Right Here, Right Now & Buckaroo Banzai
Aja: So imagine for a moment, that you have heard about this great place, Puddletown, and it sounds like a really great place, where everyone is happy and peaceful, and blissful, and there's no problems there. Puddletown is the place to be. It's filled with people and everything is wonderful. So what's the first thing you do? What would you do?
Student: Be skeptical.
Aja: Be skeptical? Good! What else would you do?
Student: Find out what they're eating.
Aja: Find out what they're eating? Okay. Well, that wasn't exactly where I was going, but along those lines. But yes, you'd start studying it, researching it, finding out what you could about it. Now, as you did that you'd start finding out a lot about Puddletown and you would start to believe in this place called Puddletown. You'd even know their diet. You'd probably start eating like a Puddletonian. Then you start trying to figure out how to get there. But the problem is that the information you'd find would disagree with other information you'd find. Some information would say you take a plane, some that you would take a bus, and you'd never quite get clear on how to get there or where it is. Some would say it's over here and others that it is over there. They'd say that it looks like this or it looks like that. All you know is that it sounds like a really great place and you want to get there, but you don't have any clue how to get there.
And then one day, someone comes along and says, "Puddletown. That's just another name for Portland. You're in Portland!" And you say, "What? No." And your skepticism arises again and you think it couldn't possibly be the same because you're in it and you're miserable. Now what do you do? What happens then? You continue studying and researching and you start to believe that Portland and Puddletown are the same thing. But so deeply entrenched that you're in Portland and NOT Puddletown, you have no idea of how to erase that. And that's exactly what has to be done.
It's the same thing here. Enlightenment, Nirvana is nothing other than what's present right now. What's standing in the way is this deeply entrenched viewpoint that there's somewhere else to go. And most of this has been foisted upon us by this idea that there's someplace to get to, and that there's any problem with what's just here right now, by all the cultural and other blockages that keep you from totally experiencing what's right here and right now, totally allowing us to be who we are. It tells us that we should be all these other things.
The bottom line is that there is no place to get to other than what's here, and it's all about the removing all of the ideas that think this is not perfection right now - that this is not it: removing divisiveness, removing divisions of inside and outside, the difference between spiritual life and material life. But there is no spiritual life and material life. It's all just life. It's all just Presence. You can call it anything you want. You can call it all God, it's all freedom, it's all the Absolute, it's all Consciousness, it's all awareness, it's all power, it's all heart, it's all love. It's all of those things and a million more, and none of them. But THIS is it. This is it, and as long as you are looking for something else, you will absolutely never find it. Because it's not something to be found. Right?
To what extent can you recognize, right now, this is it...I am it? I am that Buddhahood, that Godhood that I am looking for. How many times do you have to be told, "You're it, you're what you are looking for. You're what you are seeking?" What is so hard to believe about that? Just recognize who you are and recognize that you are that which you are looking for. Stop looking and ask, "Okay, Who is looking?" Right now, you're looking at me. Now be the looker. Just switch and ask, "Who is it that is looking out these eyes? Who is the presence that is here? "Hello! Who's home?" So as you simply sit and ask, you recognize, 'This is Me here.' And in this 'Me' there is a body and thoughts, there's a world, there's vision. If I close my eyes, do I go away? Have I gotten bigger or littler? And then you open your eyes and see, "Okay, I didn't go anywhere." Who wrote that line, "Wherever you go there you are?"
Student: Buckaroo Banzai.
Aja: All right, Buckaroo. What more enlightened statement can you make? "Wherever you go, there you are." So what I want you to consider and examine is, what is it that stands in the way of this recognition? Or, what is it that isn't right about it that makes something else evidently more appealing? Or what are the doubts, what are the divisions, what is it that is arising in the moment that makes you say, "No, this isn't it"?
Student: So that's not just a rhetorical question?
Aja: No. That's not a rhetorical question.
Student: Be skeptical.
Aja: Be skeptical? Good! What else would you do?
Student: Find out what they're eating.
Aja: Find out what they're eating? Okay. Well, that wasn't exactly where I was going, but along those lines. But yes, you'd start studying it, researching it, finding out what you could about it. Now, as you did that you'd start finding out a lot about Puddletown and you would start to believe in this place called Puddletown. You'd even know their diet. You'd probably start eating like a Puddletonian. Then you start trying to figure out how to get there. But the problem is that the information you'd find would disagree with other information you'd find. Some information would say you take a plane, some that you would take a bus, and you'd never quite get clear on how to get there or where it is. Some would say it's over here and others that it is over there. They'd say that it looks like this or it looks like that. All you know is that it sounds like a really great place and you want to get there, but you don't have any clue how to get there.
And then one day, someone comes along and says, "Puddletown. That's just another name for Portland. You're in Portland!" And you say, "What? No." And your skepticism arises again and you think it couldn't possibly be the same because you're in it and you're miserable. Now what do you do? What happens then? You continue studying and researching and you start to believe that Portland and Puddletown are the same thing. But so deeply entrenched that you're in Portland and NOT Puddletown, you have no idea of how to erase that. And that's exactly what has to be done.
It's the same thing here. Enlightenment, Nirvana is nothing other than what's present right now. What's standing in the way is this deeply entrenched viewpoint that there's somewhere else to go. And most of this has been foisted upon us by this idea that there's someplace to get to, and that there's any problem with what's just here right now, by all the cultural and other blockages that keep you from totally experiencing what's right here and right now, totally allowing us to be who we are. It tells us that we should be all these other things.
The bottom line is that there is no place to get to other than what's here, and it's all about the removing all of the ideas that think this is not perfection right now - that this is not it: removing divisiveness, removing divisions of inside and outside, the difference between spiritual life and material life. But there is no spiritual life and material life. It's all just life. It's all just Presence. You can call it anything you want. You can call it all God, it's all freedom, it's all the Absolute, it's all Consciousness, it's all awareness, it's all power, it's all heart, it's all love. It's all of those things and a million more, and none of them. But THIS is it. This is it, and as long as you are looking for something else, you will absolutely never find it. Because it's not something to be found. Right?
To what extent can you recognize, right now, this is it...I am it? I am that Buddhahood, that Godhood that I am looking for. How many times do you have to be told, "You're it, you're what you are looking for. You're what you are seeking?" What is so hard to believe about that? Just recognize who you are and recognize that you are that which you are looking for. Stop looking and ask, "Okay, Who is looking?" Right now, you're looking at me. Now be the looker. Just switch and ask, "Who is it that is looking out these eyes? Who is the presence that is here? "Hello! Who's home?" So as you simply sit and ask, you recognize, 'This is Me here.' And in this 'Me' there is a body and thoughts, there's a world, there's vision. If I close my eyes, do I go away? Have I gotten bigger or littler? And then you open your eyes and see, "Okay, I didn't go anywhere." Who wrote that line, "Wherever you go there you are?"
Student: Buckaroo Banzai.
Aja: All right, Buckaroo. What more enlightened statement can you make? "Wherever you go, there you are." So what I want you to consider and examine is, what is it that stands in the way of this recognition? Or, what is it that isn't right about it that makes something else evidently more appealing? Or what are the doubts, what are the divisions, what is it that is arising in the moment that makes you say, "No, this isn't it"?
Student: So that's not just a rhetorical question?
Aja: No. That's not a rhetorical question.