Teachings

The following dialogue is excerpted from Tuesday and Friday Evening Talks with Nick Gancitano in his South Florida home. These sessions are mostly available to those who have completed the Discovering Self-Inquiry Workshop. Nick recommends that attendees enroll in the Discovering Self-Inquiry Workshop to receive comprehensive understanding of the necessary spiritual principles that allow them to comprehend the messages delivered during the Talks.

Surrender to God. That is knowing All Is Consciousness and that All is Just Happening according to the will of God. If All Is Consciousness, then the ‘All’ must be Do-ing it All: thinking, acting, feeling, experiencing pleasure, suffering and even getting enlightened. It is simple, if the One Consciousness is everywhere, then everywhere must be doing everything.

How can I end identification with the body?

Recognize You are not a person, but formless awareness.

What is meditation?

Meditation is effortless witnessing. Open your eyes. Notice that seeing is occurring without effort. When I say it is occurring, I mean it is happening without effort. You do not need to try to see. Eyes open will do. And you cannot stop seeing either, because it is not up to you. If your eyes are open, seeing is inevitable. Awareness is constantly happening. Awareness permeates the “I am this body” idea and the surrounding environment. Awareness is always there, even when you are not trying to be aware of an object, because you cannot turn off awareness. Even if you try to stop seeing what is before you, you cannot. Even if your eyes close, you will go on seeing darkness on the inside of your eyelids.

Witness as seeing occurs. Witness as listening happens. Close your eyes and listen to the sounds surrounding you. You are not inviting sounds in, yet they are there and your consciousness is filled by them. There is nothing you can do, but watch them enter you. Even earplugs will not work, because you go on hearing the sounds in your head: tasting, chewing, swallowing, talking. You are helpless. They penetrate you and you can feel them through your entire Being. When you are seeing or listening, you do so with your whole Being. When you experience, you experience with your full awareness. Try only to realize that IT is all happening effortlessly. Realize you are the awareness, that you are not separate from IT. Relax into this happening and all effort disappears. This is meditation.

When seeking ends, you become liquid and the whole universe flows in you. Then the I, or pure unconditioned consciousness, is all there is. It is immovable, still. This motionless I-consciousness is the screen through which the mind’s drama unfolds. The world of things is a vapor in that consciousness, which feels steady as a boulder. This effortless witnessing is meditation, it is God. It is You. You are a nothing pretending you are something.

So then effortlessness is witnessing?

True. With meditation you are not doing anything. Not even actively witnessing, because it is passive. It is unavoidable because you are awareness witnessing itself. As such, you’re never actually doing anything, including meditation.

Then what is Self-Inquiry?

It is the sense of Being, knowing what always Is.

I don’t know what you mean by sense of Being.

Imagine being in a dark room, where you cannot even see your hand in front of your face. Someone outside the room yells, “Who’s in there?” You feel ‘I am’ as opposed to ‘I am-not.’ Once aware of this ‘I am,’ remain aware of that awareness for a moment. Consider it for a moment. There is nothing else between That which is aware and that which I am aware of. This is Being.

What do you mean when you say only Self-Inquiry leads to Self-Realization?

You have misunderstood. I do not say Self-Inquiry is the only way, but the most direct. If “I” am always here, then it is the only logical focus for attention if one wishes to find what is eternal, and thereby eliminate effort. All effort eventually leads to “I” by default, so why not begin there?

What is necessary for enlightenment?

To know that nothing is necessary and that you are already what you are looking for. This, or find the indivisible “I.” Then there will be a shift resulting from one or more of the following realizations: either disidentification with the personal “Story,” that is the composite self-image; the realization that no-path can ever lead to enlightenment and that all paths ultimately fail; and/or the development of a comprehensive understanding of the illusory nature of form. Ultimately, it is finding That which has always been here, dismissing all you see and turning toward that which sees, yet cannot be seen. Until this occurs, mind externalizes and Self cannot be realized, thus the enlightenment of who You are cannot be acknowledged.

What exactly is enlightenment?

Enlightenment cannot be described, yet it can be known when consciousness realizes It is not a person, and that You exist without other.

But how can I apply that to my life?

What life? Have you thoroughly investigated it? When You are still, You realize that life happens in You, not to You. What’s more, the you that is asking is not applying or doing anything.

Will I know it when I get enlightened?

You cannot get enlightened, because the ‘you’ that wants enlightenment is the obstacle. The idea of a person being enlightened is a contradiction. It negates the very definition of enlightenment. Enlightenment is an impersonal happening, not a personal achievement resulting from effort. How can an individual get enlightened if there is no such thing as an individual? Just know you’re perfect as you are and that all that happens is supposed to. This is surrendering to life, which is God.

You say we’re perfect, but if everyone is perfect or enlightened, why answer our questions?

No individual exists. Consciousness asks a question and the same consciousness answers it. They are the One appearing as two.

When you speak to us, to whom are you speaking?

To That which you are asking.