“This Is No Movie — This Is REAL! (The Last Reel…)”

[This post’s title alludes to a favorite bit from Firesign Theatre‘s 1970 album, Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me Those Pliers. If I could find a transcript of it, I’d link thereto… but I can’t. So allow me to introduce you to the album in its entirety, above, via the magic of YouTube. I’d hate to isolate the specific location in the audio where this line occurs — thus robbing you of the full, rich, 40-some-minutes experience — so, well, just listen.]

From whiskey river:

Self help

In the middle of the night
in Sweden, in the northern part
northish, anyway,
at midsummer
there are no stars
the light shimmers when you get up
and walk through the woods
to the outhouse
shimmers. it is not

like
what you are used to, shining from
like the sun through
the trees to your eyes.
it breaks and shimmers
in all directions.
at least i am pretty sure,
i didn’t have my glasses on.

we saw two moose
a big one one evening
a little one the next evening

i sat on the porch in a lawn chair
i looked at the lake
and at the trees
eventually i noticed i was not thinking
i was a little surprised

what am i doing when i am not thinking
i am living
so i lived on the porch
for a few days.

would i recommend this?
i don’t recommend anything
anymore
you’ll figure it out

(Mig Living [source])

…and:

The moon glows the same:
It is the drifting cloud forms
Make it seem to change.

(Matsuo Basho [source])

…and (ibid.):

Awakening doesn’t mean you awaken. It means that there is only awakening. There is no “you” who is awake, there is only awakeness. As long as you identify with a “you” who is either awake or not awake, you are still dreaming. Awakening is awakening from the dream of a separate you into simply being Awakeness.

The problem is that most people are paying attention to objects, to what they perceive – rather than to the ultimate perceiver, the background. Either way, awareness is happening 100% of the time. The light is on brightly. It never goes off, but where is it looking? The human condition is characterized by a complete fascination with objects, starting with this object that we interpret as “me.” Me is only a thought. You are before this me thought.

(Adyashanti [source, source])

Not from whiskey river:

Nonreading

Bookstores don’t provide
a remote control for Proust,
you can’t switch
to a soccer match,
or a quiz show, win a Cadillac.

We live longer
but less precisely
and in shorter sentences.

We travel faster, farther, more often,
but bring back slides instead of memories.
Here I am with some guy.
There I guess that’s my ex.
Here everyone’s naked
so this must be a beach.

Seven volumes—mercy.
Couldn’t it be cut or summarized,
or better yet put into pictures.
There was that series called “The Doll,”
but my sister-in-law says that’s some other P. [*]

And by the way, who was he anyway.
They say he wrote in bed for years on end.
Page after page
at a snail’s pace.
But we’re still going in fifth gear
and, knock on wood, never better.

(Wislawa Szymborska [source])

…and:

When you contemplate the nature of Self, you are meditating. That is why meditation is the highest state. It is the return to the root of your being, the simple awareness of being aware. Once you become conscious of the consciousness itself, you attain a totally different state. You are now aware of who you are. You have become an awakened being. It’s really just the most natural thing in the world. Here I am. Here I always was. It’s like you have been on the couch watching TV, but you were so totally immersed in the show that you forgot where you were. Someone shook you, and now you’re back to the awareness that you’re sitting on the couch watching TV. Nothing else changed. You simply stopped projecting your sense of self onto that particular object of consciousness. You woke up. That is spirituality. That is the nature of Self. That is who you are.

As you pull back into the consciousness, this world ceases to be a problem. It’s just something you’re watching. It keeps changing, but there is no sense of that being a problem. The more you are willing to just let the world be something you’re aware of, the more it will let you be who you are—the awareness, the Self, the Atman, the Soul.

You realize that you’re not who you thought you were. You’re not even a human being. You just happen to be watching one.

(Michael A. Singer [source])

____________________________

* The “other P” in Szymborska’s poem refers to Polish writer Boleslaw Prus (1847-1912). His 1890 novel, The Doll, was eventually adapted both for television and for film.