#robert adams

[zanephillips]

Forbidden Letters (1979) dir. Arthur J. Bressan Jr.

[pierppasolini]

Passing Strangers (1974) // dir. Arthur J. Bressan, Jr.

[ko-existing]

Saying "anything is possible" is an understatement.

by Being_is_IT / Twitter

Q: Because it is dream-like, anything is possible. So there’s no actual problems, right?

A: Yes, anything or any situation is possible. There is no actual restriction or limit. But it seems to the Mind that there are full of restrictions and limits. Yes, no actual problems, but just like in a dream, there seems to be full of problems. This is the magic that only SELF can appreciate. Saying "anything is possible" is an understatement.

Human language can't describe this magic. It's infinitely more magical than you can ever imagine. It is so magical that it can appear to have no magic. It's so magical that insubstantiality can appear substantial.

It's so magical that space-less and timeless can appear as space and time. It's so magical that absolute perfection can appear as if it is imperfect. That's how magic works. The Mind complains that there is no freedom.

But this is exactly how unconditional freedom appears to be. So, "feeling in bondage" is indeed an illusion projected by the Mind. The Mind complains that everything is hard and solid and there are so many hardships to overcome in life. Although such feelings of hardships may appear to be very obvious, it is an illusion projected by the Mind. This is exactly how the magic functions, illusions always appear very real.

Otherwise, illusion won't be illusion. If you don't get what I am talking about, just remind yourself how real a dream plotline feels until it pops. Through continuous noticing, your innate sensitivity will automatically increase, there will come a moment you will discover this magic while the current plotline seemingly continuing to proceed.

[hellwatermelon]

Robert Adams

[lotusmi]

[casadabiqueira]

Summer Nights

Walking series

Robert Adams

[joeinct]

Eden. Photo by Robert Adams, 1968

[4dkellysworld]

Some suggested practices or experiments from Robert Adams

Be totally silent for a day - Do you think you can do it? Just for one day, tomorrow, be silent. Do not say a word to anybody. Try to spend that day by yourself if you can. If you have to go to work for a living, if you have to go to work, be silent in your mind. Now here's how you work this: if you have to talk to your employees or your employer, talk to them but shut it out of your mind. Do not entertain what you say. Get rid of it immediately after you finished. If you talk about a work problem, resolve the problem and then go back to silence. In other words do not carry it with you. Do not carry it with you at all.

Sit in silence as much as possible for a week - Isn't it better just to sit still at home in the silence and stop the mind from thinking? That's the easiest way, it's the best way, it's the simplest way. If you don't believe me, try it. Try it for a week and see what happens. For one week I would like you to experiment. I don't want you to read any book. Think you can do it? Don't look at any spiritual literature. Just sit by yourself as much as you can. And watch your mind, watch your mind. Do whatever you have to do to slow down your mind and then you're going to be amazed. You will laugh at yourself. For when the mind becomes quiescent, reality will rush in. And you'll see it's so simple, it’s so simple. Why didn't I know this all the time? I used to believe by reading volume after volume I'll become enlightened. But it was so easy, I just had to quiet my mind.

Identify as I-AM as you wake up - If you ask yourself when you go to sleep, you tell yourself, "Tomorrow morning as soon as I open my eyes I am going to identify with my source, I-am," and you will, even if for a second, it will change your life. First thing when you open your eyes, ask yourself. “Who am I?” Just put this question and see what will happen to you. You'll feel something different. But you'll have to do it every morning. Just try it and see what happens. You'll see Oneness. Keep asking yourself, “Who am I? Who am I?” when you first get up. As you keep on doing this every morning, every morning, every morning, the time between your awakening and the thought coming to you will become larger that space will expand, and expand, and expand until you are able to stay in the awareness. Of course at that time there will no longer be a "you". There will only be the awareness. Try it, you have to investigate. You have to intelligently dive deep within yourself and find the source of your I.

I-AM meditation for one day - You relax your body and you inhale and you say "I," and you exhale and you say "am, I-am". You can do this while you're waking, while you're walking, while you're washing dishes, while you're resting. What it does is it makes your mind one pointed, so it'll stop thinking. If you can practice I-am for one day, just one day, all of your troubles will be transcended. You will feel happiness you've never felt before. You will feel a peace that you never even knew existed. As you keep practicing I-am, your thoughts will become less and less. Your personal self will go into the background and you will begin to feel an inner joy, an inner bliss. You will begin to feel that it no longer matters what I am going through. It makes no difference, because it is God who is going through this, not me. And God has no problems. You automatically become happy, just by using the I-am meditation.

Love your Self every day - Begin to love your Self. I know that's really hard for some of you to do. To really love your Self, to love the Self which is really you. Try standing in front of the mirror and giving love to yourself. Some of you will not be able to do this. I'll bet there are people here who look in the mirror and they don't even want to look at themselves. They can't look at themselves for a whole minute in the mirror. Try it and you'll see what I mean. For when you look in the mirror, see God, not the physical appearance. See light shining from you, see bliss, see pure awareness, see total emptiness, see your Self. Begin to practice this exercise. Looking in the mirror, begin for maybe a minute, then you go on to two minutes, three minutes, four minutes, five minutes. Look at yourself. Admit the truth to yourself. "I am Brahman. I am the ultimate reality. I am boundless space. I am the atman, the perfect intelligence, the one without the other, all-pervading, perfect self." What if you told yourself this everyday? What do you think would happen? If you looked in the mirror and did this every day, you would turn into the God that you are. And you will find peace, total peace, total love.

Keep your mind on God all day - You will not think about your work or the food that you're going to eat during the day or what you're going to wear. But try to keep your mind clear, free. But you will watch yourself. You will see that you get up out of bed. You put on the right clothes. You eat your breakfast like you're supposed to. You go out into the world and do whatever you're supposed to do. But you're not part of it anymore, mentally. Your mind is on God. Your mind is on the absolute reality. Your mind is on perfection. Your mind is still and quiet. Yet you will continue to do what you have to do. You will no longer have to watch the clock or watch space and time. Leave everything alone and everything will happen by itself in a beautiful way. Try it.

Surrender completely - Perfect surrender is when you give up everything, everything to God including your body. Do what you want with me. Do what you want with my body, with my mind, with my affairs, with everything. Not my will but thine. If you can surrender like this you're already free. Try it, it's hard, because you're afraid what will happen after you do that. You believe everything will be taken away from you. This is human thinking. Stop being human. Surrender yourself and become totally free.

Be with your Sage all day long - When you're home, where you're working, think of the Sage. When you think of the sage's form, the sage's name, things will begin to happen to you. Find peace. Try it. Then you will be with the Sage continuously. Whenever you think of a living Sage, the Sage becomes part of your heart, it’s the complete heart and you feel the love of the Sage within you. So if you think of the Sage, the Sage will think of you. Whatever you think about, that you become ultimately. So you have to be very careful what you think about. Whatever you think about, you become. Think of the Sage, you become the Sage.

[entheognosis]

The problem is not with the thoughts that come to you but with your holding on to those thoughts. Giving them energy, giving them power. For only you can give them power. They have no power on their own. They cannot hurt you by themselves. Only you give them power by allowing the thoughts to control you, by looking at the thoughts and fearing or reacting to them. That's where all the trouble begins.

Robert Adams

[mountain-sage]

[thephotoregistry]

Lakewood, Colorado, 1973

Robert Adams

[vesora]

[pierppasolini]

Passing Strangers (1974) // dir. Arthur J. Bressan, Jr.

[ko-existing]

You guys would say that physical and imagination are just illusory, or collapse the duality when you imagine something, then you instantly experience. It is no more different than remembering that my phone is charging <- or me imagining that experience... That they are the same and illusory, but the thing is, this is a tangible experience and it does not make sense that I imagined it, there I experience it.

"both" “physical” experiences and “imaginative” experiences are simply appearances within "Awareness". Both arise in the same way, within the same "Awareness". Whether "you" "remember" something, "imagine" something, or "experience" it “physically,” it all shows up within "Awareness", and this is what gives them their apparent reality.

Think about it like this:

the seeming "act of remembering" your phone charging and the act of looking at your phone charging are both experienced through & within "Awareness". The content of these experiences may seem different—one might feel more “tangible” and the other more “mental”—but they are both appearing within the same "Awareness". The effect of the mind categorizes one as “real” and the other as “imagined,” yet they’re ultimately the same in the sense that both are experiences happening within "Awareness" and as it.

Regarding tangibility: when we perceive something as “tangible” or “solid,” that sensation itself is still a perception in "Awareness". The feeling of tangibility is just another experience arising within "Awareness"—you think it feels real, yes, but “real” here simply means that it’s an experience happening in this moment. Whether it’s a thought, a memory, or the feeling of holding your phone, all of these are just different effects or expressions of the same "Awareness".

The confusion often comes when we try to understand this with the effect of mind alone, which insists on splitting experiences into “real” and “imagined.” However, when we’re talking about "Awareness", it’s not so much about erasing those differences on a practical level but about seeing that all experiences—whether physical or imagined—are equally just "experiences".

So, in the non-dual perspective, both the "memory" of your phone charging and holding it are simply appearances within "Awareness". They seem different because they have different qualities, but they’re fundamentally made of the same "Awareness". Recognizing this doesn’t deny the feeling of tangibility; it simply points out that tangibility itself is another experience arising within "Awareness".

In other words, "Awareness" doesn’t distinguish between “real” or “imagined.” It’s thoughts that categorize, while "Awareness" remains that, in which all of it—“tangible” or “illusory”—arises and dissolves.

[agelessphotography]

Longmont, Colorado, Robert Adams, circa 1980

[ndbookstudy]

robert adams, silence of the heart, ch. spiritual practise, pg. 104

some questions for you:

do you have to think?

have you ever wondered where the voice in your head comes from? how it formed? why it's there?

the thoughts just come up, who says you have to identify with them? do you have to claim any thought as 'yours'?