Pause all thought

and look in direct experience. What is here and now, and what are you? How far are you from non-conceptual presence-awareness, and where is the presumed person, with his or her need for paths, practices and purifications? Before granting the need for such things, one must first establish the presence of the defective person. If there is no person, then who are we speaking about? The problem with teachings, however grand they may be, is that in the end they are collections of concepts. The recorded teachings of the greatest teachers, such as Shankara, Buddha or whomever it may be, are nothing but words and concepts. What I am talking about is your natural state, which is here and now and not even touched by the mind. This is the beauty of the direct, non-conceptual truth of things. All the questions and problems are constructions in thought, for and about an imaginary entity whom we cannot even establish as present. That is the hitch with approaches that are dualistic and unfold in time or through a process of becoming. These approaches reaffirm the primacy of the individual, time, processes, attainments, teachers and students and so on (all of which are purely conceptual), as opposed to the ever-present, non-conceptual reality that you are.

- John Wheeler
Nonduality Highlights 3500