Beloved Students:

May you be filled with goodness and wisdom as you take inspiration from Earth in Her consistent movements, particularly at Her seasonal turning points. May the seasonal movement now occurring fill you with wonder, bliss and an abundance of profound blessings!

As you consider the world in which you are currently living, it is quite tempting to view it through eyes of pessimism, great doubt – perhaps even some cynicism or judgmental obsession. Even knowing there are other ways to see what is currently arising for consideration, the apparent heaviness of the time can feel quite real, quite oppressive. Facing such, it is often difficult to avoid one of two general tendencies: one is to become depressed, the other is to go into a state of dense denial. Clearly, both options leave out something desirable in the final analysis.

While you may understand that the world as you see it arises based on your own projections, when the collective projections arise with much heaviness and profound density, it can be a considerable task to remain centered in that understanding. In other words, you may experience a split between what you know and what you feel, which usually has a way of stimulating some interesting projections – sometimes in spite of your best efforts.

Clearly, this is a time for managing the projections of mind, both at the individual and at the collective levels. While there are a number of ways to go about doing this, perhaps the most direct manner is to begin seeing the entire Earth experience with what we could call “fresh eyes”. The idea would be to bring forth, or put on, your “Buddha eyes.” By this, I mean that you develop the ability to see in the way the Buddha saw.

What this actually requires is cultivating a new way of seeing. Each one of you has it within her/him to see as a Buddha. Were that not so, we would have to assert that your potential for realizing enlightenment would be nil. However, since each of you is literally encoded with Buddha nature, or Buddha mind, you also have a clear potential for seeing with Buddha eyes. As many of you are learning (some in profound ways), the whole experience lies in the seeing/perceiving of it.

Indeed, every experience you have has some enlightenment quotient, or potential, built right into the experience. This is true with all your relational interactions, all your creative moments, all those points where you are simply observing the conventional reality unfolding before you. You are co-Creators in training, and as you behold the universe before you, so it appears.

For many, this idea seems too “far out” to be taken seriously. Yet, as you deeply investigate the nature of reality, there will come a moment when perhaps in a flash of intuitive insight, you see profoundly differently than you now see. That is not to say there is anything wrong with the way you see at the present time. It would be more accurate to say that your present seeing is still incomplete. As in the case of a newborn, your eyes see without clear definition. A bit more time (or energetic nurturing) is needed for the clear vision of mature eyes to become stabilized.

The point I am trying to stress here is that it is time to take seriously the recognition that this may be the lifetime you planned to realize your enlightenment. I know that setting this kind of goal for yourself is likely to bring up some form of ego resistance (whether it takes the “But, I can't” form, or the “How grandiose!” form), but if not in this life, then when will you “take the plunge” into your Buddhahood? What could I say, as your teacher, that would facilitate you and strengthen your confidence that you, like those before you, can truly awaken to your true nature? I see your precious radiance shining through all those doubts, fears, points of perceived exhaustion and the other little tactics your ego uses to slow down the process of your attaining your ultimate bliss.

I would love to give each of you the gift of seeing yourself through my eyes. Then, you would not only see your true nature and that of everything else in the phenomenal world, but you would also see the “great cloud of witnesses” (to borrow the words of St. Paul) who love you, and are actively engaged in giving you support from the spiritual plane. You can draw not only on their love and support, but on the energy released by all those who have, before you, attained liberation from their suffering. It is my hope that you can know and understand how much is actually available to aid you in the journey. Indeed, there is much more available to aid you than to deter you! In truth, the only thing that prevents or holds back your progress is the ego. This is why it works so hard to keep those mental projections flowing. As long as you avail yourself of its little con games, enlightenment seems very far away.

This is why it is so important to cultivate a new way of seeing. The Buddha eyes are focused outward, searching to see the Pure Land, knowing that it is arising in virtually every moment, and all you need do is see it. The eyes of the ego, however, are perpetually focused inward on itself, declaring there is no Pure Land, and that even if there were, you would not be able to see it anyway. How powerful the ego seems! Of course, this is an area wherein the ego has learned to use a single-pointed focus! It is the same manner in which Essence sees, the difference lying in what is seen.

You must challenge everything that arises in your awareness: your perceptions and beliefs about others; your perceptions regarding the situations that present in each and every moment; your interpretations of the words and actions of others. All of the perceptual areas wherein you experience your mind moving are areas for scrutiny and challenge. This you do, of course, with good-natured curiosity, and a touch of humor. After all, the movement of the mind can often be marvelously strange and quite funny. Your seeing it as such (in appropriate situations) can help loosen the ego's preoccupation with itself. By the way, humor is a natural antidote for the poison of blame.

When you finish reading this lesson, I would like to encourage you to sit down with a pen and paper and make a list of all the things you find undesirable about yourself, or the areas in which you find you still have ground to cover to attain your liberation. Then, when you have them well in mind, look through your Buddha eyes – those precious eyes of compassion and understanding. Notice if your sense of yourself or the characteristics you listed appear different when seen through Buddha eyes than when you listed them as you looked through ego eyes. Just notice. Then, bring to mind a person with whom you have some irresolution (the particular type of irresolution is completely unimportant). Then, view the person and the situational energy that exists between you with your Buddha eyes. Just notice if looking in this way changes the view of the relational landscape. Likely, it will. Then ask yourself, “Who is really seeing this situation?” Try to have a sense of the difference in the view from Buddha eyes than that from ego eyes. Without comparing them, or finding one better or worse than the other, just notice the difference. See the difference in neutrality, then decide which way of seeing facilitates growth and liberation for both you and the other.

Remember this exercise in seeing, and simply let yourself apply it in arising moments wherein you feel that old “emotional juice.” It really matters not whether the “juice” is the kind you like to drink (i.e., pleasant emotions), or that which leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. Try to see the whole matter with Buddha eyes and with ego eyes, harvesting the results in neutrality and grace.

Please join me this month in listening to A Precious Life, a lecture I created for you this month. I am hopeful it will stimulate each of you to stretch to new heights in directing your creative seeing, or act of perception, and that it will ultimately point the way to freedom from your personal areas of suffering. As you likely know, some people suffer more through remembering their past, wishing they could somehow make it different than they have perceived it to have been. Others suffer more through having a gloomy focus on the future; while still others can never be satisfied with the present moment. Give yourself a deeper understanding of how your mind suffers, and vow to liberate it now.

Your Loving Teacher,
Djwhal Khul