Quit Remembering the False and Truth Will Naturally Reveal Itself

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]Awakening is not a complicated thing.

[00:00:04]It gets over complicated by the mind.

[00:00:07]And it's not that that's what prevents awakening, that over complicated mind making awakening into something it's not, which is thought.

[00:00:16]But it's a distraction. It's enough of a distraction that you can kind of do it on and on for years.

[00:00:22]Thinking about awakening.

[00:00:24]Thinking about all the practices, being confused.

[00:00:28]Or telling yourself you're confused.

[00:00:31]Um that's just the complexity of thought.

[00:00:34]Now this confusion part's funny, right?

[00:00:35]You might say, "Well, I am confused. How can you tell me that I think I'm confused?"

[00:00:40]And I will tell you, if you feel confused about awakening, then you are thinking you're confused.

[00:00:46]You You have a belief that you're confused about it. Do you see?

[00:00:50]That relationship between what you take yourself to be and thought itself, that's just a distraction.

[00:00:58]This is why when I point, what I'm really pointing you to is your own sort of spiritual autonomy.

[00:01:05]I'm pointing you to a possibility that all of those thoughts are just nonsense. Those thoughts that I don't get it or it's not for me or maybe it'll come later or how do I do it? How do I cause it? Which technique is right?

[00:01:18]Even those though that like technique thoughts like, "Oh, is it this or is it that?" I get a lot of those. Should I do it this way? Should I do it that way?

[00:01:24]Understand those thoughts are kind of laden with doubt.

[00:01:27]It feels like doubt when you think that.

[00:01:29]When you identify with that thought.

[00:01:31]And the the cosmic joke of this is when you stop identifying from those thoughts that say, "I'm confused. I don't know the way. I can't figure it out. This is too complicated. It takes a long time."

[00:01:41]Comparing different approaches you've heard other people talk about with awakening.

[00:01:45]When you stop entertaining all those thoughts, I'm not going to say when you stop doing those things cuz you're not actually doing anything. You're just transfixed in thoughts.

[00:01:53]When you stop doing all that, you realize, "Oh [ __ ] I can actually question the belief that I am confused.

[00:02:00]Question the belief directly without replacing with another one or analyzing.

[00:02:04]Or I'm not awake. Or I don't get this.

[00:02:08]What if none of that shit's true?

[00:02:11]What if none of it's true?

[00:02:13]None of the things you think about awakening or you having trouble with awakening or figuring it out or getting close or getting being far. Like what if all of that is just not true?

[00:02:24]It's not pointing to awakening.

[00:02:27]And it's not even pointing to you.

[00:02:29]It's not your actual experience.

[00:02:31]It's a It's a part of your experience.

[00:02:32]It's the thought part that's kind of reflective and um it's reflective and it's fractionated.

[00:02:44]So, it's as if you look into a mirror and then the reflection in the mirror holds up a mirror and then the reflection reflects the reflection reflects the reflection and then it just kind of goes off and does its own thing and it's totally missing the point of what's actually happening, right? That's kind of what the mind does. It's like thought reflecting thought reflecting thought. And it it feels after a while like you're stuck in that.

[00:03:04]Like there's a you in there trying to figure all that out, but that's not how this is. That's what what do you wake up to is realizing that whole thing is wrong.

[00:03:11]And what's funny is when you wake up it's it's so crystal clear that you don't need any label or description.

[00:03:17]And what's funny is the descriptions people give can even sound contradictory. Some people wake up and it's like oh, I am.

[00:03:24]I am sense is all there is. It's just It's just I am.

[00:03:27]There's no thoughts to confirm it. There's no need for thought. There's no separate I really. It's just It's just a pure experience of I am. Other people will will realize suddenly oh, there's no there's no me.

[00:03:41]Right? What they're really realizing is the In both cases that the thoughts you were taking yourself to be are just thoughts. They're totally inaccurate.

[00:03:48]Inaccurate in the sense they're not pointing to something. They're not pointing to something real. They're not pointing to something actual.

[00:03:54]And seeing that is the shift. That is the awakening. But again, the label that gets put on it later by thought, by the mind, can be confusing or paradoxical to people who haven't had the shift. But understand, those are still labels.

[00:04:08]Anything I say about what happens after awakening or what it is is is our labels. It's just that I use the language in a way to kind of help turn you back to your instinctual recognition or your instinctual experience that is not relegated to thoughts, not as is not bound by thoughts, is not concerned [snorts] with thoughts, etc. So, let me read a comment somebody left, and I'm going to talk a little bit about this. And this comment is kind of what made me think about this.

[00:04:36]Um this comment is from the one of my recent favorite names, The Grim Reaper.

[00:04:42]Um it says, "It's funny and annoying how one can have the knowing of something from the beginning. Right? This is what I'm saying. It's the knowing is already there.

[00:04:53]But it's not a intellectual knowing, yeah. So, they can have the knowing from the beginning, yet it doesn't uh make sense until way later.

[00:05:02]Such is the case with me. I literally said to myself, 'You [ __ ] idiot' after watching this, lol. The video is called The One-Pointed Approach, and that's kind of where I'm going with this video.

[00:05:12]Um it's my video, The One-Pointed Approach to Awakening, The End of Self-Deception. So, check it out if you're interested in The One-Pointed Approach or seeing the massive simplicity of this and of awakening and why this complexity of mind and thought and story and all of it is just it's just not what it is. It's not it.

[00:05:30]So, it's a it's just a reflection reflecting a reflection.

[00:05:34]This person goes on to say, "Uh I'm pretty casual now in my approach to awakening, mainly sticking to Mine and Todd Pernell's channels.

[00:05:44]Uh I heard you mention that the one-pointed approach many ti- or many times, but I never really gave it any thought until I watched this video.

[00:05:53]It just popped up on my feed. And I can see I definitely misunderstood it.

[00:05:59]I think people do misunderstand the one-pointed approach, but again it's because it's going through the filter of thought. And it's like you're turning it into something that it's not. Um but that's just how it goes as you're kind of approaching awakening. The thoughts will keep trying to construct some reality out of whatever you're hearing and perceiving, even though what's being said is actually not to do that. It's I'm not pointing to that, but that's what the mind does with it for a while until it you start to actually get a glimpse and taste of what is not that.

[00:06:28]It's not that tendency of mind.

[00:06:31]Uh last part of it says, "I wish I would have just sorted uh started with this approach because I definitely went through the mental challenge like many others, and this could have saved me so much heartache.

[00:06:45]I see that I've been trying to understand awakening from way too many different angles at once.

[00:06:52]When what I needed was a more simplified pointed approach based on my own learning style that I've had since childhood.

[00:07:02]I totally see why this approach works for people who are mentally maxed out or overly analytical like me. That's that's the That's the point of it, right? That's the point of the one-pointed approach is like you're narrowing your attention down at first. It's not always narrow attention, but I'll start with by saying narrowing attention down with a kind of laser focus so that the mind just doesn't have any business there. It doesn't get anything to hold on to.

[00:07:29]So in Zen, the first koan that's given, the break through koan or the most common one is mu. What is mu?

[00:07:35]Starts with what is mu, and then the instruction over time becomes just mu.

[00:07:40]There's nothing to think about with just mu. If you think about that, that's not moo, right? And the And essentially the teacher will say, "Come back to moo."

[00:07:49]Bring me moo.

[00:07:50]Right? And you just become one-pointed, you become concentrated in the in moo.

[00:07:54]And moo You could say I'm It's not exactly right, but you could say moo is a kind of symbolic catalyst for re- realization, for awakening. But, that's just putting it in a way that's a little digestible.

[00:08:07]Ultimately, you're just merging with moo.

[00:08:10]Or seeing that it is just moo. That That At some point, that becomes very clear.

[00:08:14]And it is quite possible to do this, to break through this way. Now, the one caveat I will give to this one-pointed approach Also, it doesn't have to be moo. The one-pointed approach can be recognizing just this.

[00:08:28]And then no thought could say a damn thing about this.

[00:08:33]No thought.

[00:08:34]It's just this.

[00:08:36]Right?

[00:08:37]Not even this, just So, it's kind of unifying the mind into a kind of a sort of concentration, but it's really a as an I talk about my book, it's a relaxed alertness, where you're totally alert to whether a thought arises or not.

[00:08:56]And you're alert to alertness itself, alert to just being right now.

[00:09:01]Nothing mystical, nothing spiritual, nothing to figure out.

[00:09:04]Everyone's doing it already. You're already alert and awake.

[00:09:07]So, you're you're alert to the alertness, alert to the awakeness in a simple, pure way. And then just kind of relaxing into it, but not relaxing so much that you start identifying with thoughts again.

[00:09:18]So, it's a it's a little bit of a a dance at first. You Your body might actually tense up. You might find your face, you know, tensing up or your jaw or But, just notice that's happening, relax the body. You don't need tension to do this. And then just stay in that one point.

[00:09:34]I could call it a gap.

[00:09:36]I could say don't grab the next thought.

[00:09:40]I could say no thought is going to define this because it can't obviously.

[00:09:44]Any thought about awakening, about you, about process, about technique here is equally useless. They're all just thoughts.

[00:09:52]So, stay here.

[00:09:54]By the way, this exact approach face-to-face with somebody at the retreat last week or whatever it was, um had an awakening. It this happened three times at the retreat in in a very simple way of pointing um that I was doing face-to-face with somebody.

[00:10:09]Uh and they had awakenings. And it's again, it's not complicated. And and pretty much every time what I was showing them is how not complicated it is. And and just encouraging them with a kind of like precision of interaction of seeing what is tend their tendency is, whether it's to tense up or um or get lost in thought or get entangled in in fear, and then that turns into thought. But I just kept redirecting back to this one point. This right now point. It's the only point.

[00:10:38]There is only one point. And just be redirecting that again and again, at some point this kind of reset happens.

[00:10:45]The reset happens because I could say it's because you forget the complexity of the illusory self and all the stories and all the narratives, but it's actually what happens is you stop remembering long enough.

[00:10:56]Because the what thought is doing is constantly trying to remember as if you're holding together reality by thinking about it, by imagining it, or you're controlling awakened this by imagining what it is or thinking about it or figuring out how to get to it.

[00:11:09]That's all nonsense. It's just thought, right?

[00:11:13]So, that's a but it's a continuous remembering type of activity in thought.

[00:11:17]Like it's almost like if you just don't grab the next thought, you won't know where to go and you know, what'll happen and it's like yeah, exactly.

[00:11:23]Exactly. That's the fear. Feel the fear, stay.

[00:11:29]See what happens. But see what happens without anticipation, without thinking about it, without trying to control your experience through thought.

[00:11:35]And you'll realize all of those thoughts are a kind of remembering of the false.

[00:11:41]And what happens is when you stop remembering the false, what is revealed, right?

[00:11:48]That's it. Stop remembering the false through thought.

[00:11:52]And the real will inevitably reveal itself. It has to.

[00:11:57]It's shining in your face right now.

[00:11:59]It's glaring at you. It's glaring at you. It's right there. It's everything.

[00:12:03]But again, we keep remember we keep remembering the false through thought. That's it. So, the one-pointed approach is saying, "Don't don't do that kind of remembering. Don't grab the thought.

[00:12:17]Don't get entangled. Stay here. One point. Just here. Just now.

[00:12:22]Just moo, if you will.

[00:12:25]And then stay with it.

[00:12:27]Regardless of if your body starts to feel a fear response, it will. And then it'll And then it'll subside. You can just stay with it either way.

[00:12:34]The thoughts will get scarier when you start to feel fear, and then see, "Oh, those are just as meaningless as any other thought."

[00:12:40]Just feel it.

[00:12:42]The fear reaction will subside.

[00:12:45]Just stay here. Stay in this gap.

[00:12:47]That's the one-pointed approach.