Jeff Foster

[adept]

I was going to put up this thread in the Vedanta subforum, but maybe it doesn't belong in there.

 

Recently I've come across the work of Jeff Foster. Very refreshing and extremely appealing.

Here's a little post of his:

 

THE ALTAR

 

You will lose everything. Your money, your power, your fame, your success, perhaps even your memories. Your looks will go. Loved ones will die. Your body will fall apart. Everything that seems permanent is impermanent and will be smashed. Experience will gradually, or not so gradually, strip away everything that it can strip away. Waking up means facing this reality with open eyes and no longer turning away.

 

But right now, we stand on sacred and holy ground, for that which will be lost has not yet been lost, and realising this is the key to unspeakable joy. Whoever or whatever is in your life right now has not yet been taken away from you. This may sound trivial, obvious, like nothing, but really it is the key to everything, the why and how and wherefore of existence. Impermanence has already rendered everything and everyone around you so deeply holy and significant and worthy of your heartbreaking gratitude.

 

Loss has already transfigured your life into an altar.

 

 

A message from Jeff :

 

It is wonderful and heartening to hear that all over the world, in all kinds of ways, all kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds are maturing like fine wines, going beyond the "I'm enlightened and you're not" spirituality, the-blind-worship-of-the-guru spirituality, the "there's nobody here and nobody there and I'm not a person and there is no choice and no free will and everything is a concept .... and that is the Only Truth!" spirituality, and discovering a spirituality beyond all second-hand concepts, beyond all fixed positions and regurgitated beliefs and theories, a spirituality that involves fearless first-hand looking beyond assumptions, rigorous questioning of all that we hold dear, and a constant and timeless return to the Home that we never left, the Home of Now and always-is and always-has-been. A revolution indeed. This is a real-time spirituality for the times we are living in. And the times they are a-changin'. Yet in the midst of the most tumultuous change, we are forever called to that which never changes and cannot change...

 

This is a spirituality that does not separate itself from something that is not 'spiritual'. It has no enemies, sees no 'other'. Can we still call it "spirituality", then, when all boundaries have fallen away? Let us call it Life, and let us Live it.

 

Who lives it? That is the thrilling pathless journey, the never-ending question with no answer, grounded in an ever-present discovery of a fresh new moment beyond time.

 

Welcome to the adventure once again, my friends!

Edited January 15, 2013 by adept

[adept]

More from Jeff:

 

 

 

WORKING IT OUT

 

Face it. Your life is never going to work out.

 

Hallelujah.

 

That is, the story of your life is always going to be imperfect. That's the nature of story - always incomplete, always searching for a conclusion, always bound to time and change. In the movie of your life, thing won't always go according to plan. People won't always understand you. They will mishear, misquote, and misrepresent you. They will form their own idea and opinion of you, no matter how clearly you try to represent yourself. Your success can turn to failure. Your wealth can turn to poverty. The ones you love can leave you. Problems that get fixed can lead to new problems. No matter how much you have, you can have more, or lose more. It's never going to work out in the story of "my life".

 

And even if it does work out, whatever that means to you, you will still be here, in this moment, now. This is the only place where things can 'work out', if they ever do. And in fact, things have already worked out, beyond the story. For in this moment, there is no goal, no image of perfection, no comparison, no 'should' or 'should not', and the thoughts, sensations, feelings, sounds and smells appearing right now are entirely appropriate, wonderfully fitting, beautifully timely, and totally welcome, for this moment in the movie. Without a script, how can this moment be wrong? Without a plan, how can life not go according to plan?

 

Realising that your life is never going to work out, and that it cannot ever work out, and that it isn't supposed to work out, is the greatest relief, and brings the greatest ease, drawing you deeply into the sacredness of things as they actually are. Your life may be an imperfect mess, but it is an imperfect mess that is perfectly divine - a work of sacred art, even if you forget that sometimes. Humiliation turns to humility in the space of just a heartbeat, and all that's left is to fall on your knees with gratitude for what is given, and what has not yet been taken away.

Edited January 15, 2013 by adept

[MERCELESS ONE]

not everyone will under stand this one, but i love it!

[GrandmasterP]

http://www.gururatings.org/?p=4832

 

Jeff Foster is taking Tony Parson's message to a new generation and as Tony eases off Jeff is doing more.

Jeff rates 8.5 out of 10 on Sarlos guru rating service and that's voted on by consumers.

That's a pretty high satisfaction rating.

Jeff does puppetry too I see .

Anyone who does puppetry is OK in my books.

Tony Parsons links are on Jeff's website or you can find Tony's 'Open Secret' book as a free pdf here....

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Open-Secret-by-Tony-Parson.pdf

Edited January 16, 2013 by GrandmasterP

[adept]

http://www.embracedbylife.com/welcome/

[adept]

http://www.gururatings.org/?p=4832

 

Jeff Foster is taking Tony Parson's message to a new generation and as Tony eases off Jeff is doing more.

Jeff rates 8.5 out of 10 on Sarlos guru rating service and that's voted on by consumers.

That's a pretty high satisfaction rating.

Jeff does puppetry too I see .

Anyone who does puppetry is OK in my books.

Tony Parsons links are on Jeff's website or you can find Tony's 'Open Secret' book as a free pdf here....

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Open-Secret-by-Tony-Parson.pdf

 

Nice stuff GMP.

[adept]

"Next time waves of sadness, or fear, or anger, or boredom, drop by for tea, drop the description "sadness" or "fear" or "anger" or "boredom", and directly feel the raw, unfiltered, mysterious and completely innocent bodily sensations, in the stomach, chest and neck. Meet the vibrantly alive, unnameable energy that is here, without judgement or resistance. And if judgement and resistance

do appear, meet them without judgement or resistance too.

Notice that ALL is welcome in the vast open space that you are..."

- Jeff Foster

[adept]

AN EXTRAORDINARY ABSENCE

A love letter from life to itself

How wonderful it is
to have no idea
what is going to happen.
To let life surprise you.
To wake up every morning
like a newborn baby,
the past wiped clean,
the future a mystery.
To know that everything will happen
exactly as it should.
To know that there is nothing higher,
more spiritual, more noble,
than getting out of bed,
brushing your teeth,
putting on your clothes,
walking out into the fresh air.
To understand that there is nothing to understand.
To live every day, every hour, every moment
knowing that it is your last day, your last hour, your last moment.
And to know that the last day is also the first,
And each final moment a new beginning.
To see presence in each and every little thing.
To see death not as the enemy
but as profound rest for the weary traveller.
To look out at the world and see only a love with no name
reflecting back at you.

- Jeff Foster

[lifeforce]

Just found this thread. I find Jeff Foster very zen-like, without the religious trappings.

 

 

ENLIGHTENMENT IS NOT A DESTINATION

(AND IT'S NOT PERSONAL)

 

There is no fixed path to enlightenment. Enlightenment is not a goal. It is not the resting place at the end of a long journey. That is the minds version of enlightenment.

 

Enlightenment is simply the en-lightening, the lighting-up, of where you are right now.

 

This is very good news. It means that nobody is the authority on your path no teacher, no guru, no religious leader. It means that nobody can tell you the right way for you. It means that you cannot go wrong, even if you think youve gone wrong. It means that nothing that happens can ever lead you off the path, for the path IS whatever happens, without exception. Nothing can take you away from the miracle of life, or bring you closer to it for that matter, since the miracle is all around, already shining brightly, as every thought, sensation, image, feeling, smell, sound, and as the deeper miracle of the one who is aware of all of this, the one who shines.

 

Be the awareness, shining on the moment, whatever its contents. Doubt, fear, sadness, anger, intense confusion maybe, just maybe, these are neither enemies nor "blocks to enlightenment", but expressions of a deeper intelligence, the same incomprehensibly vast and awake intelligence that gives birth to stars and moves the ocean tides and sends each and every living thing off on its paradoxical journey towards its own Being.

 

Come out of the story of time and space and progress towards a future goal, and trust a sacred moment. Take any moment. Any moment at all. This moment. For any moment is the access point.

 

There are never any blocks only access points.

 

You are not some separate entity on a long journey towards a future completion. You are pure poetry.

 

- Jeff Foster

[C T]

Seeking guidance from a lineage or being tutored by a master is by no means allowing oneself to be 'trapped'. That sort of allusion by people like Jeff is rather misleading.

Edited January 20, 2015 by C T

[3bob]

it's always going to "work out" perfectly, although it may not seem that way via attachment. Also, we had help making attachments and we will need help making un-attachments, thus eggs can fly but only after the bird hatch's out...deny not the nest tenders.

[FmAm]

 

AN EXTRAORDINARY ABSENCE

A love letter from life to itself

How wonderful it is

to have no idea

what is going to happen.

To let life surprise you.

To wake up every morning

like a newborn baby,

the past wiped clean,

the future a mystery.

To know that everything will happen

exactly as it should.

[...]

- Jeff Foster

That's just the problem with the practical and reality-affirming approach Foster is taking on spirituality.

 

Who's going to tell to a newborn baby that it wakes up; that something happens; that there's past, present or future; that there's a mystery or that he/she is someone? These kind of things are non-existent to a newborn baby.

 

I have to add that there's many things I like about Foster's writings. Compassion is one of them.

Edited January 20, 2015 by FmAm

[doc benway]

Seeking guidance from a lineage or being tutored by a master is by no means allowing oneself to be 'trapped'. That sort of allusion by people like Jeff is rather misleading.

 

I've read one or two of Jeff's books. He has a fairly clear style and seems to have had direct contact with non-dual experience.

 

I agree with CT's criticism.

Some people need guidance and some don't. Some flourish in one style of teaching and others need something different.

I advocate embracing whatever works for the individual rather than casting aspersions at a long standing and proven system like Jeff does in that first quote.

 

If you like his work, you may also want to look at Steven Harrison's books - I particularly like "The Question to Life's Answers" and his book on education, "The Happy Child."

 

In general, I think that the Non-Dual teachers like Harrison and Foster are particularly attractive to folks who prefer a secular approach. The main problem I have with them is that they tend to simply present their view of non-dual experience and that's that. If you get it, wonderful, if not, is there anything there to try and help that process? I haven't seen much of that. What about what to do with our lives to further deepen and stabilize that non-dual awakening and what to do with it? I haven't seen too much in that area either.

 

For me, the approach that he criticizes above, that of working directly with a guru (spiritual friend) and credible lineage, is much more rich and comprehensive. These old traditions are full of practices that can help guide us in the right direction and they can give us a lot of support and guidance in terms of what to do with and in life after awakening occurs. It's more than just chopping wood, IMO... But that's just my personal bias. I support whatever works for any given individual.