We seek in life to discover who we really are. The desire to become whole and the wanting to return "home" is ever prevalent. We search in many ways for meaning. We seek through spirituality, through relationships, through careers, through the body and personal achievements, always striving to become more successful, more perfect, more spiritual, even more enlightened. How futile all this is. You have and will always be absolutely perfect, even in your imperfections by the very nature of who you really are.
In the seeking, you overlook "this" what is happening right NOW in this moment. Continuously looking to the next moment as if this moment is never enough. Forever looking to the future or the past for something, anything other than "this". In the seeking, you overlook the "seeing" of this. You overlook life and love itself.
So, why are we never satisfied with "this"? What is it that we seek, that we want to replace "this" with? Perhaps we want something that is much deeper and more sacred to what we think is happening right now.
Perhaps we are looking for freedom amidst all the pain and suffering that life can often bring, not realising that much of our suffering can end when thoughts are seen through.
Let's enquire into the nature of past and future. Past is a memory (a thought) happening in this moment. Future is a thought in this moment. Therefore, how can the past or the future exist in this moment other than as a thought?
"You will never know your greatness unless you learn to live in the Now, it does not come in the future."
Maybe we are seeking peace, bliss, joy, love, happiness or truth that so many spiritual traditions talk about. If so, how would we know them if we found them? How would we recognise them? After all, are these not merely words that point to something that we with our thinking minds have attached a concept to. For example, the word "Love" can only point to something that we have an idea about, not to Love itself. What does Love really look like?
Whatever you believe about yourself, about your life, whatever you think you know, is simply a thought. When you believe your thoughts, when you get caught up in them, you lose sight of who you really are and become lost in the story, in the story of "me", the ego identity. There is something prior to thought that expresses As thought and all other manifestations.
"For the mind to flower it has to go beyond what it knows"
Our story begins from a very young age with our parents and society telling us who we are, and how to be. We learn absolutely everything. We are told that the reflection in the mirror is who we are and we believe it. We don't ever seem to question it.
Dissatisfaction sets in. This begins to manifest as the search for love, happiness and deeper questioning of what life is all about and who am I? This is the spark of remembering - the seeking of our original nature. This is the invitation to come home.
In fact, what you realise is that you never went anywhere and that you have always been home.
So, perhaps it's time now to look more closely, truthfully, to find out who you really are. Time to see what is real or unreal. Let's enquire right now. I invite you to look for yourself. The "me" that you identify with seems to be solid and separate. When you close your eyes, what can you really know that does not speak of memory (i.e. what you think you look like) or sensation (what you think you feel)?
The only thing you can say with absolute certainty is that sensations and thoughts happen. But from where do they arise? Where does this me reside within your physical body. Where do you find it, if at all?
Your essential nature, who you really are, is a formless, tingling, buzzing, pulsing, energetic being. It is that which cannot be named. It is the knowing that knows, before the concept of "I am". What is that?
When we embrace life we are accepting life, surrendering to life, just the way it is. We say "yes" to whatever is happening in the moment. That may include saying appropriately "no" at times. But, whatever the suchness is of the present moment, a deeper acceptance of what is has already been allowed. Everything has already been welcomed. It cannot be otherwise. It makes no difference whether you as an individual has accepted or not accepted. The deepest acceptance has already happened beyond conceptual understanding.
So, we learn to embrace our humanity, our fragility and our limitations. We grow in love and wonder and acceptance of the sheer mystery and miracle of life itself. We start to marry the paradoxical nature of our beingness with our human-ness. We open to love unconditionally, for ourselves and for others. We begin to see the perfection in everything. The story of "The cracked pot".
An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole, which she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water, at the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.
For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.
After 2 years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house."
The old woman smiled, "Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path and every day while we walk back, you water them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house."
"You are absolutely perfect, even in your imperfections"
"But," I hear you say, "life is so very painful at times, suffering is happening all over the world". And, I would say, yes, life is, no doubt, painful. Suffering does exist, but we have also discovered our sacredness, our Beingness. We have discovered that who we really are is not separate from life itself. It is the One appearing as everything. This does not mean that we do not feel pain, that we do not feel grief for a loved one, or that anger and other emotions do not arise. On the contrary, these things still happen. Pain is a sensation. Even the word sensation is just a word pointing to something arising from our Beingness.
Therefore, suffering is made out of an idea of an "I" who does not like what is happening. Without language, without words, there is only what is arising. In truth, we have no idea what that is. And, as soon as you think you know, you have got lost in thought again.
However, thought is not the enemy. There is no need to get rid of thought, you couldn't if you tried. But seeing through thought is simply seeing what is already happening. Thought simply arises in the awareness in which everything Is.
"No-where to go, nothing to do, just be"
Sit still and silently.
Don't move.
Notice what comes and goes.
Don't move.
Thought is a movement.
Notice.
Don't move.
Allow whatever comes, to be.
Don't move.
Just be.
Just be.
"It is...in self-forgetfulness that we find our true selves" Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
My experience of life is what drives me to share with others. From a very early age, I had wanted to go "home", wherever home was. It was as though a big mistake had been made and somehow I had landed on the wrong planet. I was a sensitive child and felt the interconnectedness of everything. I had many energetic experiences which opened up a search for understanding and "truth". At the time the word "truth" meant so much and carried such power, yet I had no concept of what truth was.
During my lifetime I have been married three times, have had 2 children 21 years apart from each other, and accumulated 20 years working for a major UK bank, before leaving due to ill-health (diagnosed at the time as ME/CFS). This freed me to pursue deeper questioning into the spiritual. During this time, I studied multiple natural health therapies. I was hungry for knowledge, for something. Reflexology, Kinesiology, Herbs, Nutrition, Counselling, and Healing to name a few. I also looked deeply into Buddhism, Zen and meditation, but nothing stopped the yearning and seeking for more. I was like a small child looking for something in a deep box and disregarded everything I found as not being what I was looking for.
One day I was due to attend a healing event, and I was at a cross-roads in my life. I didn't know who I was anymore and what I had to offer. Then a good friend of mine said "just be yourself, talk to them". The words seem to really spark something inside. How could I be myself?. Surely I alone wasn't enough. I had spent so many years adding to myself, improving and developing myself that I didn't know who I was anymore. Was this what I had been seeking, the truth of who I am? A few days later, I sat in a chair for most of the day, only moving to use the bathroom. I noticed after a while how quiet my mind had become and I could feel the energy vibrating. In a moment I reached for a hand-mirror close by, and, with a deep sense of peace gazed into it for a while. Words seemed to come out of no-where: "Who am I?". The response was a most thunderous vibration, and then all there was, was "Light", I was no more. The next day I went to the Healing event and shared "who am I" with others. The queues were long, something had shifted - an energetic happening that could be felt by all.
A few satsang meetings helped with understanding. Who I thought I was, the story, was falling away gradually, and continues to free-fall even deeper into the mystery of life, into the unknown. The real and the unreal were being seen through and clarity was revealing that we are all "Love's most perfect expression". We are already that which we seek. We are Free. Free to be…
Tara is a full-time mother firstly. She lives in Poole, Dorset and is the founder of Non-duality Dorset, an organisation which looks to bring like-minded individuals together in Dorset in the form of meetings and dialogues with other speakers and authors on the subject of Non-duality, Advaita, Consciousness, Beingness, Oneness and the nature of reality. She offers meetings in "Free to be…". These sharings are about the recognition of what it truly is that lives, thinks, sees, and breathes through you as an apparant character. Her sharings are direct and honest, looking to cut away the lies that bind us and open us to the truth that is ever present and has always been known. Pointing the way back home.
"Life is forever an unfolding deeper and deeper into reality, like a rosebud moving to express itself as Love"
"Only in our thoughts is there happiness and unhappiness, right and wrong, birth and death. When we stay identified with these we fail to see what is permanent - the eternal presence of our Being."
Meetings with Tara are held in a space to explore and uncover what it truly is that lives through you as an apparent character.
We sit silently in Being for a while, eyes closed or eyes open, after which there will be an opportunity for dialogues and sharing.
"For the mind to flower it has to go beyond what it knows."
Come, sit, just be.
Tara also offers Heaing by donations.
1/2 hr appointments available.
Direct, uncompromising, pointing the way back home to the truth that has always been known.
1 hr appointments available.
At the moment, appointments are only available in Poole, Dorset
If you wish to host a meeting or would like to invite Tara to an event, please contact her to discuss this (minimum of 6 people).
Find out more about Tara's calendar of events.
For more information about any of the sessions mentioned, please contact Tara by email or telephone 01202 604340.
Please note: these meetings are not a place to argue your point. It is not a therapy or discussion group. But, it can be a place to fully "feel" and "explore" feelings and emotions which may arise. All are welcome.
"True healing happens when the real and the unreal are seen through..."
Meetings with Tara are held in a space to explore and uncover who you really are.
Wednesday 29th February 2012
7:15pm -
Verwood Positive Living Group.
For more information visit the Verwood Positive Living website.
Monday 26th March 2012
7pm -
Bournemouth Positive Living Group.
For more information visit the Bournemouth Positive Living website.
Saturday 31st March
and Sunday 1st April 2012
Find me at the Tibetan Healing Weekend, Wessex Hotel, Westcliffe, BH2 5EU.
You can email Tara by completing the following form. All fields marked * are required fields.
Our thanks go to Formnut.com for the use of their on-line email processing.