Vincent Flammini

Awareness is present when the "me-sense" is present. Awareness is present when the "me-sense' is not present. Awareness is present when the sense of "beingness" is present. Awareness is present when the sense of "beingness" is not present. Awareness is present when there is a sense of "knowing." Awareness is present when there is no sense of "knowing." Awareness is not dependent upon anything. Everything is dependent upon Awareness. Awarenesseverything. Read Full Story

What you are is always before anything and everything that you notice, including the noticing. Read Full Story

Wherever you are right now, reading this, stop. What do you notice? Sounds, sights, sensations, smells...allow them all. What notices? Thoughts probably stumble through that say "I do" or "me" or "my brain" or "my senses" or something similar. What notices those thoughts? Welcome home to the place you never left. Read Full Story

Being what you really are is not difficult. Being what you are not and then arguing for or against it is what is difficult. Notice that right now, if you just rest and welcome everything (really - everything - including your rejection of anything), there is nothing else that needs to be done in order for Isness to Is (so to speak!). It is only a thought which says "I'm not getting it," or "I am missing something." Even these thoughts are Isness taking shape as particular thoughts. Isness is... Read Full Story

Even though Awareness cannot be "experienced," this doesn't mean that Awareness-Being is somehow separate from  all of the stuff of life . On the contrary, life is  Awareness/Beingness itself. Absolutely everything is known in, by, and as Awareness. Nothing is separate from this Everyday Awareness present here-now... It is never anywhere other than here. A line from the Heart Sutra says that "form is nothing other than emptiness and emptiness nothing other than form." It is only thought that... Read Full Story

What you are can never be experienced. Looking for a particular experience as confirmation of what you are - whether peace or love or anger or irritation or rain or cold wind or sand between your toes or terror or calm or equanimity or hunger or sublime spiritual visions - takes you in the wrong direction and will keep you searching forever. Searching, finding, celebrating, losing, and grieving - only to begin searching again and again -  is  samsara/suffering. No experience is what you are... Read Full Story

Questioner: I keep trying to rest, but my mind just keeps going. Another teacher told me that this pointer to just rest will lead me astray. I'm afraid I'm not getting it. Vince: Look, everyone who is talking about this stuff has his/her own way of trying to help people see what they have seen. I found, in my own seeking, that "trying" really got in the way of simply stopping and seeing what is ALREADY true - that the SEEING/AWARENESS is absolutely, totally, 100 percent, always functioning... Read Full Story

Once upon a time a lovely and unremarkable spider, Theo (not poisonous, not mean-spirited, just your typical fly- and gnat-eating spider), sat in his web, thinking. Theo thought about lots of things, but mostly Theo thought about spider enlightenment. He had read many books written by other wise spiders who had realized their true nature. In the spider world, this is called "living from the center of your web." Nearly all of the books Theo read (and he read a lot because of his multiple... Read Full Story

Allow. If there was only one word to use as a pointer, this would be a pretty good one...Allow. Allow whatever is happening right now. Right now! Really. Don't make this an intellectual exercise or, if you are, allow that. See whatever it is that is registering in sight and allow. Hear whatever sounds are present right now and allow. Smell whatever odors are present right now and allow. Taste whatever flavors are present right now and allow. Feel whatever sensations are present right now and... Read Full Story

I've mentioned before in other posts that all that is ever really experienced is thinking and sensation. No matter what it looks like, everything that we are ever experiencing is thought and sensation. The combination of these two elements is what we sometimes refer to as emotion (with sincere thanks to zen teacher Joko Beck for pointing this out to me). All else is a story. The story is our interpretation of any particular configuration of thought and sensation. Most of the time, we get into... Read Full Story