Excerpt from "A Guide To Awareness and Tranquillity"

by William Samuel

LETTERS TO ONE JUST BEGINNING THIS STUDY

Dear David,

We "begin" with this now-awareness, but the beginning must be a new and genuine redetermination of Isness. We start from scratch, but this is not being done until our previous beliefs, ideas and cherished opinions are loosed and let go. The practice of humanity, the intellectual temptation, is to carry them with us to see if our new discoveries coincide with our old ideas.

No, we let go everything and start again like new babes, with the first and basic fact about which there is no uncertainty—the isness of this present now-awareness. All else must go. Without regard or regret, without fear or consternation, we stand in a void, naked, childlike, innocent. As this now-awareness, empty of the ego, we open our eyes and awaken!

David replies, "This sounds as if I will lose my identity. I certainly don't want to do that. As a matter of fact, I am searching for identity."

Dear David,

When we begin with Awareness we find we lose nothing that is real, most certainly not the Identity. Rather, we let go the notions of an identity we have never been. We lose the unhappiness, loneliness, lack, poor health and fear inevitably associated with a misidentification called "the old man," his intellect, his cherished common sense and his high opinions of himself.

So, we shuck the old ideas and let them go, David. We bring attention back to this real and present fact of Awareness. Awareness is a fact; we know it; we are it; nothing is outside of it. Here, we discover the true Identity!

When one looks at the television and sees things on the screen, he is not tempted to believe the screen is in one place and images in another. He knows they are one television screen. Exactly so, awareness and the images of perception are all one Awareness.

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WHEN WE KNOW, WE KNOW!

There are no words we can read that will convince us of the allness of this now-consciousness; there is no one to whom we may listen or talk who can do more than persuade us intellectually. We know—and we know, we know—only when we find it and feel it within the Heart.

Reader, this will happen for you much sooner than you expect. Your "awakening" is inevitable, irresistible and certain, because the fact is—as you shall see and have been told many times—you are not sleeping to be awakened now. Despite the appearances on the world's stage, you are already all you could ever hope to become. You are already in the Father's house. The nearly unanimous pronouncements of classical theology and education to the contrary, your real Identity is neither sinful nor fallen; you are not a prodigal acting the profligate and wandering in the pigsties of a far country. The Identity you are this instant is Harmony's Now-Awareness being aware. Our heritage, effortless and divine, is to acknowledge this fact!

Right now, bring yourself from an over-concern with things within Awareness to Awareness itself. Here you will find that all bodies, all images, and everything Awareness includes, are aspects of your own Identity! Here you will find that you are happiness, completeness and joy itself.

A BIT OF ZENNESS

I saw a little boy looking at a tray of donuts in the bakery window. His eyes sparkled and his thoughts were an excitement that moved his lips to half-spoken words.

I saw an old man looking into a cake box at a gift. His eyes sparkled and his thoughts were an excitement that brought a smile to his face.

I looked into a mirror on the wall and saw a little boy and an old man watching me. They heard me wondering to myself, "How strange that I should see their images in the mirror instead of my own."

But then, it isn't strange really. The Isness being the cake and the tray of donuts is the same Isness being the little boy, the old man and the mirror on the wall. Is not the Awareness of them all, the selfsame Identity being me?

A LETTER ABOUT READING BOOKS

Dear Mary,

With whatever I find myself reading—just as you now find yourself reading this letter—I have found it wise to be very, very wary! Why? Because our old arrogant, egotistical nature seeks out sustaining agreement with itself and its distorted opinions. The habitual, unregenerate intellect of us all is seldom interested in aught but shoring up its forged and fraudulent foundations. When it finds a line or a paragraph that agrees with its view of Reality, it says, "Ah hah!" and underlines the words. When it finds an idea repugnant to its already established concept (usually something that tends to demean, diminish or finish the high and mighty ego), it grunts and writes "Bosh!" in the margin. How often we are amused by these notations at a later reading!

When a book is successfully communicating, one may not be as impressed with the same words at the end as at the beginning. Insights are nearly always expanded upon re-reading, and very often the boshes of the first reading begin to make sense with the second.

With kindest regards,

P.S. Mary, no two artists paint the sunshine alike, but it's the same sunshine. Take the words of this book and substitute your own familiar expressions for my unfamiliar ones. It will not be long until you grow into the spirit of the new work and find yourself quite certain of its message.

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FAITH

"Faith" is the world's designation for that which operates between the intellectual acceptance of Truth and the Heart's declaration that says "It is so!" The Singing Heart speaks such that we know "without mental reservation or equivocation"; then we are enabled to act from the standpoint of knowing instead of faith. The Christ-Heart's declaration lifts faith from a concern over the accuracy of philosophies, the exactness of words or the integrity of people, to the certain knowledge of Isness itself. The Heart is the spokesman for Isness, and this Awareness we are is the faith-full witness.

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NOW IS TRANSCENDENT

Now transcends the past and the future. Why? Because now is the "time" of tangibility; now is the time of experience; now is when Awareness is concretely aware. No matter how awesome, magnificent or poignantly personal a memory may be, and no matter what it contains, the thought about it is taking place now and this makes the nowness of now transcendent. No matter what wild scheme we entertain, no matter how beautifully we construct a dream of the future, all the scheming and dreaming is taking place in the now, and this makes now transcendent, quite above and beyond time's past and future. Sharp, fearful dreams and the rough memories that appear to be their causes are smoothed by this transcendent now when we let it!

Now is the common denominator of Awareness, just as Awareness is the common denominator for all experience. The two are intertwined in such a way that they are not two at all, but an inseparable one. Because the nature of Isness is singleness rather than multiplicity, we come to equate nowness and awareness as one. Now is not a time-frame wherein experience happens. Awareness is the action of Deific Mind and, as such, is not at the mercy of past experiences. This now-awareness is in no way beholden to human chronology.

Philosophy, religion and education make an effort to understand Reality, but Reality (Deity) stands in confident selfbeing, already knowing itself. Deity's "knowing" is forever beholding, comprehending and apprehending itself as itself. Here there is no need to learn or to understand anything; here is simple, natural, normal being.

Notice the fine line here: to determine Identity, to seek Self-knowledge, to strive for information academically, esoterically or by any other means, is to be the old man still, the misidentity making the effort to understand the identity of another he calls God.

On the other hand, to rest in the infinite Self-knowledge of Being knowing I am forever beholding, knowing, comprehending and apprehending the Divine Self who is being this Consciousness, is to live the Identity I am!

This is not to say that all I am aware of is a dream; not at all. This is to be continually Self-aware. This is to joy in Spirit being all one perceives. This simple action taken marks the end of evaluation, the "last judgment." This is the Sabbatical Rest.

If you would like further guidance in understanding any of William Samuel's work based on Self discover you are welcome to contact me, Sandy Jones - samuelandfriends@gmail.com - Ojai, California -