Your Mission: Found

Back by popular demand (okay, that might be stretching the truth just a little), I offer you my rendition of Mission I Am Possible. Press here to play it. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to re-cognize (know again) That which you are. With that in mind, I offer the following:

Maxwell Planck, the German theoretical physicist, is attributed with this quote: “I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.” This is easier to understand through the analogy of our nighttime dreams. All of the objects, events, and persons are made of Mind, which is Consciousness in motion. No one would claim that they exist beyond the mind that perceives them.

In Why Materialism Is Baloney, by Bernardo Kastrup, who’s a noted philosopher, author, and computer scientist, he wrote: “Experience is all there is. The world, as we know it, is a representation in consciousness.”

In John 1:3, it’s stated: “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” In this verse, “him” refers to God. I suggest that God is Consciousness, or Awareness of Being.

In Acts 17:28, it’s stated: “‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’” All of the characters and events within a nighttime dream “exist” only within Consciousness.

In John 8:58, it’s stated: “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.” I humbly suggest that He wasn’t saying that “I, Jesus” was before Abraham. He meant that “I Am” is the substratum from which everything arises.

In Isaiah 45:5: it’s stated: “I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me.” I offer that to “not acknowledge me” refers to being ignorant (unaware) of the Source of our Being.

***

In Ego-land, aka Earth, most “persons” see things very differently. When asked who they are, most will likely reply that “I am…name, age, form, gender, race, nationality, status, etcetera.” But words are merely terms, or conceptual structures, that refer to something else. Thus, we realize that all of the words with which we define or describe ourselves can’t possibly “BE” what we are. The question–“Who, or What, are we?”–then begs to be asked.

In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, which illustrates the story of a son (child of God) who requests his inheritance early and goes to a foreign land where he spends it wastefully, it’s told that the son finally becomes weary of his struggle in the world and returns to his Father. In Luke 15:24, the following is shared: “For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.” Consciousness, which forfeits knowledge of Itself to take an apparently human journey, celebrates when It awakens to Its essential nature.

Could it be that we are Consciousness, the ground of all Being, masquerading as form in the dream of human life? Could it also be that we’re “found” when we know our essential nature as Spirit? That’s for you to question and only YOU to know.

Dare to dream (and care for one another).

With heartfelt regards,

Art

Copyright © – 2026 – R. Arthur Russell

P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones), press here. My YouTube videos can be found at Think2wice@I-Am-Aware. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey. Thank You” & “Note to Publishers 🙏🏻🧡

Shaking The Maya Tree

If we shook a tree that was full of ripe oranges, we would–quite logically–expect to see oranges fall to the ground. Likewise, if we shook a tree that was loaded with ripe apples, we would see apples fall. To expect something other than the fruit of each tree (perhaps, coffee cups or lollipops) would be insane. With regard to the title of this article, I’m going out on a limb by stating that all that falls when the Maya (Sanskrit, loosely translated as illusion) Tree shakes is illusory in nature. The fruit of Maya is transient, changeful, and only relatively “real.” It could appropriately be called dreaming.

To transition from the view (subscribed to by the masses) that “reality” is only defined by what appears via our senses is not an easy task; and to be honest, only those rare Beings who are, indeed, ripe with curiosity for Truth will be willing to earnestly investigate their deeper nature. Until the dream of life turns challenging or outright nightmarish, it’s highly unlikely that individuals will question their blind assumptions about the nature of their identity. To take a figurative step in the direction of Truth, it will help if you know the following:

  • When Sri Ramana Maharshi (a realized sage) was questioned about the difference between Dream State and the Waking State (referred to as “reality” by the masses), he replied, “Waking is long and dream short; other than this there is no difference. Just as waking happenings seem real while awake, so do those in a dream while dreaming.”
  • From The Law of Success by Paramahansa Yogananda: “Mind is the creator of everything.” You might think of this as the shaking of the Maya Tree. Please note that he stated that “everything” is created by mind.
  • From The Wish Fulfilled, by Neville Goddard: “This world, which seems so real, is as much a dream as the dreams we encounter while sleeping.”
  • From The Final Truth, by Ramesh S. Balsekar: “All that appears is mind-stuff of which all dreams are made.”
  • From Man’s Eternal Quest, by Paramahansa Yogananda: “Live in the consciousness of Spirit, in that oneness with God wherein you know that life is a dream.”
  • From Before I Am, by Mooji: “World is not. You, me, and all else that you see within and without are unreal; they do not exist independent of yourself. The world you inhabit is created inside your own mind. It is all a dreaming.”
  • From my blog, more proof is offered through this article, entitled “Notes from Beyond.”
  • From William Blake: “As man is, so he sees.”
  • And finally, a photo passage from Open Secret, by Wei Wu Wei:

What’s the benefit of knowing this information? If your “life story” is ticking along fine, you’re most likely not reading this article. You’ll be apparently slaying dragons in the business world, or flying to your island home in your personal jet. However, if you’re finding that your story has run full speed into a brick wall, it may help to know that what you have previously assumed to be material “reality” isn’t, indeed, real in the way you’ve assumed. It’s the fruit of the Maya tree; which appears when the mind’s ability to perceive via the senses is functioning. The so-called real world recedes from waking state to dream state (a more ephemeral dream world), and is totally absent in deep sleep, which is without objects, time, and space.

The real Self is That by which the apparent world is co-created and known. So what of “us” is real–for it certainly seems that we exist? Consciousness–independent of form. Please contemplate this: Can anything be known in the absence of Consciousness? If you believe this possible, how could such ever be proven? Is that not like trying to know if the refrigerator light remains “on” when the door is closed? A tree in the forest that supposedly falls unwitnessed, neither exists, falls, or makes a sound; for such requires an observer to co-create the event and report its occurrence.

We are Divine Spirit, dreaming our character’s role of personhood. To know this now, while living, means that one is jivanmukta. If you’re tired of suffering the world of form, please join me on the other side of the bridge. The view is beautiful and eternal. You’re not who you think you are–never have been. You can only be what you are in realitySpirit.

Dare to Dream (and care for one another).

With heartfelt regards,

Art

Copyright © – 2025 – R. Arthur Russell

P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones), press here. My YouTube videos can be found at Think2wice@I-Am-Aware. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey. Thank You” & “Note to Publishers 🙏🏻🧡

Invitation to Play

Please join me, if you will, on a journey of remembering the feeling of days when our spirit sang with freedom; when we were happily unaware of mind chores that claim they must be done; when the words yesterday and tomorrow held no meaning. “Such” is still alive within us.

During the next few hours, you’re invited to:

  • Withdraw from all news media; in spite of being fearful of being struck ignorant or uncaring.
  • Write a list of 12.279 things that must be absolutely right before you will enjoy life. Prove the list wrong by literally or figuratively burning it.
  • Drop the seeming importance of your medals, trophies, formal education, resumé, and achievements. Ask, “Are they?” Ask the same of your so-called failures.
  • Imagine how a child feels upon meeting a new friend.
  • Listen carefully to children playing. As you overhear them rant and complain, make a list of their sorrowful woes about the economy or state of the world.
  • Glance at your “To-Do” list of chores demanding attention; then just as quickly turn away.
  • Drop all of your mind stories related to “I did this” and “He/she did that.”
  • Close your eyes and follow your breath into an inner world of wonder. Return as awareness, carrying the sense of wonder with you.
  • Remove the stain related to “life will be better when” by asking if “when” ever arrives.
  • Take off your ego’s muddy galoshes, and run bare foot.
  • Acknowledge the Divine Power that’s beating your heart. Bow your head and whisper “Thank you.”
  • Pack a picnic (however meager) and dine at a new location, in the glorious fullness of Now.
  • Look upon everyone (the young and the seeming old) as a child of the Creator. They are.
  • For sixty seconds, feel your heart’s warm unity of Oneness with All. Repeat.
  • Count your “haves,” instead of your “wants.”
  • Be with your hands as they slowly open and close. Can you feel the miracle?
  • Through awareness, Be peace, here and now. Silently say “hush” if the mind attempts to intrude.
  • Give.
  • Love.
  • Be grateful.

Through awareness, we may reignite so much of the joy that we felt as children. This world, Life, needn’t seem like such a bothersome chore. We don’t have to manage it, change it, or define it according to the mind’s perspective. Wonder, amusement, and excitement are waiting to be born into experience through Presence.

Dare to Dream (and care for one another).

With heartfelt regards,

Art

Copyright © – 2025 – R. Arthur Russell

P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones), press here. My YouTube videos can be found at Think2wice@I-Am-Aware. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey. Thank You” & “Note to Publishers 🙏🏻🧡

The Fraud Called “Death”

The title of this article isn’t intended as click bait, nor am I attempting to instill a belief system about death. I’m employing the title because it relates to my direct experience of life, itself. Let’s begin with the following stanza from The Psalm of Life, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

Life is real! Life is earnest!
   And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
   Was not spoken of the soul
.

So, Mr. Russell, “How can you possibly claim that death is a fraud, especially when we see evidence of it on a daily basis?” If that’s what you’re thinking, please know that I “hear” and respect you. Out of love, I humbly offer the following: I’m not denying that bodies die–obviously, they do. Anything that has an apparent beginning will also have an apparent end. To make sense of the information I’m sharing, it requires that we investigate the essential nature of our “Being”…beyond the superficial assumptions that we’ve been conditioned to accept as true. If we believe (as the majority do) that the sum of all that we are is contained within the body-mind, this article may not only seem insensitive, but also the product of a delusional mind.

Our investigation of our “I”-ness (that sense of “me” which knows our experience) requires that we challenge a collective set of beliefs to which the masses currently subscribe. You may or may not realize that Science can’t explain how biological processes give rise to consciousness. Why? Because Consciousness doesn’t arise from them. Science also states that matter, as conceived by humankind, has no independent existence–it’s actually rendered by the mind. In 1911, Ernest Rutherford proved that atoms, which were once believed to be the foundational “stuff” from which things were made, are actually 99.999% empty space. The following quote from Max Planck, a great theoretical physicist, adds to this understanding:

I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.”

The key to understanding more about the nature of death is by knowing more about the “reality” in which we apparently live. We never perceive a discrete “world.” We perceive perception–in a similar way that we perceive a “world” in our nighttime dreams. Could it also be, therefore, that the waking-state “world” is made of the same dream stuff? In Who Am I?, the following question was asked of Sri Ramana Maharshi (a realized sage who awakened to his true nature at sixteen):

Are you daring enough to challenge the current interpretation of “reality?” Could Consciousness, indeed, be fundamental and Universal? Is it not true that before you can have any experience that Consciousness must be present? To lend credibility to the information I’m sharing, I offer the following five quotes, which I’ve collected during years of reading:

(From I Am That, Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj):

(From Open Secret, by Wei Wu Wei):

(From The Abundance Book, by John Randolph Price):

(From The Physics of Consciousness, by Ivan Antic):

(From A Course in Miracles, by Helen Schucman):

Several years ago, I remember reading the following: “We’re not human beings having an occasional spiritual experience; we’re spiritual beings having occasional human experiences.” I actually scoffed at the idea; but such only revealed my own lack of understanding. Could this explain why ancient Grecians inscribed “Know Thyself” on the frontispiece of the Temple of Apollo in Delphi? Yes, most certainly.

To have any experience–of a world, a cup of coffee, or our body-mind–awareness must be present. How else could anything be known? The linchpin of our Being is Awareness. We are That in which the body and the mind appear. Yes, the body dies; but we never were what appeared. We are That which can’t be known via the senses. Buddha referred to It as emptiness. This dramatic change in the way of interpreting reality is often referred to as The Shift.

The body-mind arises out of Consciousness. Through misidentification (which is still being preached by those who believe in a materialist model of the world), we–Spirit–are relentlessly conditioned to believe that we are nothing more than name and form. We are so much more! We are Awareness, having an apparently human experience. It’s impossible to be separated from That which we actually are. It’s why Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj stated:

You can only be what you are in reality. You can only appear to be what you are not.”

I support this through the following verses from the Bible:

(Psalm 46:10):

Be still, and know that I am God:

I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.”

(Isaiah 45:5):

I am the Lord, and there is no other;
    apart from me there is no God
.”

Consciousness is the only reality. There’s only one “I Am.”

Dare to dream (and care for one another).

With heartfelt regards,

Art

Copyright © – 2025 – R. Arthur Russell

P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones), press here. My YouTube videos can be found at Think2wice@I-Am-Aware. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey. Thank You” & “Note to Publishers 🙏🏻🧡

I Am That I Am

The following quote from I Am That is attributed to Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

We do not wake up into a really waking state. In the waking state, the world emerges due to ignorance and takes one into a waking-state dream. Both sleep and waking are misnomers. We are only dreaming. True waking and true sleeping only the gnani [realized one, sage] knows. We dream that we are awake, we dream that we are asleep. The three states are only varieties of the dream state. Treating everything as a dream liberates. As long as you give reality to dreams, you are their slave.”

***

The Bible advises us not to judge by appearances. Now, science is confirming what saints, sages, and ancient spiritual masters have known about the nature of “matter.” As a way of demonstrating a deeper level of reality, I offer this short video, filmed on November 6, 2025:

If you’d like to learn more about cloud bursting, I explain more in this related video.

Dare to dream (and care for one another).

With heartfelt regards,

Art

Copyright © – 2025 – R. Arthur Russell

P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones), press here. My YouTube videos can be found at Think2wice@I-Am-Aware. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey. Thank You” & “Note to Publishers 🙏🏻🧡

Choices from “I Am” Now

Hello Everyone,

Please step out of time and join me–here and now–in the glorious beauty of our true nature. We are so much more than the person we “think” we are. I offer you my latest video:

Dare to dream (and care for one another).

With heartfelt regards,

Art

Copyright © – 2024 – R. Arthur Russell

P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones–released September 8, 2020), press here. My YouTube videos may be found through this link. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey. 🙏🏻🧡

Thank You” & “Note to Publishers

We Needn’t Suffer Our “Person”

Hello Everyone,

In an effort to lessen suffering related to confusion about our true nature, I offer my latest YouTube video.

Dare to dream (and care for one another).

With heartfelt regards,

Art

Copyright © – 2024 – R. Arthur Russell

P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones), press here. My YouTube videos can be found at Think2wice@I-Am-Aware. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey. Thank You” & “Note to Publishers 🙏🏻🧡

The Bastard Child’s Hierarchy

Contrary to what the bastard child (the ego/conceptual self) might attempt to tell us, we are children of the Living God. In the attached video, I offer pointers that I hope will help you discern between the false self and That which you truly are.

Dare to dream (and care for one another).

With heartfelt regards,

Art

Copyright © – 2024 – R. Arthur Russell

P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones), press here. My YouTube videos can be found at Think2wice@I-Am-Aware. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey. Thank You” & “Note to Publishers 🙏🏻🧡

Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled

In this article, I’m going to offer my interpretation of the words (borrowed from John 6:1) that serve as the title:

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

In my opinion, the message is intended not only to help us be more at ease with circumstances in the apparent world; but also to offer guidance as to how to achieve what we desire to manifest. The majority of the world’s population is existing in their mentality; therefore, if their mind judges circumstances as favourable (based upon interpretation of outer circumstances), they feel happy. Conversely, if outer circumstances are judged unfavourable, they feel unhappy. Such is a rocky and tumultuous way to exist, because the perspective of the “person” is dependent on the mercy of circumstance. Although this may seem challenging to believe, it’s vital to understand that the apparent outer conditions are a reflection of our inner state.

The second part of the passage–“ye believe in God, believe also in me“–is also significant. I offer that this is another way of saying that “I and the Father are one.” Jesus was basically relating that he was in the Father (because he descended from Him) and that the Father must, therefore, be within him. When we extrapolate this, it’s only logical to conclude that the Father must also be in us. How could the fruit not have the nature of the Tree within it?

With regard to the Law of Attraction, it’s important to understand the differences in the approaches to manifesting our goals: If our habitual focus is outward, toward the apparent world, we will most likely assume ourselves to be the “person” working toward the manifestation of our desire. This would be the prodigal approach; in which we erroneously believe that we live and move and have our being of our own accord. When we re-cognize (know again) ourselves as Spirit (aka Consciousness), we realize that everything (including our body-mind) is actually an appearance within Consciousness. From this vantage, we realize that to manifest we must hold our heart’s desire firmly in mind and imbue it with the feeling of having already been achieved. As Neville Goddard advised, we visualize our desire “from the end,” meaning achievement. The way toward our desire’s apparent manifestation will be revealed. All of this occurs while we remain in a state of flow as the witness; watching as our body-mind steps across a bridge of incidents. As will be obvious, there’s a world of difference in the approaches. The scriptural passage below, borrowed from Mark 11:24, reinforces the second approach, which relates to the Truth of our being:

Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray,

believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Putting this together into a system that makes sense about the Law of Attraction is much easier to understand when we recognize That which we actually are. All objects, including persons, are created by the mind. Just as Infinite Living Mind creates images and events in the dream state, so It also does in this–the waking state; which majority of beings mistake as reality. In Truth, we are Spirit, dreaming an apparently human life.

Dare to dream (and care for one another).

With heartfelt regards,

Art

Copyright © – 2024 – R. Arthur Russell

P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones–released September 8, 2020), press here. My YouTube videos may be found through this link. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey. 🙏🧡

Thank You” & “Note to Publishers

The Healing of Jim McBrown

“It’s not looking good, said the doctor. “We’ve found something suspicious on the MRI. Jim, who was sitting across from the doctor, suddenly became pale as he attempted to process the news. Further tests in the coming week would confirm a diagnosis. Treatment began as soon as possible. One night, after Jim had spent a long day in hospital, he fell asleep; and while he slept, the following was revealed through what he would later refer to as The Voice:

***

“You are consciousness,” said The Voice. “You are of the same nature as I Am That I Am. You are neither the body nor the mind. The body has become ill because you are holding negative emotions that have not yet been processed in a healthy way. The greatest power is spiritual power. It flows from the highest gradient downstream–much like water–to the lowest. That which Spirit habitually envisions (especially if imbued with great feeling) flows down through the mind and is made apparent as matter. This applies to what humans label good and bad. If you let go of that which is negative, there will be room for That which is positive to heal you. This is the reason for the account of Job, in the Bible:

For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me,

and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.”

“Job experienced such tremendous suffering because he always focused on the negative. To him, his apparent world was always wrong. Trust, me,” said The Voice, “I speak truth unto your ear. Please listen again to scripture which has revealed the veracity of that which I share:

Mark 9: 23: “Jesus said unto him,

If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.”

As Jim was rising from the drowsy wispiness of sleep, he again heard The Voice: “If you pay more attention to what is right and good within–trusting upon me–then such will appear within your world. I will give unto you that which you believe.” The last words that Jim heard were these: “Let not your heart be troubled.”

***

In the coming weeks, Jimmy continued to have treatments; but a change had occurred within him. He knew that if he focused upon his vision of healing it would be so. He didn’t have to know the way that such would occur. The treatments progressed and somehow, Jim realized that–whatever happened–all would be well.

Note: This article is not intended to convince anyone of any course of treatment during an illness of the body or the mind. It’s intended only to provide spiritual inspiration that is supportive of healing.

Dare to dream (and care for one another).

With warm regards,

Art

Copyright © – 2024 – R. Arthur Russell

P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones–released September 8, 2020), press here. My YouTube videos may be found through this link. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey. 🙏🧡

Thank You” & “Note to Publishers