James Wood Teachings

Inquiry is specific. You take a thought in the form of a statement and break it down into every little bit of meaning it might have. You look at every little part and ask yourself if it’s true. When you’re done, there’s nothing left. It’s reduced to ashes. Mindfulness is witnessing thoughts, feelings, and sensations nonjudgmentally. This could be formal, as in sitting, or informal, as you go about your day. These are both the same process viewed from different angles. It’s really about awareness ― becoming aware of what’s going on inside of you.

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James will be giving a talk at Three Jewels in Tucson this Wednesday, August 18th, from 7:00 – 9:00 PM. (For a complete schedule of events, please see the Calendar). Talks cover subjects essential to awakening, such as correct views, effective practices, and integration of higher consciousness with daily life. Tuition is $10. All are welcome.

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Being liberated is as if one witnesses from infinity. In the unconscious state, everything that you witness gets caught in a sense of self that’s like a knot in the bottom of a sack. It feels constricted or incomplete, vulnerable. That’s the experience of most people. As you become more conscious, you witness the objects of experience less judgmentally and this “knot” becomes more open. Objects become more unknowable and beautiful. When that happens, something in you opens and the sense of self relaxes. When awakening occurs, it relaxes completely.

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It is important not to make a problem out of existential pain. The pain of existence is an internal sense of not being enough. It feels like an ache, sadness, or depression. Most people try to alleviate this feeling through some distracting activity. It doesn’t work. The way out of existential pain is to be actively aware of it without judgment ― to say It’s okay not to be okay. It’s an allowing that doesn’t judge. It’s just open, like a pure lens that doesn’t corrupt or distort. The key is to breathe and allow ― a deep kind of intimacy where you become really still and yet profoundly active.

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You will never figure out
what awakening is.
No one ever does.
It’s impossible.
You cannot capture it.
You can only dismantle your attachments,
then Truth sees Itself everywhere.
But not until you let go
of your ideas.

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From a talk given by James in 2008

I want to talk about sanity. Somehow I feel more sane when I don’t talk about it. The silence feels really good.

I was editing some talks from the summer and I remember that someone brought up something about doing this work and having a sense of fear of letting go of the known, a sense of falling or letting go that feels like a loss, like you’re losing your mind.

It can feel that way. What really happens is you don’t lose your mind. Awakening is losing the mind’s ability to control you.

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There’s not much you can do about politicians,
corporations, media figures
lying.

The only place where you can stop all the lying
is within yourself.

If anyone tells you otherwise, they’re
lying.

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Alas, IToc — the Iamness Teachings online community — has been shut down. I pulled the plug on it last night (“Taps” plays in the background). Ning, the hosting company, was going to start charging me a significant amount for it, and I decided that this website would work just as well.

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