain of the Goddess, in a chariot pulled by powerful runners. After unveiling their faces for him, the Maidens of light guide him to the "threshold where the roads of Night and of Day converge", and he is allowed to cross it as a result of their intercession. He is then welcomed with benevolence by the Goddess who takes his right hand in hers and commences her teaching...
Posted on: 2009-11-06 06:38:44English, Text
Question: What is your core teaching? I am right now seeing glimpses of witnessing. I guess my ego is still lurking behind the witnessing state. How can the witnessing state gets transcended ? (I know how implies a method, and back again in the mind ..).
Posted on: 2009-11-03 10:01:09English, Text
Question: During Satsang today I had an experience, one that I've had before, in your presence, that I have a question about. As you were talking about the hot seat and about surrendering, something that I have been practicing a lot lately, I once again had this intense bodily sensation of expanding, of opening up. It was a blissful feeling, electric almost, and I had remembered you telling me when this happened before and It scared me a little that I was "stopping" it and...
Posted on: 2009-11-02 10:46:15English, Text
Jean Klein never meant for the world to be an illusion pure and simple, for the world as an experience is undeniable. What he meant was that a world existing independently from consciousness is an illusion. But as an expression of reality, or consciouness, the world is real. Jean Klein’s teachings are at the crossroads of Advaita and Tantrism (Kashmiri Shaivism) and the latter tradition emphasizes the reality of the world, and the...
Posted on: 2009-10-31 12:01:34English, Text
There is only one Reality.
This means that that which is hearing these words and the words that are being heard, that which sees and that which is seen, that which thinks and the thought, are One. The thinker and the thought, the seer and the seen, the hearer and the heard are names that refer to this one single Reality.
For this Reality there is no death and there are no problems.
The apparent problems are waves through which this Reality expresses itself and, in the same way, the solving of those problems are also waves through which this Reality ...(click on the title for more)
Posted on: 2009-10-31 11:45:52English, Text
Question: Dear Francis I found your videos recently and felt a strong emotional connection with a lot of what you say. It was a relief because I had just left an organisation which teaches Advaita after having been a member for about thirty years. I left in the summer, after a few years of discomfort. I think it was mainly because I felt that the teachings were being rammed into us in a dogmatic way.
Posted on: 2009-10-31 10:59:52
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If this life is a dream, an illusion, then what are your views about the year 2012 & catastrophic events to happen for planet earth? I mean shouldn't we still play the game & do something about it? Cheers Victor
Posted on: 2009-10-31 02:33:27English, Text
Question: Dear Francis I then came across your videos on the internet some months ago and seeing you and hearing your words seemed to connect with something inside me. I had just left an advaita organisation that I had been with for many years. However, I seem to be stuck now. I can't seem to do anything in relation to "spiritual endeavour" . Anything I start doing seems to be driven by a wish to be clean and happy and when I become aware of this I can't continue. I have been waking in the morning with awareness of thoughts, and dissatisfaction follows. I am aware of the dissatisfaction and can't do anything about it.
Posted on: 2009-10-29 01:28:30English, Text
Question: As I sat in my easy-chair on a Saturday morning recently, my intention was to simply sit aware of awareness. Nearly imperceptibly, there was a bit of what I will call a "shift" in perception. I began to be aware of a crystal clear reality, which would have made the sound of a crystal bell if it could have sounded. It was more real than sense perception. I noticed by it's absence, my mind was not offering it's usual ad-lib. I was very pleased about this, because had never known it's absence prior to this. I would like to say I began to know that which is really Real. I was that which is really Real. It was grander, and yet simpler than I had ever imagined it would be.
Posted on: 2009-10-27 09:48:29English, Text
Question: Could one, and if yes, how would one go about inviting/inspiring a greater number to "look within"? Is knowledge of oneself the path to freedom from the obselete mindset (greed, selfishness ect)? if that is true could one possibly inspire his fellow man to share the same vision of Oness and Inclusionality, where all beeings are free of traits such as greed?
Posted on: 2009-10-27 01:12:42English, Text
Question: Dear Francis, As there is no individual identity either for the jnani nor the ajnani then, upon death, aren't they both finally liberated? So why in traditional advaita is the one 'liberated in this life' told that he will 'not be born again' if there is no individual in any case? If death is final and there's no individual to reincarnate couldn't one merely commit suicide? But wait! Even then, what's to stop the new experience of another 'me' (not this one of course) but a brand new individual starting all over again (like this 'one' did) with a life of sufferng and ignorance? This seems from my limited perspective to be a most perplexing conundrum. Can you help Francis?
Posted on: 2009-10-23 08:48:17English, Text
Question: Dear Francis, In Answer #76, you said, "There is only one awareness. Your awareness, my awareness and God's awareness are the same awareness which is the substance of all things..." Are you implying that God is a being with a mind? And that this mind contains the egg that was buried for six months? Isn't that tantamount to saying that objective reality is real? That it exists whether or not it is being observed? What you are saying is reminiscent of the famous pair of limericks summarizing the idealistic philosophy of George Berkeley: There was a young man who said "God Must find it exceedingly odd To think that the tree Should continue to be When there's no one about in the quad." ---Ronald Knox "Dear Sir: Your astonishment's odd; I am always about in the quad. And that's why the tree Will continue to be Since observed by, Yours faithfully, God." ---Anonymous
Posted on: 2009-10-22 22:15:50English, Text
Question: Dear Francis, In Answer #74, you said, "Rhonda's personal mind is therefore an illusion projected onto the reality, consciousness, Godhead, through the creation of specific mentations that we could call "Rhonda's recollections". You also said, "There are infinitely many others, among which "Francis' Mind", made of "Francis' recollections"... Are you implying that Francis' mind is also an illusion, and that it contains no recollections other than the personal recollections of Francis? This leads to my main question, which is, why are minds personal and different from each other? Is there some answer other than that God wants it that way? If not, this is the same answer that the Church gave to all such questions of why? before science was liberated from it in the 17th century.
Posted on: 2009-10-21 20:36:31English, Text
I "practice" to identify myself as the impersonal consciousness which witnesses what appears in it, instead of being identified with the appearance. It "works" specially well with so called negative emotions- I noticed that what ...sees the anger, isn't angry, ...sees the fear, isn't afraid, ...sees the sadness, isn't sad ... and so on. When I check in like that it brings me to the same space, like the question "who/ what am I?"...Would you say that it's the right approach to realize & embody the oneness with consciousness?...
Posted on: 2009-10-20 06:22:35English, Text
Question: Dear Francis, In meditation often a strong uncomfortable feeling such as fear, sorrow, anguish, etc. arises. When this occurs, if the feeling can be approached without thought, the result usually is bodily shaking and spasms for a couple of minutes, after which arises comfortable feelings of oneness and peace. Sometimes rather than "diving" into the uncomfortable feeling, the question is asked, "Who is it that is experiencing this feeling?"
Posted on: 2009-10-19 22:13:01English, Text
My first priority is to wake up totally, but still I would very much like to experience more joy and aliveness while inhabiting this body. What would you suggest?
Posted on: 2009-10-07 11:44:28English, Text
In your answer here there is perhaps a point which it may be helpful to clarify. You say that in cases of an incomplete glimpse "the central knot of separation" has failed to be eliminated. The implication here of the expression "central knot" does seem to suggest a central or fundamental point on which the main sense of separation is dependent. Now if it is the case, as you very reasonably assert, that they are "both equally important" - the dissolution of 'ignorance' or the separate self sense in regard to both intellectual identity and felt identity - the question arises where is this "central knot"? Is it of the 'cognitive-intellectual-mind' system or of the 'feeling-somatic' system?...
Posted on: 2009-10-07 10:31:11English, Text
Dear Francis,
Thank you, that's very helpful. But there's still a grain of confusion, so if I may, let me try a dream analogy.
If I'm dreaming, in my dream there may be a Francis character who appears to be in California, and a Michael character who appears to be in Maryland. In the dream, Francis may say, "The air feels so dry here." And Michael may say, "The air is feeling so humid."
So it appears within the dream that Francis is experiencing aridity, and Michael is experiencing humidity. That would seem to be evidence of...
Posted on: 2009-10-06 10:44:30English, Text
Question: Dear Francis, I was very interested in your comments about the distinction between "awareness" and "mind" (question no. 76). You said: "Be open to the possibility that nothing happens outside of or apart from awareness, but that many things happen outside of or apart from our human mind. The belief that nothing happens outside of a limited human mind is a form of ignorance known as solipsism." That statement gives rise to two questions: 1. Is there really such a thing as a "limited human mind"? What I mean is, here there are thoughts, feelings, perceptions. Why presume that these thoughts, feelings, perceptions are somehow "limited"? And why presume that there is something happening outside of what you call the human mind? It seems to me that, if there is a "belief" involved, it's a "belief" that something is happening that is not known here. So it seems that you would answer "yes" to the question, "If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?"
Posted on: 2009-10-03 12:33:49English, Text
Question: Dear Francis, is it possible to keep the focus on consciousness and work as executive in a company at the same time? The same question could be extended to any profession where you have to use the mind continously, speak to a lot of people and have the pressure of getting economical results. I would not ask this question if I were enlightened, but I am afraid I may never be if I continue working like this.
Posted on: 2009-10-02 06:20:31English, Text
Leave the world of objects alone.
Thoughts, perceptions, feelings, sensations---don’t interfere. In the beginning all we can do is to notice that we constantly interfere. The only way is to say “Yes” to the attraction that comes from the background, from the sweetness.
Simply be open to the possibility that what we like in anything is not the thing, but that in which the thing appears, of which it is an expression or an extension. Open your ...
Posted on: 2009-09-28 05:35:17English, Text
Question: Reading and contemplating over your post number 65 appears to have burst 'me". 'I' am writing to confirm my understanding/experience. Initially when I read about the "ultimate perceiver", the thought that came was "why cant there be more than one perceivers? (i.e. various individual perceivers and probably one super perceiver or God)" As enquiry into that question continued, after a day or so it dawned on me that a) my body-mind-thoughts-emotions are in awareness and not the other way around b) since awareness is not in any one location, there is no boundary separating "my" awareness from "anyone else's" awareness. i.e. it is a field of awareness in which bundles of body-mind-thoughts-emotions show up. c) The only "separation" from awareness is a thought that "I am separate". But since the thought itself is just arising in awareness and has no independent existence...
Posted on: 2009-09-27 22:23:36English, Text:
Subject: Atmabodha
Dear Francis,
I've been contemplating your rendition of Atmabodha over the past 2 weeks or so and a couple of questions have arisen. [Very good rendition, by the way!]
Both questions essentially relate to the following 'logion' or statement:
<< 67. When Atman, the sun of understanding, rises in the space of the heart, it disperses darkness; permeating all and sustaining all, it shines, and all is light. >>
(1) Above, you've used the expression 'the sun of understanding' rather than, say, 'the sun of all being' or some equivalent expression...
Posted on: 2009-09-27 01:34:23English. Text
Question: Francis, The teaching that nothing exists apart from consciousness, I can understand when it is referring to name and form. But the doubt that keeps arising concerns change, if I bury an egg in my garden it is out of sight out of mind, when I go back and dig it up 6 months later it is not the same egg, change has happened without my awareness of it. Does not this imply that there is something going on outside of or apart from awareness?
Posted on: 2009-09-23 01:27:04English, Text
"The "I" first chooses ignorance and as a result creates ignorant thoughts and feelings." Francis Lucille. In Q/A 68 under the 3rd question: is it the "I" that thinks these thoughts, and why do they tend to be negative? Answer: It is the "I" that thinks these thoughts, for there is only one thinker and only one doer. However they are distorted by ignorance. The "I" first chooses ignorance and as a result creates ignorant thoughts and feelings. They are negative because they arise out of frustration. Ignorance is the most basic of all frustrations: it frustrates us from what we are. In your answer above, this sentence (The "I" first chooses ignorance and as a result creates ignorant thoughts and feelings.) caught my attention and a question arose in me asking, how can it be that the I first choose ignorance before it is ignorant?
Posted on: 2009-09-21 14:57:33English, Text
Dear Francis, Thank you for answering so many questions - it is extremely helpful. My question is regarding consciousness. If our true nature is consciousness, which is unlimited, once we are enlightened why are we not aware of other's thoughts, feelings, etc. or can see "the world" from a different perspective. Of course since I am not enlightened - so this is a hypothetical question! But I assume that those who know themselves to be consciousness do not have this experience...
Posted on: 2009-09-20 09:15:10English, Text
It is clear that everything is consciousness and that absolute conscious/awareness is the source. Not so clear is why we always seem to attach certain positive qualities like, love, serenity, beauty, joy, God to THAT. How does THAT have qualities or characteristics when it is ISNESS itself?
Posted on: 2009-09-20 09:07:49English, Text
I have had many moments of recognizing or noticing that the self exists in thoughts only or in “conclusions” about patterns of sensations or emotions over the years. But there is still a belief here that a sense of “identity” with Consciousness is the ultimate proof that a shift, or enlightenment, has taken place. I can recognize when there is identification with a ‘self’ easily. But I still believe that when the sense of being separate falls away there will be a “recognizing” oneness, or a “knowing” or “identification” with oneness instead of self. Can you confirm or respond to this?
Posted on: 2009-09-16 00:00:00English, text
Presence if effortless.
Effort always originates from the belief that we are a fragment, a fragment that wants to become the totality, which is impossible for a fragment to achieve: no end in view for the efforting entity.
Effort is noticeably different from an action we accomplish out of interest, love, or celebration. Such a deed stemming out of interest may be taxing for the body or the mind, but it is accompanied by joy and perfume. Whatever we do on the spiritual path should be effortless. Our meditation, our investigation should arise out of an invitation from the Ultimate---out of interest and love for the truth. In this way it is never mechanical, but always new, always different.
If at any moment we feel that we have fallen into the "efforting" trap, that our investigation has become a practice, automatic and therefore meaningless...
Posted on: 2009-09-16 00:00:00English, Text
If thinking is useless in helping seekers on the path to the discovery of their true nature, it follows that the words/thoughts used by teachers in guiding them are equally useless. We would therefore expect the teachers who claim such a uselessness of mind to remain silent. They would be at least consistent with their own thoughts...
Posted on: 2009-09-14 00:00:00English, Text
Question: First, is there any difference between awareness and consciousness? Second, there appears to be an experiencing here of "Consciousness." If so, would that not make Consciousness an object? However, I know that there is no one to be aware of it , but am I aware of Consciousness as a concept, or as a direct experience? Could it be more accurate to say that actually Consciousness is aware of this illusion called Bob?
Posted on: 2009-09-13 00:10:00Question: "I" believe that I desire what is referred to as "enlightenment". Should I 'seek' enlightenment, do I need to sit with an 'enlightened guru', or should I just continue to meditate?
Dear Michael,
In your case, you needed to contact a teacher, as evidenced by your asking this question.
Love,
Francis
Posted on: 2009-09-13 00:00:00English, Text:
Question: Namaste Francis, I am very happy to find that you will answer questions of the truthseekers. Thank you! My question is this: How do I get through the times in my day when I have to deal with insensitive & completely ignorant people? So critical and hard-hearted most of the time. I am one of the few young people there, but even the other young people can be hard to get through to. Sometimes, I get very frustrated with my co-workers and I don't want to be around them. Then I start to think, there is no other place I am supposed to be except where I am. But, I still have feelings of frustration quite often. What am I to do?
Posted on: 2009-09-12 00:00:00
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1; Neo advaita teachers are these days teaching that thought is not a problem, but in my work place I notice a lot of negative thoughts about certain people, its hard to stay uninvolved and sometimes guilt arises because of this, if we dont choose our thoughts, then what is the purpose of these thoughts, they can be very sticky and painful.
Answer: There are two kinds of thoughts, thoughts that hinge upon the belief and/or the feeling that we are a separate person, and thoughts that don't. Only the first kind is problematic. Negative thoughts about others...
Posted on: 2009-09-11 00:40:00English, Text
Question: I have been doing Vichara - or asking myself the question "Who am I" - for some years now - sometimes more intensely, over a period of time, and in a focused way, at other times I experience periods of forgetfulness and do not do it for a while. I have been to Satsang a lot for some years and then I have been away but never lost an inner thread connecting me to either Vichara or the Satsang or the inner Truth shining through all this. I am aware of who I am - on some level - and have experienced flashes of the deeper Truth of being - not sure how to put this in words I suppose... But I am not free nor enlightened nor at peace...
Posted on: 2009-09-11 00:00:00English, Text
You have said "in order to see, to establish such a separation (between the perceived and the perceived), we should be able to perceive the perceiver, to see it as separate from the perceived. And that is not possible."
Is the understanding from this end correct that this is all meant within the obvious context of guiding into Oneness, beyond the illusion of separation, but not yet Ultimate Truth?
Posted on: 2009-09-10 00:00:00English, Text
As my desire to know myself as consciousness grows, my other motivations have decreased. I no longer feel ambitious with regard to career; I no longer believe I must get married in order to be fulfilled; I no longer feel driven to create; I no longer believe that I am here to accomplish anything other than to know more intimately the truth of who I am. Yet I do not yet know freedom. I have a beloved teacher, and I...
Posted on: 2009-09-09 00:01:00English, Text:
Question: Francis, In your answer to question 27, you said that the cessation of the superimposition of the personal perceiver onto consciousness is necessary for apperception to take place. My question then is, how do we get the superimposition of the personal perceiver to cease?
Posted on: 2009-09-09 00:00:00English, Text
Question: My basic experience of life seems to differ from that implicit in the typical nondual understanding of things. I'm seeking any clarifying comments you might have. Here's my take: The core of the experience of separation seems to exist as a deeply embodied state for me. A kind of reaction to, or objectification of, a state of panic. It seems utterly physical. A likely neurological explanation is...
Posted on: 2009-09-07 00:01:00English, Text
Francis, In your answer to question 27, you said that the cessation of the superimposition of the personal perceiver onto consciousness is necessary for apperception to take place. My question then is, how do we get the superimposition of the personal perceiver to cease?...
Posted on: 2009-09-07 00:00:00English, Text
Question: Francis You say: "Upon close scrutiny you will find out that consciousness exists both during the presence of the mind (as its witness) and in its absence (as the continuous background of all perceptions)." Are you defining mind and perceptions as different experiences or different levels of experience? When you say mind do you mean thought only? It appears to me that there is never 'not witnessing' in the waking hours. There is never 'not-objects' in the waking hours. The waking hours is equal to the appearance of objects and experiences and their witnessing, or is that not necessarily so? If witnessing and objects can cease completely in the waking hours that would mean that we would be absolutely unconscious of the world at times. Is that the case? The only time when mind or perception appear to be absent is in deep sleep. There seems to be no witnessing in deep sleep. But there is awareness in the absence of experience. Or is the 'absence of experience' in deep sleep, in itself an experience that is witnessed? Am I missing something and complicating something simple? ...
Posted on: 2009-09-07 00:00:00
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Don’t separate yourself from your experience.
Welcome the totality of it, the sensations in your body, the sound of my voice and the birds, your thoughts. All of that is at a zero distance from you. All of that is in you.
Even if you create the thought that there is someone who is separate from that as the observer or the perceiver, this thought itself is one more appearance from which you are not separate.
Recognize the immediacy of all appearances as a fact. The separation comes after the fact, as an interpretation...
Posted on: 2009-09-05 00:00:00English, Text:
Question: You said: "You are available when you understand that there is nothing that you can do on your own to get to the King. When you acknowledge your total powerlessness, you become an empty room. As soon as you become an empty room, you are a sanctuary. So the King can enter, take the throne and grace you with immortal presence." – Francis Lucille Does what I say below agree with the above, and is it true? -- This is receptivity with no interference with what is received, and therefore no opportunity for mind to arise and create a game or contest or struggle between its viewpoint and what is received. In fact, it is receptivity with no receiver...
Posted on: 2009-09-04 00:00:00English, Text
Question: In your reply to the Sept. 3 post, "Can We Change the Waking Dream?," you replied, "If the pronoun [you] refers to consciousness, which is the creator of all dreams, then the "you" which creates a dream can change it as it creates it." But I find this slightly wry, inasmuch as the "you" is hardly discrete or an agent in the way in which we think of action-requiring-agency. Does the "you" in this sense bear any of the marks that we think of as the illusory (egoic) "you"?
Posted on: 2009-09-03 00:00:00English, Text
Question: Hello Francis I heard Tony Parsons saying that while asleep & dreaming you cannot change your dream. The same in this dream life (the second dream) you cannot change it. So what is your opinion?
Posted on: 2009-09-02 00:00:00English, Text
The "I AM" that is felt so easily and effortlessly,
1. is that what the seeker is looking for? Or is there something beyond the "I AM" that is operating?
2. Also when the "I AM" is felt, is it the person that feels it, or is it the being, there is some confusion around this point in advaita circles,
3. I know of masters who say it is impossible for the person to sense the "I AM", if this is so, then who senses the "I AM"?
4. Is there a conscious choice for the person to turn the attention to the "I AM" or is it not possible to choose the " I am", its a very confusing concept for me,
Posted on: 2009-08-31 00:00:00English, Text
Question: These last months I have been walking in a circling path. Apparently, the landscape across the path seems to change, as it happens with the circumstances in life. But the path, the land I am stepping on, is always exactly the same. It is a path of understanding and oblivion . Understanding and then forgetting which only brings a great despair and a strong longing. How is it possible to have seen/experienced the falsehood of a belief and that some time afterwards this belief rises again as something true and identification comes back? This is absurd! Is this happening
Posted on: 2009-08-27 00:00:00English, Text
Question: Francis, Chris pointed me in your direction, and suggested I ask some of my questions to you. I honestly don't know what, or how, to ask because I have heard, and learned so much about Advaita that I already know what the answers will be. It's unfortunate, I know, and I'm extremely frustrated with it. I've looked within, and asked reapeatedly, "Who, or what am I?", and it stops within my mind, meaning that, as far back as I can trace myself, I seem to be in the mind... looking outward. I cannot grasp the concept that the mind is contained within me, not the other way around. I understand what is said, but cannot move past...
Posted on: 2009-08-24 00:00:00English, Text
Hello, Mr. Lucille: My question refers to the self- conscious or unconscious nature of the Unmanifest, our True Nature, and if this Awareness needs "form" (for example a human body) to be aware of itself: While Ramana and others (I think Jean Klein too) considered that Self -Consciousness is one of the charachteristics of the Absolute, with or without relying on manifest material form, Nisargadatta, on the other hand, says Awareness and Consciousness are not the same concept. He teaches Awareness is That which is aware ...
Posted on: 2009-08-23 00:00:00The following is an update on the January 2010 retreat with Francis Lucille in Barcelona.
The retreat is residential and bilingual (English-Spanish). It will begin with an open dialogue at 6 p.m. on the first day and will end after lunch on Friday 8. During the...
Posted on: 2009-08-22 00:00:00English, Text
Now that I am 'on the threshold of eternity' (I realise that is not possible because there is no going in and out of It, we are always in It) and know intellectually that I am that limitless Consciousness, I have suddenly been very badly attacked by extremely negative feelings and it is really difficult to just let them appear without getting totally usurped by them. I know I should not castigate myself for experiencing those feelings but the ego is clever and is trying its hardest to plunge me into some sort of depression by constantly telling me about my shortcomings. I just wanted to ask you if this is a normal part of the 'process' of the Infinite finding itself. It is difficult to explain alll this in words, but I am sure you will understand what I am trying to express. Thank you for your help.
Posted on: 2009-08-21 00:00:00Hello Francis, teachers have being saying that self inquiry is a way the seperate self strenghtens itself, they also claim meditation does the same and that enlightenment is an energetic shift, in other words the self inquiry hasnt got the power to release the tension of being a seperate person, do you feel there is a way to release the physical tension of feeling like a seperate person?
Posted on: 2009-08-20 00:00:00English, Text
Question: Francis, Based on your answer to question 12, I am right to say that we can not prove that consciousness is not the product of the brain? All we can prove is that the brain is subject to the laws of physical reality which are universal and non local. Therefore, I am still left with the possibility that consciousness is the product of the brain. Thank you
Posted on: 2009-08-17 00:00:00English, Text
Question: In answer to number 43 on your website, "There is nothing you can do to awaken so just go to the movies or something" you replied, "It is true if the "you" in it is the false "you", it is false if the "you" in it is the true "you". How could the false "you" seek its ending? How could it really do anything, since it is not the real doer? That which seeks the Truth is therefore the real "you" and every step it takes to seek enlightenment is efficient. Teachers upholding this [statement 3.] are really telling you "my teachings are useless" and they are right on that point." I understand what you are saying but it still doesn't answer the question of what can be done (instead of going to the movies) to promote the necessary understanding. Can you clarify what can be done instead of going to the movies?
Posted on: 2009-08-17 00:00:00English, Video
Francis answers a question on the teacher-student relationship.
Posted on: 2009-08-16 00:00:00English, Text
Question: Dear Francis,
Recently after a fierce internal conflict a question entered my mind suddenly which was ´´How can I check right now if I am my body or mind or whatever?´´ I haven't found any way to check what or who I am. Therefore I concluded that what I am is not an object. And at that very second I felt an absolute dread. I thought I would go insane or something like that. It was anything but bliss experienced in watching your thoughts or a beautiful landscape. That nothingness that I glimpsed for a second is not that sweet blissfull eternity I was dreaming of. I was so scared that I immediately reconvinced myself that I am this body and personality. It felt more safe. But the only thing I want is the Truth, so my question is ´´How can I overcome that absolute fear?´´ And is enlightenment always so brutal and full of fear?
Posted on: 2009-08-16 00:00:00
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Question: Dear Francis, I have been enjoying your DVDs for a while now and would like to ask a question about witnessing during meditation. Increasingly, both in frequency and duration, I have been having the experience of being separate from my thoughts during meditation. On one two week occasion, I also had this experience outside of meditation, during activity, most noticeably during routine activities such as washing dishes, taking a shower, etc. This experience outside of meditation was liberating and wonderful. I am wondering whether I can encourage this experience in any way, or do I just leave it alone to develop at its own pace?
Posted on: 2009-08-15 00:00:00Question: Dear Francis, We know that the intellectual realization or understanding of the knowledge of our essential nature is the first step (a big one indeed) towards Full Understanding (usually called Self-Realization or Liberation), that will necessarily include the "assimilation" of the mentioned knowledge, totally and fully. In my understanding (please correct me if wrong), some of the habits or embedded tendencies created by our conditioning in our life (or past lifetimes if we adhere to the hindu concept) had already passed the status of simple "mental tendencies" and became imprinted in our nervous systems (or cellular memory) and may cloud or slow down the very same process of assimilation (of the knowledge). (I am talking of normal people, not clinic cases of neurosis, schizophrenia, etc..) It may appear that the simple fact that we "know" that "I am not the body" intellectually, doesn't have the necessary strength, in many cases, to dissolve, in itself, those physical" obstacles to the process of assimilation.
1. Do you address this issue of working "on" the gross body in parallel with the understanding in the intellect?
2. If yes, how?
Thanks in advance, Peace, Mouna
Dear Mouna,
The answer to 1. is yes.
The answer to 2. as been outlined in "Francis Answers - 2":
Here is what I suggest to you: Be acutely aware of the actual experience of your body. It is made of body sensations floating in the space of your awareness. Surrender, offer these sensations to the presence, to that space in which they appear. Don't interfere with them by trying to suppress them, keep them, or change them. Do that first during moments of availability in your life, for instance during these periods set apart for meditation or yoga. Start sitting as comfortably as possible, then add yoga postures and other exercises from the hatha yoga paraphernalia, always being gentle with your body, without inflicting pain or discomfort. Then gradually incorporate this awareness and surrender of your body to other situations in your life, sitting at your desk or in the dentist's chair, etc..
Also, when thoughts about the Truth, the path, your true nature appear to you, don't avoid them. Welcome them. Let them guide you to the conscious presence to which they refer, to that in you which perceives and understands, in sharp contrast with the thoughts of ignorance, the thoughts of fear and desire, which always refer to a separate "Me". If such thoughts appear, investigate the nature of this "Me", and whether it is separate or not.
Finally, there are external sense perceptions through which the so-called physical world appears to you. They too point to the presence in which they appear. Proceed with these in the same manner as with your body sensations, offering them to that presence, to your pure consciousness.
There are limitations however to that which can be transmitted over the internet. There is something special about being in the physical presence of your guru that cannot be experienced without a direct contact.
Love,
Francis
Posted on: 2009-08-14 00:00:00English, Text
Question: Hello and thank you for your time. Which of the following statements reflect the truth and would you please explain why or why not? Statement 1. No person gets enlightened or there is no one to become enlightened. Statement 2. Enlightenment is an event that occurs in the human mind when the belief that they are a separate individual with choice and control is questioned and drops away. Statement 3: There is nothing you can do to awaken so just go to the movies or something. This last statement seems to imply that there is no correlation between seeking enlightenment via teachers, teachings, self-inquiry,etc and waking up. Your reflections on these topics would be appreciated.
Posted on: 2009-08-13 00:00:00English, Text
The notion of creation appears frequently in discussions and Q&As (e.g. Nos.18, 19, 25, 29, 36), whether it is ascribed to, powered by Maya or by Reality itself. For example, in the answer to Q. 18 it is stated: “It is this Reality that dynamically creates, sustains and annihilates all things, including memories, from moment to moment”. Is this notion and its use, related to that of causation, not a misleading one from the perspective of Advaita (whether traditional or modern), which in the final analysis denies both?
Posted on: 2009-08-12 00:01:00English, Text
Question: I can see/know/realize that I am not this body/sensations/thoughts, but that the body/mind/thoughts rather show up in the awareness that I am.
1. However, since I can only experience sensations and thoughts that arise in this body/mind, doesn't that imply that awareness is localized?
2. Why am I not aware of sensations/thoughts in other body minds if there is only one Self/awareness?
Posted on: 2009-08-12 00:00:00English, Text
Question: Francis, I feel the sense of "I am" very strongly, and even though I dont feel as lost or confused as I used to, I feel there is something still unresolved, a sort of confusion, in that I dont know if I am being tricked, other Advaita teachers say there is no me! so what feels the sense " I AM" if there is no me? and if there is no me, as the Advaita teachers claim, then why do they respond to their name?
Posted on: 2009-08-09 00:00:00English, Text
Question: From the standpoint of Consciousness what is the mind? Does Consciousness witness it? It is the said to be the source of all-so did the mind spring forth from it?
Dear Anand,
First, let's be clear about the words we use. I call consciousness, or awareness that, whatever that is, which is perceiving these words right now and understands them. To me, that is...
Posted on: 2009-08-08 00:00:00English,Text
Question: Hi Francis You said in your Advaita Channel answer no.19 "Maya is the power of the Self that creates the world and the individual minds." How do we know that? Do intersubjective agreements help in this regard? Infinite Gratitude Maher
Posted on: 2009-08-07 00:05:00English, Text
Question: Dear Francis, ... recently my philosophical mind has left me vexing over two quandaries related to the nondual nature of reality.
1.) If our true nature is pure impersonal Awareness merely watching the drama of the mind, and our mistake in this life is our awareness identifying too closely with the mind-body organism, then it should stand to reason that during sleep, pure awareness remains while the brain, with all its thoughts and emotions and sensory perceptions, takes a vacation. But that’s not what we observe. We lose consciousness during sleep, exactly what mainstream science would predict if our consciousness was nothing but a byproduct of neurons and a sophisticated soup of brain chemical reactions. My question is, why does awareness, which is our endless nature, cease during the brain’s sleep...
Posted on: 2009-08-07 00:01:00English, Text
Question: I have been shown the truth of existence through a huge awakening, but it feels like this world "the dream", is difficult to live. or shall I say my life I have created. I have been trying to wake up my partner but it is difficult. Any advice.Thanks
Posted on: 2009-08-03 00:00:00English, Video
In this video, Francis addresses the decision making process: who makes a decision? What is an impersonal decision?
Posted on: 2009-07-30 00:00:00Francis Lucille - One Line Wisdom-3
Posted on: 2009-07-28 00:00:00English, Text
Question: Dear Francis, I heard you say in one of your videos that freedom was the recognition of the independence of consciousness from the objects. Although it is clear that consciousness is prior to the manifestation, since the objects appear and disappear in it, it is hard for me to grasp how it would be possible to experience consciousness without objects. Up until now, I thought that non-duality was precisely the union of consciousness and the manifested world. I understand that consciousness could exist without forms, but it seems to me that a form is needed for consciousness to be aware of itself, a form in which it can see a reflection of itself. Could you please clarify this point for me?
Posted on: 2009-07-27 00:00:00English, Text
I've been laying awake pondering, and it just occurred to me if I can never fully understand my true nature with mind, I can never understand events of the world and it's peoples, whys and hows, since the world and mind and I are my true nature. It's just one thing and nothing can be outside of it to understand. Would that be correct? Relaxing can take place?
Posted on: 2009-07-26 00:00:00English, Text
Question: It has become completely clear that our life is only an illusion and is devoid of any solid reality. Here is the question: where does the need to create this illusion come from?
Let's assume that I am dreaming and that the question arises:
Posted on: 2009-07-25 00:00:00Francis Lucille - One Line Wisdom-2
Posted on: 2009-07-25 00:00:00Francis Lucille - One Line Wisdom-1
Posted on: 2009-07-23 00:00:00English, Text
Comments: Thank you so much for all that you offer and say to me. In your video clip on "The Peace that passeth understanding, " you talk of that deep peace/stillness as something that is beyond the mind. And I understand this as being "beyond form." But if all is one, then isn't this just a metaphor and perhaps in part misleading, because does not the peace you refer to also undergird, embrace, encompass (these, too, of course, being metaphors) form/mind. If all is one (emptiness is form, form emptiness) then that peace is not separate from our everyday experiences and the story of our life. Is this accurate, or would you say it differently or with another emphasis?...
Dear Stephen,
You are right when you say " that peace is not separate
Posted on: 2009-07-22 00:00:00English, Text
Question: Dear Francis, In your last post, you wrote: (quote)"...your true nature is forever unknowable objectively, but forever knowable subjectively, through a direct mode of knowledge. In this apperception, it reveals itself as timeless, unborn and eternal Presence."(unquote) Some, like Wei Wu Wei defined apperception as a perception without a perceiver. Is that the meaning you give it? If not, Could you define the term "apperception" and its relation to "perception", within the advaitic ...
Posted on: 2009-07-20 00:00:00English, Text
Question: Does Awareness/Consciousness exist prior to I Am? I mean does the Untouchable Source live in purity never ever being born (but at the same time being born) and is the I Am (a sense of self but not as a separate self come next and then the me or me as an object come after that? I am trying to figure out...
Posted on: 2009-07-17 00:01:00English, Text
Question: I've had a string of wonderful transcendent experiences, but the most brilliant gem in this necklace was a day when I woke up to find that abstract thought had stopped. It was so startling, I thought the electricity had gone out. really really quiet up there. It lasted one day only...
Posted on: 2009-07-17 00:00:00English, Text
Question: Does the desire to know indicate that one is ready and capable of knowing or Is it necessary to prepare the mind to receive the teachings of liberation?
Posted on: 2009-07-16 00:00:00English, Text
Due to the size of the facility, the number of participants to the Summer retreat with Francis Lucille in Temecula, California will be strictly limited to 60. Reservations will be taken on a first come, first serve basis. We recommend that you notify us as soon as possible if you plan to attend...
Posted on: 2009-07-16 00:00:00English, Text
Question: You often speak of the Truth as resonating with the body/mind in the form of beauty, intelligence, humor, and happiness. But doesn't that preclude the Truth resonating as ugliness, stupidity, and misery, potentially leading to a misunderstanding, such as, if I am "happy", I understand the truth, whereas if I am "miserable", I don't understand the truth; if I witness "beauty" I see the Truth in it, whereas if I witness "ugliness" I don't?...
Posted on: 2009-07-11 00:00:00English, Text
Question: My childhood was gifted with spiritual light and experiences and even out of body observing. With no external cultivation or just someone to relate this to, it melted into the background. At 18 I was poisoned and had a near death experience that allowed me to view myself again and to experience the darkness as an entity full of action and from the midst of a magnificent orb of light to know all, be all, completely fulfilling, only now presence...
Posted on: 2009-07-10 00:00:00English, Text
Dear Francis,
(1) Experience is that there appears there is only an approximate locality for this 'I' that I used to be called 'me'. This 'I' exists as a spaciousness that appears as both empty and full - I can't find 'me' anymore.Can you elaborate on this empty/full dichotomy?...
Posted on: 2009-07-09 00:00:00English, Text
Is the mind not the same as Maya? Both are mysterious powers of the Self that may be seen as either a veil or a distorting mirror, at the same time showing or reflecting Reality and hiding or distorting it. Thus the one Self appears as many, starting with the triad of God, the soul and the world. All divisions, time and becoming residing also in the mind. In a way the mind seems to be all, the locus of ignorance and also...
Posted on: 2009-07-05 01:20:00English, Text
What is the container of memories? It cannot be the body as there seems to be evidence that some kind of container of memories remains cohesive between incarnations. Also there are claims that non-physical bodies is one mode of life through which that container of memories manifests -- "spirits", for short.
Posted on: 2009-06-30 01:10:00English, Text
Francis, I've been noticing a very subtle veil, a kind of a blankness, that seems like a mind-produced obscuration of "what is." As I've only just figured out what it might be, I'm also just starting to notice its tendency to show up, and the fact that it's probably been here a lot more than I realized, part of the ...
Posted on: 2009-06-30 01:05:00English, Text
Francis, we are taught that the truth of who we are is the awareness right here right now which is aware of these words, this page. Clearly, awareness or the sense of existence, or the sense that I am -- whatever words we use-- is present because it is felt directly: I am and I know that I am. However, that doesn't help me much. I still don't feel free. How may I free myself from the sense of being an individual, suffering "I am"?
Posted on: 2009-06-30 00:30:00English, Text
Question: After closing eye`s visualising and feeling body parts in a sequence,at times unseen images (every time new) appears, stays for some moments and then vanishes gradually like wind is blowing particles of sand, then I am reminded that I ...
Posted on: 2009-06-30 00:20:00English, Text
My question is whether someone with Alzheimers is capable of realizing their true nature...
Posted on: 2009-06-30 00:10:00English, Text
Can the mechanism of birth and death be understood?
What do you mean by "understand"? Do you mean to have an adequate concept of it or to have
Posted on: 2009-06-25 00:00:00English, Text
Question: You teach that awareness, the subjective reality that we know to exist, is whatever is hearing these words in this moment. I believe that without doubt. However, there is doubt as to whether that awareness is a boundless, infinite presence, or whether perhaps the brain is a sophisticated enough organ so that, out of the "soup" of brain cells, arises this sense of the "perceiver"...
Posted on: 2009-06-24 00:00:00English, Text
I always wondered if the so called 'enlighnted' people are letting emotions or feelings express themselves as they will, and be cautious to not act on certain ones...
Posted on: 2009-06-21 00:00:00Intellect says, if your awareness is not a product of the brain, but is universal, then you have to be able to brake the shakels of this hypnosis and experience youself in all the forms and bodies, ego's thoughts and feelings, just the way you do in this one. That in itself is of course not more desirable than the relationship with this body and could lead to identification with all bodies, their senses, thoughts and feelings as I. But it would once and for all resolve the question. And it is, as I heard you once say, the thorn with which to remove the thorn. I'm not after experiences, lightshows and fireworks. But I need my doubts to be destroyed in the fire of undoubtable experience. Can you help me?
Posted on: 2009-06-19 00:00:00English, Text
Question: … what real aspirants experienced after a whole life’s intense effort in the Vedic age, is made attainable in the present age in a comparatively short period of time by a more direct application of the higher reason in man. Such was the method adopted by Shri Atmananda.
Posted on: 2009-06-19 00:00:00English, Text
October 2009 - Science of Nonduality Conference (http://www.scienceofnonduality.com) — Francis will be a speaker there. The conference will be held October 23-25, 2009, at the Marin Convention Center, San Rafael, California. It is still in the planning stages. If you wish to discuss this conference, you can join the Science of Nonduality Conference Yahoo Group: scienceofnonduality-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Posted on: 2009-06-18 00:00:00English, Text
This question concerns the objects and situations perceived by the body/mind.
I see my daughter. She is an object of consciousness. As a human being she is known as a continuous entity. This the toddler becomes a girl who...
Posted on: 2009-06-16 01:00:00English, Text
Question: First of all thank you for your talks. I seem to understand what you say, but to me, all of this is just an interesting concept. How to go beyond concepts? For example, "I" exist
Posted on: 2009-06-13 00:00:00English, Text,
translated from German by Francis Lucille and David Jennings
Posted on: 2009-06-12 00:40:00English, Text
Question: In speaking of No Expectation What does that look like ..seeing that there is no separate entity yet in this plane where there is body activity ..Do we not expect to get paid when going to work , or the car to stop when I put on the breaks , to be satified of hunger when I eat etc tks gary.
Answer: There is a distinction to be made between personal and impersonal expectation. In the case of personal expectation, the belief in separate
Posted on: 2009-06-11 00:30:00English, Text
What steps can be taken to reduce conflict in life especially when you watch your own son involved in a conflict with a person who is acting totally on past conditioning and repeating egoic patterns. Someone who believes they are right and corrects everyone?
Do your best from your side to resolve the conflict, It is much easier to change your attitude in a given situation than to try to change others. Don't expect anything from...
Posted on: 2009-06-10 00:20:00English, Text
Question: 1. Does Advaita = Yoga?
No. Advaita is a fact, the fact that there is only one reality. Yoga is the process of re-uniting the alleged separate individual self with the universal Self. This process ends with...
Posted on: 2009-06-10 00:10:00English, Text
1-Isn't enlightenment or awaking a way of looking to the world trough the right lobe of the brain (Holistic seeing, the heaven!, only seeing), in contrast to the left lobe that works with details (Mathematical seeing, the hell!, calculating situation)? And more isn't the whole spiritual practice a change of our attitudes (views) towards Life? (E.g. it is a kind of psychotherapy).
Answer:
Enlightenment is understanding based on experience. If we consider that understanding...
Posted on: 2009-06-09 00:00:00English, Text
1. RETREAT IN BARCELONA - IN ENGLISH WITH SPANISH TRANSLATION
This retreat is almost full. However, there are still a few places available if you choose to stay in a hotel in Barcelona. Contact immediatly Eva if you wish to attend...
Posted on: 2009-06-08 00:00:00English, Text
Question from Luciamo Td, Brussels:
Is there any DVD on yoga, or a book explaining it?
There is no DVD or book on the yoga of non-duality.
Here is what I suggest to you: Be acutely aware of the actual experience of your body. It is made of body sensations floating in the space of your awareness. Surrender, offer these sensations to the presence...
Posted on: 2009-05-31 00:00:00
English, movie, about 8 minutes
Francis answers Torstein's question on mind.
Posted on: 2009-05-30 00:00:00
English, Text
Excerpt from Eternity Now, by Francis Lucille.
What can we expect from our meetings?
To learn not to expect. Not expecting is a great art. When you no longer live in expectation, you live in a new dimension. You are free. Your mind is free. Your body is free. To understand intellectually that we are not a psycho-physical entity in the process of becoming is a necessary first step, but this understanding is not sufficient. The fact that we are not the body must become an actual experience that penetrates and liberates our muscles, our internal organs and even our cells...
Posted on: 2009-05-30 00:00:00English, Movie, about 20 minutes
Dialogue with Francis Lucille on the nature of consciousness
Posted on: 2009-05-30 00:00:00English, Movie, about 6 minutes
Dialogue with Francis Lucille
Posted on: 2009-05-30 00:00:00English, Movie (about 7 minutes)
Dialogue with Francis Lucille
