The Perfect Openness of Being:
What is the Perfect Openness of Being?
Openness is right here and right now within your direct experience. Let us focus today on our direct experience of openness and let us do our best to make that openness more evident and clear in our every day life.
So first of all, really ask yourself right now: What is openness to me? What does perfect openness mean to me? Can I see it? Is it something? What is openness...
Can I grasp it? Can I really say: "Hey look over there! That is openness!" ?
The reason why I love the word Openness is because we cannot turn it into a concept. The word God, the word Emptiness, the word space, all can be turned into a concept to identify awareness with. But none of out concepts contain truth directly.
The word Openness on the other hand, is in a league of its own. Try to find openness somewhere. Can you find openness? Can you bring it to me and show me Openness? No we cannot. Because everything that we can see, grasp, define, describe, conceptualize, identify with, etc, is some thing. And a thing always has a border, a boundary, limits, dimensions, a certain size or characteristics. Therefore, all that has form, including the non-conceptual state which too is an experience/form, is not openness when perceived with conventional eyes.
Every thing, has to exist in something bigger, more spacious, more open than itself, or else it would simply not be able to be. Can you see this? This is a key-point. Try to realize how everything you can perceive right now through any of your senses or state of mind, has to exist in something wider, more open than itself, or else it would not 'fit'...
Ultimately everything exists within pure openness. Now what is openness? Openness is no thing, but it is that in which all things appear...
Bentinho Massaro from x.x.x.83 left this message 50 minutes ago:
It is important to repeat this a few times for yourself and see if you can actually get a sense of what Openness implies: Openness is that in which everything appears.... Everything has to appear in something. Like planets need space to exist in, so does everything else need space to exist in. Without space, no matter, no forms. But even space, has to appear in something. It has to exist in something more open than itself. This is where we get to the openness of Being, because it is Being itself, that will show you this openness.
We cannot imagine the direct experience of openness, we can only experience it experientially, not through thinking about it. We can only recognize it through being aware of our direct experience and noticing how our every direct experience is known by something. It appears 'in front of,' or more accurately: 'within' something that knows the experience, something which sees the experience. And that something is always there. We can never find a situation, place, thing, being, experience or state of mind, that is not known by that awareness in which the situation appears as a perception or feeling. Because everything that we can conceive, is always know by us as awareness.
Ubique: how to envision this openness in oneself or other?
Alan Kroeger: Does it relate conceptually to the Observer being unable to Observe the Observer? duality or non-daulity?
Alan Kroeger: Another new word created by me daulity ;D
Michael: The word openness doesn't work for me, but that's not important. I am getting a hint of vastness, which is of course completely open.
Bentinho Massaro from x.x.x.83 left this message 45 minutes ago:
Now Awareness is not other than the experiences which occur within it. Just like planets ultimately are nothing other than space itself, so too is every form, every state of mind, every experience, wholly permeated by openness itself; pure awareness.
When we look at things, we might see a 'real' thing, we might see something solid because when we touch it, our hands, which seem to be solid as well, do not go through the other object. Everything seems to have a solid form. But this is only how forms appear to be. In actuality, there is no real substance that's individual to every form. Rather, they all arise in and as, the openness of being.
Just like dreams exist in and as pure mind alone, without any form within the dream having a separate identity or substance of its own, so too does everything else exists within the openness of awareness.
Ubique: openness can have the meaning of letting go as a way the steam or water found the opening to keep flowing
Bentinho Massaro from x.x.x.83 left this message 43 minutes ago:
@ Michael: Vastness is a word that's greatly similar in power to Openness. But vastness too often refers to a space, a 3-dimensional space in which everything occurs. While this seems to be the case, even vastness, even the limitless, 3 dimensional vastness, or space, of the entire universe, appears within the openness of Being which has no dimensions and is forever beyond time and space.
So while I have nothing against Vastness, it will be understood experientially that vastness belongs to form/experience/perceptions, while all perceptions, including that of vastness, are known within and by awareness, pure open being, the Open Ground of every perception.
Alan Kroeger: The canvas of the universe
Bentinho Massaro: Beautiful description Alan.
Ubique: vacuity is another
Bentinho Massaro: But once again, not canvas or ground as in a 3-dimensional surface, rather, openness as in being completely beyond intellectual grasping. We can never grasp openness, for all that we grasp, and the process of grasping, and the one who thinks he is grasping, all are simply known by awareness, which is the open nature I am speaking about.
Ubique: canvas like with the big picture still and definite?
Ubique: or the ever changing tapestry?
Alan Kroeger: Non dimensional
Alan Kroeger: free of attributes
Ubique: well there might be up to 14 dimension or so is the Field sure you heard
Ubique: is ? in sorry
Brigitte (Montreal): maybe we don't need to try to find a meaning to the words, because we get lost doing so...
Ubique: no dimension hum..
Alan Kroeger: Brigitte is on to something
Brigitte (Montreal): haha
Ubique: Brigitte yes but we might found something new too
Ubique: haha
Bentinho Massaro from x.x.x.83 left this message 37 minutes ago:
So in order to really experience this, we can just go through life like we normally do, but instead of emphasizing every form and structure we meet, we simply acknowledge again and again, that this appears within an openness of being, an openness of awareness. When we repeat this acknowledgment many times daily, we will come to experience the transparency and transient nature of form.
It will feel like we are simply encompassing everything within our being and all appearances are simply empty appearances of openness appearing in openness. No limits, no boundaries, no forms. The entirety of existence is experienced as simply being a dreamed 'reality' or play, within our own awareness.
No longer is there an in here or an out there, no inner and outer, simply complete unity without dimensions, constituting and including the illusion of the dimensional display of openness yet being completely beyond it.
Bentinho Massaro from x.x.x.83 left this message 32 minutes ago:
All we need to do to realize our innate, open, in-graspable nature, is to simply remind ourselves that everything we believe to be true, is already appearing in some aware openness that has no form or dimensions.
Even the very thought that we are having right now, which might be saying: "Ah I see, so that's how this works" or the thought that says: "I don't get it." Both are appearing 'in front' of you, 'within' you, in a way. So you are always there as the open, in-graspable knower of the world of experiences and perceptions.
Everything that has an end, a form, everything that is closed of, in some way, simply confirms the existence of an openness in which it is known... Because by the very fact that something exists as a form with boundaries, proves there is something comlpetely limitless and open for it to exist in. And that in which Life appears as a projection, as a perception, as an experience, is also that which knows, or is aware of, the experiences. So the Open nature of Being, has 2 inherent qualities: It is the very source onto which energy projects itself, and it is aware of all that happens within its own creation.
If you have any questions please feel free to ask.
Ubique: yes i read something that made me jump as its realization came so clear "we all share the same mind" as we all breath the same air, quite inspiring in a sense that we can recognize each other experience to be very similar only maybe at different time . that' why time is illusion also
Michael: Yes openness, I like it now. Vastness was putting me into a false state.
Bentinho Massaro: Yes Ubique, but while these things we may read are very inspiring and not bad in and of themselves, we have to remind ourselves that even this idea we have about everything in this world, for example that all minds are like one and that time does not exist... All of that, whether true or not true, only has any meaning if you return again and again to the basic space, the openness of being right here right now, in which all these world-vies present themselves.
Bentinho Massaro: Great to hear that Michael:. Because indeed, many words can become obstacles when they become conceptualized experiences. That is why we emphasize here that every experience and decision or conclusion we reach, that that very conclusion, no matter how deep or spiritual,... appears in something open and aware too! Everything we can every hold onto, be it something solid, or some mental or spiritual concept and experience, it's known by that in which is arises: Open and All-Inclusive Awareness.
Michael: Very true.
Bentinho Massaro: In knowing this, we don't have to cling to any word, concept, spiritual law, idea, world-view, experience or state of mind, because we realize that no matter how sophisticated and developed our experiences become, they have nothing of value inside of them, except the very fact that they confirm us as being the knower of them, in which they also happen to appear and of which, we will soon experience, they consist.
Bentinho Massaro: When we acknowledge that no matter what the experience or state of mind is we are searching for, it will never happen anywhere else but in our perception, within awareness. So knowing this clearly, deeply, we need not look for any experience outside what we are already. Because we know that we are always here and this awareness is forever beyond any experience or concept, since it is always the stable and open knower of all of them.
Brigitte (Montreal): so no more use of asking question
)Bentinho Massaro: And in that resting as we are, without further looking to find ourselves in an experience 'out there', we find the peace and enlightenment we were looking for in the experiences, but now we have found that openness which is beyond everything, to already be the case and to be what we truly are! We were only blindsided for some time by our own ideas, because we believed in them.
Bentinho Massaro: So we do not have to get rid of our ideas, rather, we can simply let them come and go as they please, because we know that they, just like everything else, appear within us as already established awareness.
Bentinho Massaro: Thus our perception and experience will gradually open up to that acknowledgment and so we will know our selves directly.
Alan Kroeger: Simply being
Ubique: Thanks Brigitte, but then what?
Ubique: yes being
Brigitte (Montreal): just stop feeding the mind... and the nothing
Brigitte (Montreal): and then nothing
Bentinho Massaro: But the crazy thing is, that even the experiences of peace and freedom, are secondary to the awareness which knows them. That awareness can never be defined by any experience, not even the experience of enlightenment. therefore, it is not the experiences that come from knowing thyself that are liberating, it is from knowing thyself as to be forever beyond every experience, that one starts having these experiences. But they too are nothing to cling to, for we have already found a far greater freedom that's even beyond freedom or bondage, as the ever-present knower of both of them.
Ubique: Ah now Brigitte is on something Big!
Alan Kroeger: Yes she is
Bentinho Massaro: So to rest as oneself, without seeking anything, one will naturally be reflected and shown the peaceful open nature of aware-being.
Ubique: B. god inspired tonight yeah!!!!
Bentinho Massaro: But even seeking and non-seeking are displays of and within awareness.
Bentinho Massaro: Any more questions, doubts, blind-sides?
Alan Kroeger: Uh oh laughing buddha time
Bentinho Massaro: Not yet alan, almost, but not yet!
Alan Kroeger: Were getting there ;D
Ubique: oh boy you made it quite clear thanks you for ever!!!
Ubique: Al B> means its not the end yet!
Bentinho Massaro: Well, perhaps it is the end, if none has any sharing or asking to do?
Ubique: hahaha budha time !
Alan Kroeger: Hmm "There is nothing this side of heaven or hell ubique doesn't mean" think on that line related to todays topic
Bentinho Massaro: Is everybody okay with their usernames being used in the chatlog posted on the forum?
Alan Kroeger: Feel free to use my user name
Brigitte (Montreal): yes
Ubique: today topic is openness and whatever happen in openness
Bentinho Massaro: Ok, what about you Michael?
Ubique: i don't mind B.
Michael: k
Michael: Thank you Bentinho.
Ubique: infinite gratitude
Brigitte (Montreal): Yes Thank you a lot Bentinho.
Alan Kroeger: Bye and thanks
Ubique: bye everyone and thanks....
Bentinho Massaro: Welcome people, thank you all for being here. Without you, no satsangs!
