John Sherman Texts

A Meeting with John Sherman in Ojai, California - November 4, 2007 pm

2007 Retreat with John Sherman - Meeting # 5

Good evening, welcome back. I am happy to be here with you. Does anybody have anything to say?

Thank you. I wanted to let you know that in all of my years of seeking, I have never resonated with self-inquiry. I have been aware of it, but I have never really resonated with it, until I met you in Arizona. It was miraculous how I met you. I won't go into it, but, in any event, you inspired me to embark on the process of self-inquiry, and as a result of that process, there have been two seemingly distinctive experiences, and I am curious about the distinction between the two. The first experience is one of hereness and awareness of this body, and what is in the environment, and it is somewhat localized. But then, sometimes, subsequent to that, there is a collapsing back into another level, I guess you could say, where it feels like — and it only feels like that in retrospect, because nothing is going on during it itself; it's when the me comes back, and I review it — it is a crystal-clear, pure consciousness, with no frame of reference whatsoever, and very natural and really simple. And so I guess what I am wondering is, what are the mechanics, why does that transition happen? What is that transition? Why are there these two different experiences?

This crystal-clear consciousness without a frame of reference, is this new?

A Meeting with John Sherman in Ojai, California - November 4, 2007 am

2007 Retreat with John Sherman - Meeting # 4

Well, okay, good morning. Welcome. I am happy to be here with you. I hope everybody slept well, or if you didn't, I hope you took advantage of the opportunity.

Yesterday we talked about a lot. The main thrust of what I wanted to accomplish yesterday was to speak with you about my claim that if you want to be finished with misery and suffering in your life, if that is what you want, if you want to be finished with fear and anxiety and internal antagonism and the whole internal warfare by which we seek to fix our lives and our minds and so forth, if you want to be finished with all of that, in the end, the only way to accomplish that is to come face-to-face, nakedly, with the reality of what you are; and that the reason that that is so is because the cause of the misery and suffering is the false belief about what we are, and coming face-to-face with the reality of what we are destroys that lie, over time.

A Meeting with John Sherman in Ojai, California - November 3, 2007 pm

2007 Retreat with John Sherman - Meeting # 3

Welcome back.  Hello.

So, the first thing that has to happen in order for us actually to effectively embark upon the investigation into our nature is that we have to see what it is that is called for. This is more important than it might seem. I don't know if this is true of everybody. But I know that, in my own experience, in my own life, when I happened upon the idea of the spiritual solution, I immediately concluded that there were no experts and that I could figure this out for myself. And what I mean by that is that since what we are talking about is the reality of things, and they all say that we are that, the only one who could possibly concoct a method whereby I could weave myself through the traps, and the thoughts, and the stupidity, and the conflicting desires, and so forth, was me. And furthermore, this would be really easy. How hard could it be? This would be really easy. I just dive right in and there I am.

It turns out that it is not so easy as it sounds at first. There are definite steps. I haven't spoken about this ever before, so I am having a little bit of difficulty speaking about it now.

A Meeting with John Sherman in Ojai, California - November 3, 2007 am

2007 Retreat with John Sherman - Meeting # 2

Okay, good morning. Welcome back, I'm glad to see you. I hope everybody slept. I hope everybody is rested and comfortable.

I want to review a little bit of what I was trying to get across last night. You know, I get a little giddy on the first meeting of a retreat, when we're all here in the same room together for the first time, and since I have a tendency to like to talk anyway, I kind of blabber on a lot.

But there are a couple of things I was saying last night that I really think are important to see. I don't think these things are necessary in the sense that if you don't see them or understand them or get them, you're doomed to a life of misery and suffering, but I do think that there are a couple of things which, if you at least are willing to entertain the possibility that they are true, can make it easier for you.

A Meeting with John Sherman in Ojai, California - November 2, 2007

2007 Retreat with John Sherman - Meeting # 1

Here we are. I'm not going to take up a lot of your time this evening. I know that some of you have driven for a long way today and some of you probably even haven't gotten to your motels yet, so I'm not going to take up a lot of your time tonight. I want to welcome you to this retreat. I want to tell you how grateful I am that you're here. You 0know, I'm a little uncertain of this because I don't always have that really good a grasp on the details of things as they're presented to me, but my understanding is that we have quite a diverse group here. We have people who have been with us for a long time, many years, and we have people who have never been in a meeting with us before, all gathered together for these next four or five days, these next eight or ten meetings, in a circumstance that's pretty intense and pretty focused. I can't wait to see how it turns out. I'm happy you're here, I'm grateful for your presence here. I'm grateful for your attention and your willingness to listen and your willingness to argue with me.

A Meeting with John Sherman in Ojai, California - July 20, 2008 (Part 2)

Afternoon Workshop with John Sherman - Meeting # 2

There are certain characteristics that are spoken of as the characteristics of the awake mind, or the realized mind, or whatever other really sweet expression we use to describe what we imagine we want to get. These are characteristics such as non-attachment, quietude, peace, and the awareness of the oneness of all being. Of course, we hear about these things, especially the awareness of the oneness of all being, and we imagine them to be characteristics that we are lacking and need to have in order to qualify as being awake or at peace. But these characteristics are the actual case, they are our actual nature. The awareness of the oneness of all being is our nature; we are never unaware of that.

A Meeting with John Sherman in Ojai, California - July 20, 2008 (Part 1)

Afternoon Workshop with John Sherman - Meeting # 1

Welcome. I am tickled pink to see you all here, and to be here with you. I see this is really quite a magnificent gathering here. We have people here who have been with me for a very long time and people who have never seen me before. That's good.

Even if you've been with me for a very long time, or if you've listened to podcasts, seen video clips or read things on the web pertaining to what I have to say, I ask you now to forget about all of that. Let's see if we can start from scratch. There are a couple of reasons for that. Firstly, it's always good to start from scratch, because that's where we are. We are just here. And secondly, although I have to say that I see things very clearly, my ability to communicate what I see and to offer it to you changes over time. Frankly, I think I get better at it, but that's for others to judge. So, let's start from scratch. Let's pretend we have never seen one another, even those of us who have seen each other, and go from there.

A Worldwide Meeting with John Sherman March 15, 2008

Welcome, I am happy to be here with all of you. One of the things I want to talk about today is the role of words, understanding and speech in the consideration of reality and the possibility of the realization of freedom, and actually the role of words and ideas and understandings in the whole arena of what we call self-realization. When I first heard the term “self-realization,” I remember I thought it was a lot better than “enlightenment.” I liked it a lot better, it seemed to have a more esoteric, and highfalutin sound to it, it seemed to have an aura of special knowledge to it. Therefore, I invested that word with a kind of magical component, which of course is what we always do with words anyway. We have this inclination, that comes God knows from where, to think of words as the gateway to understanding and clarity and, in the spiritual arena, the gateway to self-realization, a state we imagine to be outside of and apart from normal human experience and normal human state — at least that was the case with me.

A Worldwide Meeting with John Sherman - November 1, 2008

Here I am, and here you are, and I am inordinately happy to be here with you, in this virtuality where we meet.  I'm going to start by reading a very short email that I received on Wednesday — it was initially intended for me to read it prior to last Wednesday's Open House, but I didn't see it until later:

I thought I'd try to be concise and email you prior to your Internet Open House. I am not suicidal nor do I seek sympathy. I am more fortunate than most people in this world but I am trying to be honest. However, if you feel that sharing this would cause hurt, feel free to ignore it.

Well, I have no idea what causes hurt and what doesn't cause hurt, but no one can be harmed by the communication of a sincere report as to the state of things in your mind, in your life, in your world. He goes on:

These are my observations and my interpretations. Unless I am mistaken in either, I see no point in any endeavor (including seeking). I have no control over thoughts, awareness of ‘me' happens spontaneously and in timelessness attempts to seek ‘me' happen afterwards, in time (in thought), and are futile. The whole of life seems to be based on a fear of death, even if one is fortunate enough to have no logical reason to suspect death is imminent. The majority of life takes place in time and indeed, one would not be able to function in the world if the state of timeless no-thought persisted. This life is a temporary mixture of highs and lows, of pleasures and pains and seems to serve no purpose. With the demise of the body there is only timelessness and no person which will be the case, regardless of what one does. Is not life, therefore, just a pointless interval where one waits for death?

A Meeting with John Sherman in Santa Monica, California - September 28, 2008

It has been clear to me for some time that the whole cloud of spiritual understanding and spiritual insights from the past is of no consequence in the actual possibility of being free of fear, misery, and suffering in one's own life. I mean the whole cloud of the sutras, the shastras, the Upanishads, the sweet insights, and the more recent writings by Wei Wu Wei, for example, whom I have loved inordinately. I just mention him because that is a much more modern example of what I am talking about, and it seems to speak more directly and clearly to the modern sensibility than do the Upanishads, the Heart Sutra, or the Diamond Sutra.

But the whole realm of spiritual understanding is beside the point. The flashes of deliciousness and insight that have come to us, spiritual seekers, in our own life and have been reported by others in the past are just a commentary on reality. They have no usefulness, no value, no substance, no help to offer in the possibility that arises within human consciousness to be free of fear, to be free of the idea that I am in danger here, to be free of the idea that life is suffering. The whole thing is entertaining, it is very developed, and it has levels and layers. It is academic, it is philosophical, it is personal, it contains every aspect of human understanding, and human intellectual appetite within it — and it is useless. For the one who is tired of being miserable about being in this life, it is utterly useless and it has no value whatsoever. It has value as anything beautiful and artistic has value, but it has no practical value to the one who wants to be done with feeling like they are trapped in their life, feeling like there is something here that is dangerous and threatening, and urgently requires some attention and some fixing.

Worldwide Online Meeting with John Sherman - March 1, 2008

As always, I am happy to see you here, or to see your names here, in any event. I am going to begin with reading a couple of emails that I have received in recent times, and responding to them here.

You know, it is a kind of spiritual cliché to say that there is only one question. This cliché started out as an articulation of a momentary insight that was clear, startling, and useful to people. However, my sense of it is that there are many questions. There are infinite questions, but there is really only one answer, which is not to say that, for the one who is harboring a burning question about reality or the relationship to it, or what can be done to realize freedom, a particular question is not unique and individual to the person who is asking it. It is not to say that it is the same question; it is not the same question. But it is going to be the same answer. So, I would like to be able to answer as many of the questions I receive as possible, over time, in a public forum, so that perhaps when you hear the questions here, they will resonate with your own belief that you are confused and something will be seen by you. So, enough of that. Onward and upward! Allons-y!

Worldwide Online Meeting with John Sherman - February 10, 2008

Well, hello, everybody. Welcome. I thank you very much for coming to be with us in this time, in this venue. I am happy to see everybody, or at least to see your names on the screen here. I often make fun of the news commentators when they say "We're so happy to see you," and, of course, they cannot see us at all, nor can I see you. But I know you are here, and I'm happy that you're here.

I often speak about the fact that what I have to say is very little, and I am reminded often in my own mind of the story of Nisargadatta and his teacher. And how Nisargadatta found him, and the guy said something to the effect of "Just stay with the feeling ‘I Am.' Just stay with that, and it will take you home." Then, he promptly dropped dead, without providing Nisargadatta with any follow-up instruction, correction, discussion, or anything else.

I don't really have much more to say than that. I don't say it quite as poetically, but I really do not have much more to say than that. All I have to say to anyone in this realm is this: Look at yourself. Look at yourself, as often as it occurs to you to do so, as often as you can. Look at yourself.

So far, I haven't dropped dead on you, and left you hanging and wondering what in the world I can possibly be talking about with this "look at yourself" business. But I tell you, that is all there is to what I have to offer. Everything that follows is discussion, elaboration, explanation, and perhaps some guidance, some encouragement, and reassurance. The truth is that if you take just this one thing that I say, and try with all your heart to see what it is that I am talking about, it's enough.