Thank YOU for your writing, I find myself looking at the inbox in the morning, hoping to find your posts and always blessing the words that never fail to resonate deeply in my heart. Wishing you all you long for and looking forward to your next gift to us all.
Much gratitude for your crystal clear words that deliver such depth of understanding and misunderstandings, it’s like a coin both sides have value when the mind relaxes and can see clearly that both sides are one and the same. Joan I deeply appreciate your insights Blessings June Durkin
Thank you for this. I’ve just been listening to John Wheeler on YouTube, who gives exactly the same message. For me, it helps to capture the ‘flavour’ of now, before thought kicks in.
Beautifully written, always enjoyable thank you Joan 😊. Something hit me like a thunderbolt one day a few years ago that seems relevant to share.
I'd been listening to and enjoying Eckhart Tolle a great deal, and found myself constantly evaluating whether I was in the now, and wanting/trying to get back there when I wasn't.
The thunderbolt came from evaluating what the now really means. How long was it? What actually IS it?
What hit was that what is called the now is really only ME, as I am. "Now" is a time/space word, and has meaning in that order of reality, but what it actually points to has nothing to do with time/space. It is a placeholder word for *what* I am, while "now" points to THIS, the totality known to me.
Then finding Vedanta a few weeks later, for the first time it connected that it does not matter whether mind movement (or any-thing else for that matter) is present or not since that is part of THIS, not ME.
Thank you! I agree with what you said about Eckhart Tolle. He's helpful, inspiring, and liberating to a mind overburdened by thoughts and a feeling of separateness. His approach doesn't resolve belief in doer-ship (the me-identity you describe, which *is* separateness), but not everyone is inclined toward that inquiry anyway.
The pitfalls you describe are spot on IMO, and share a common theme: objectification of the goal. In one form or another, the goal is always seen as something to experience or achieve. That viewpoint is antithetical to non-duality because non-dual implies "nothing other than," not two, no second thing. There is no way to experience what you are, because you already are what you are 😊.
For that reason, there is *no experiential access* to Self (or whatever word one uses for that which is non-dual). The only "access" is (self) knowledge, though it isn't really access so much as self evident knowing that does not require outside affirmation (via experience). That is why it is blissful in nature, because being non-dual, no matter what changes you are whole and complete, limitless fullness.
Unless non-dual knowledge is accentuated consistently in every aspect of a teaching, the implications (and thus the benefits) tend not to be appreciated. Many of the Neos and other non-dual teachers understand the nature of self, but fail to address or understand "the world." This leads to the Buddha/Hitler problem you referenced, and to people claiming not to be there, without a touch of irony.
I do think words are incredibly important, but I definitely agree that they need to be taken as the pointers they are. The best way I see to do this is by defining terms, which is all too rare in the spiritual world. Too often I think teachers are satisfied just stating their opinions and concepts, however beautiful, without defining terms consistently and comprehensively. Doing so turns what would otherwise be "intellectual" into grounded, practical knowledge that actually delivers what it purports to. 
Thank you again! So much more to cover, I look forward to continuing conversations ☀️🙏🏻
Thanks for a great year of posts Joan, the last bunch since Thanksgiving seemed to me to be particularly powerful and really laid out the pathless path quite clearly.
I hope you have a great mini-retreat whatever you do.
I am ever grateful for your writing, lots of love to you in the light of this ever new now!
The assumption "I already know what these things I perceive are" seems to be one side of the two part process by which the mind divides sense impressions, creating thinginess out of No-Thing. Perception gives gives form; mind and thought give name. But this linkage is optional. Clear open perception seems to promote awe and wonder and other fun stuff, but you have to acknowledge that you don't really know what apparent things are. Just see. Just listen. Just feel. Bunch of miracles "out there."
Thank YOU for your writing, I find myself looking at the inbox in the morning, hoping to find your posts and always blessing the words that never fail to resonate deeply in my heart. Wishing you all you long for and looking forward to your next gift to us all.
This is a masterpiece. Thank you, Joan, for giving one more before your retreat.
Much gratitude for your crystal clear words that deliver such depth of understanding and misunderstandings, it’s like a coin both sides have value when the mind relaxes and can see clearly that both sides are one and the same. Joan I deeply appreciate your insights Blessings June Durkin
Thank you for this. I’ve just been listening to John Wheeler on YouTube, who gives exactly the same message. For me, it helps to capture the ‘flavour’ of now, before thought kicks in.
Beautifully written, always enjoyable thank you Joan 😊. Something hit me like a thunderbolt one day a few years ago that seems relevant to share.
I'd been listening to and enjoying Eckhart Tolle a great deal, and found myself constantly evaluating whether I was in the now, and wanting/trying to get back there when I wasn't.
The thunderbolt came from evaluating what the now really means. How long was it? What actually IS it?
What hit was that what is called the now is really only ME, as I am. "Now" is a time/space word, and has meaning in that order of reality, but what it actually points to has nothing to do with time/space. It is a placeholder word for *what* I am, while "now" points to THIS, the totality known to me.
Then finding Vedanta a few weeks later, for the first time it connected that it does not matter whether mind movement (or any-thing else for that matter) is present or not since that is part of THIS, not ME.
Thank you! I agree with what you said about Eckhart Tolle. He's helpful, inspiring, and liberating to a mind overburdened by thoughts and a feeling of separateness. His approach doesn't resolve belief in doer-ship (the me-identity you describe, which *is* separateness), but not everyone is inclined toward that inquiry anyway.
The pitfalls you describe are spot on IMO, and share a common theme: objectification of the goal. In one form or another, the goal is always seen as something to experience or achieve. That viewpoint is antithetical to non-duality because non-dual implies "nothing other than," not two, no second thing. There is no way to experience what you are, because you already are what you are 😊.
For that reason, there is *no experiential access* to Self (or whatever word one uses for that which is non-dual). The only "access" is (self) knowledge, though it isn't really access so much as self evident knowing that does not require outside affirmation (via experience). That is why it is blissful in nature, because being non-dual, no matter what changes you are whole and complete, limitless fullness.
Unless non-dual knowledge is accentuated consistently in every aspect of a teaching, the implications (and thus the benefits) tend not to be appreciated. Many of the Neos and other non-dual teachers understand the nature of self, but fail to address or understand "the world." This leads to the Buddha/Hitler problem you referenced, and to people claiming not to be there, without a touch of irony.
I do think words are incredibly important, but I definitely agree that they need to be taken as the pointers they are. The best way I see to do this is by defining terms, which is all too rare in the spiritual world. Too often I think teachers are satisfied just stating their opinions and concepts, however beautiful, without defining terms consistently and comprehensively. Doing so turns what would otherwise be "intellectual" into grounded, practical knowledge that actually delivers what it purports to. 
Thank you again! So much more to cover, I look forward to continuing conversations ☀️🙏🏻
Thanks for a great year of posts Joan, the last bunch since Thanksgiving seemed to me to be particularly powerful and really laid out the pathless path quite clearly.
I hope you have a great mini-retreat whatever you do.
I am ever grateful for your writing, lots of love to you in the light of this ever new now!
Thank you, Joan!
I am reading this on Christmas and it feels like a present from here/now!
The ongoing mystery is that when one has periods of profound clarity of the truth of this, one more often than not finds oneself off the tracks!!
I couldn’t possibly gotten a better Xmas present than this! Thank you. The unsayable has just been said. Thanks again and Happy Holidays to all.
The assumption "I already know what these things I perceive are" seems to be one side of the two part process by which the mind divides sense impressions, creating thinginess out of No-Thing. Perception gives gives form; mind and thought give name. But this linkage is optional. Clear open perception seems to promote awe and wonder and other fun stuff, but you have to acknowledge that you don't really know what apparent things are. Just see. Just listen. Just feel. Bunch of miracles "out there."