“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” – John: 1:14-28 

Going to the gym daily 5 days per week, for the last 4 years and I could not help but notice that very few people that I came across looked alive. 

And I mean FULLY ALIVE. 

I would sit there and question it feeling dumbfounded wondering why aren’t these people full of LIFE!? 

And that was until…

I had awakened

Awakened to what? 

To life itself. 

I had been previously caught in a dream of experiences that were coming and going and hadn’t even realized it. 

It may sound philosophical, deep even, but no! 

NO! 

It’s not some philosophy about what life, existence is, it’s simply about knowing life immediately and directly. 

It’s not about sounding deep and all knowing even…

It’s about waking up that essence in you that is so FULL of life it is beyond your wildest imagination. 

Your true essence which closer than your breath & closer than your senses. 

But even then it’s not quite right to say that’s it’s close because it’s without distance. 

Let’s discuss the senses, see, taste, touch, smell and hear. 

All of these feel real, don’t they? 

You know seeing is real, because of its immediacy… 

You know taste is real, because of its immediacy… 

Put something in your mouth and you can taste the texture, whether it’s sweet, or bitter, sour or unfamiliar… 

You know when you touch something you can feel the directness of it… 

You know you can smell something right now, or if you tried…

And your ears are always picking up on sounds, just see if you can hear something right now, no matter what it is… 

And yet!

These are not the things that tell you that you’re alive, these senses are not the things that GIVE you life. 

There is something even closer than these senses. But the question is, can something be close to you, if it is without distance? 

The question would be no. 

Close is used to describe something that can be measured in terms of distance or finite, but because your true essence, your absolute nature is without distance it cannot be close at all, because it is infinite, and infinity is immeasurable. 

The assumption that your senses are what is telling you that you’re alive is what is bringing stress, anxiety, depression, tension and all these are forms of suffering in various degrees.

Let’s hear what the Buddha had to say on this…

“All is burning. And what is all that is burning?

“The eye is burning, forms are burning, eye-consciousness is burning, eye-contact is burning, also whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact for its indispensable condition, that too is burning. Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion. I say it is burning with birth, aging and death, with sorrows, with lamentations, with pains, with griefs, with despairs.

“The ear is burning, sounds are burning…

“The nose is burning, odors are burning…

“The tongue is burning, flavors are burning…

“The body is burning, tangibles are burning…

“The mind is burning, ideas are burning, mind-consciousness is burning, mind-contact is burning.” 

So on and so forth. 

Do you know why you like to watch TV? 

It’s not only because it’s enjoyable or pleasurable. Even deeper its that your physical senses have grown accustomed to the sensory input. 

Same with almost anything you do. 

Check your mobile device. 

Check your social platforms. 

The foods you eat. 

The music you listen to. 

The things you look at. 

Your senses have grown accustomed to these things via your culture, your heritage, upbringing, conditioning, influence and anything that affects biology. 

Many external/physical influences from outside of you have molded & sculpted your senses, your mind, your beliefs, perspectives, outlooks, all of the different organs in the body and everything in between. 

You may say that you’re your own thinker, and that you think for yourself. Relatively speaking yes, because it is impossible not to think for yourself. 

Absolutely?

No. 

Because the fact that you think you have a self, it is already an error in human consciousness. 

Your brain, nervous system and every cell of your body have no choice but to intake information every single second of your physical existence. 

And all of this information is planting and embedding inside of your body, even though your body is cycling through this information. 

Your body cannot reject 100% of the information that is flowing through it. And this information is affecting the way that you think, feel and behave. 

That’s why to many McDonald’s tastes SO GOOD even though it’s terrible for your body. And pick any fast food you like, doesn’t matter 😉

And I mean absolutely POISON.

Poison is NOT supposed to taste good…

…Unless your senses have grown accustomed to those types of ingredients. 

So when Buddha or Buddhist text say that your senses are burning…

…see, taste, touch, smell, hear are burning…

…they are saying that your senses have grown accustomed to certain external poisons. 

The poisons though are the least of your worries when it comes to the knowing yourself as total, unshakeable and unbelievable aliveness. 

It’s that you don’t know your true essence, as one with consciousness and beyond all belief. 

How do I know that consciousness is not a belief? 

Not some air fairy, abstract non existent entity? 

How else would you know that you’re alive if it were not for being conscious? 

If you were to ask everyone of those people that walk around trapped in thought, experience, sensory perception if they are alive or not they would say of course!

I know I am alive because oxygen is pumping through my veins, my heart is beating and if you were to hook me up to a heart rate monitor it would show clear signs of life. 

My concern regarding human suffering is not that you are alive. 

It’s whether you know that, prior to everything they learned. 

It’s like a new born baby coming out of the womb. Asking that baby if they know they are alive would make zero difference for the fact that not only do they KNOW they are alive, THAT’S ALL THEY KNOW. 

A New Born baby only has pure consciousness, and nothing but consciousness because they have yet for a single thought, their sensory perception has yet to be clouded by worldly conditioning. 

This knowing of being alive is also known as formless awareness, or formlessness. 

This formlessness is not an idea. It’s not a belief, it’s the… 

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“The deepest sense of knowing that you’re alive.” – Bentinho Massaro

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Without even thinking about it. 

And it’s not that you have it, it’s that of your true essence, your true identity and is immediately available at all times.

As in the book The Power of Now, it’s hereness, nowness, isness and an immediacy that cannot be gained…

…is too close to acquire and yet cannot be lost. 

But remember we are talking about what you can sense beyond the senses, so it’s not about what you think about it. 

You don’t need to think to see. 

You don’t need to think to hear.

You don’t need to think to feel. 

You don’t need to think to taste. 

You don’t need to think to smell. 

All of these senses are happening without your thought input. 

So this formlessness, this formless awareness does not require you to think, and in fact it’s quite the opposite. 

Not opposite in terms of opposition or aversion, but opposite in terms of A.) you being here and B.) being lost in time.

You being here and knowing the present moment on a cellular, biological level. 

There is a clear difference known inside all of the particles of your being between being trapped in your thoughts, and being empty of thoughts. 

Formlessness is the same thing as what Buddhist and Hindus have called Emptiness. 

When the mind is still, non moving and empty of all thought, past/future and emotion, that is of arising formlessness. 

And when that feeling arises, it hits you like a lightning strike full of grace and love. 

That formless emptiness is also known as Self-realization. 

Know the true ‘i’ that is forever, timelessly watching all coming and going phenomena. 

UG Krishnamurti says…

“The so-called self-realization is the discovery for yourself and by yourself that there is no self to discover. That will be a very shocking thing because it’s going to blast every nerve, every cell, even the cells in the marrow of your bones.” 

And that’s what Nirvana is. 

A sense of being alive, that’s closer to you than having been born. 

A sense of being alive, that’s closer to you, then the ability to touch death, or anywhere close to it.

A sense of being alive, where you know longer question whether infinity/eternity is real or not, because the aliveness I’m referring to IS eternal/infinity itself. 

Not only is this feeling infinitely closer to you than your senses, it ignites unbelievable life into everyone of your senses. 

It liberates each and everyone of them. 

When you have fully grounded into formless awareness, EVERYTHING you look at…

Shines brighter than the sun! 

Glistens brighter than the brightest full moon in the darkest night.

Sparkles brighter than the speed of light! 

And Glows with pure radiancy. 

You won’t have any question that you’re free. You will no longer question what it means to be fulfilled. 

How do you achieve this?

Well it must be clear, that you cannot achieve this. 

How can you achieve what you already are? 

And with that being said, you’re just simply realizing what you already were, are and will be.

Not about a new identity but the transcendence of any identity, and in NO WAY in opposition to your self-image. 

Meditation is a perfect place to start, provided you don’t turn to achieving/acquiring into a goal to achieve in some kind of euphoric type promise land future.

There must be some desire to be free, but that desire will eventually burn out as freedom becomes the direct knowing of the entire universe. 

In Buddhism they discuss about Absorptions. 

When you think about what it means to be absorbed logically, it means to take in or soak up. 

You have the 8 stages of Jhana or meditative absorption. And in basic terms it just means the deeper you ground your awareness of this moment into and throughout the body. 

The deeper your awareness of consciousness and you…

“Abide in the self.” – Ramana Maharshi 

The deeper your meditative absorption. 

The paradox again is that meditation can become too much of a fixation if it becomes an object of your awareness, or an object of what you think about.

Formlessness is without thoughts, objects, experience or anything coming and going. 

Consider meditation not as something that you do, but rather as the assassination of ALL doing, thinking, needing and craving. 

You will use meditation just as you use a spoon to stir your tea, but you discard the spoon when you’re ready to take a direct drink. 

So back to why people are not alive. 

They are not full of life because they have yet to find that deepest sense of being alive. 

Each and every thought is dead by itself. It’s only alive because of consciousness. 

Each and every experience is dead by itself, but it’s only alive because of consciousness. 

Thoughts, emotions, feelings have no life of their own but the life that consciousness breathes through them.

You are this life, so don’t let life pass you by not recognizing it.