Certainty is everything.

What's important isn't just what we know, it is also our degree of certainty.

For example, if someone were to say "I know that this world isn't real" He might know, but how certain is he?

I believe that this certainty is measurable. We can measure our certainty by watching the fears and desires meter. In other words, we can measure our certainty by our level of happiness, since what we really want is the desire-less state.

The Scott character will continue to be flawed. But I have zero fears about being a failure or a desire to achieve something. For a long period of time these kind of thoughts occupied space in my mind. I haven't had a whiff of a thought like this in years. I've almost forgotten that I had them at one time. If anything, I would feel just the opposite since discovering our true nature is the only real purpose in life (aside from being happy).

The point of the blog is that our certainty about the basics is everything, and our certainty about the basics has a direct inverse relationship with fears. When our certainty increases, our fears dissolve naturally. (Usually we don't even notice them disappearing until many months after they've dissolved. It was like this with my lifelong anxiety. One day I realized that I could not remember the last time I felt anxious).

Peace and happiness is just the removal of fears. If we remove fears we will automatically be in our natural state of peace. Anxiety is a fear of the future manifesting as a particular bodily sensation. It's not a good way to live life.

The basics are always about Consciousness. Is it limited? Is it real? That's it. These are the basics. What is my degree of certainty?

The other day my truth loving friend claimed to know that Consciousness is not limited. I said, "If Consciousness is not limited, then where are you now?"

What happened next was this: Her mind then starting thinking 'if Consciousness is not limited then I must somehow be everywhere'. Unfortunately, she was not able to have the kind of experience that her mind imagined. Nothing changed. Her very powerful and intelligent mind was not able to generate the experience of 'being everywhere' as it inevitably tried to do.

The problem is that my friend is trying to have the experience of Universal Consciousness with her mind. Remember, the mind can't access Consciousness.

The best the mind can do is this: Stop believing that it's limited and located in space. Just and let Consciousness do the heavy lifting. Let Consciousness know itself. Allow Consciousness the freedom to find its own way home. We just need to get out of the way.

I don't need to know where I am, I just need to know that I might not be here. Reality will do the rest. Don't worry about how it happens. It's better if we don't know.

The beauty is that we don't have to know what Universal Consciousness is!! Isn't that a relief? It is impossible for the mind to know anyway. Whatever the mind knows...it isn't worth much. Perhaps you already know too much?

I suggest spending more time getting familiar with the experience of not-knowing what I am, rather than acquiring more knowledge about Consciousness from spiritual books. Hopefully this makes sense.

I am reminded of something Francis Lucille said, "we are all perfectly equipped" to answer the most important questions and be absolutely certain. No one has better access to Consciousness than anyone else!! I am absolutely certain that I will never find any evidence that will support the belief that Consciousness is limited, as an example.

Once we take whatever pathway that brings us to the experience of pure knowing, we need to then leave the mind behind. I've tried many times to bring the mind along and celebrate the wonderful pathway that led to the amazing experience of pure Consciousness....unfortunately we have to leave behind the girl that brought us to the dance.

The pathway used by the thinking mind is a thorn used to remove the thorn of ignorance. Once the thorn of ignorance is removed, both thorns need to be thrown away.

In other words, we need to be prepared to say good-bye to the mind. Perhaps this is what is meant by the following phrase?

"At some point we need to leave our teachers behind"

-Something I think that I've heard non-dual teachers say