Recently I removed this whole personal story from the site as it seemed quite useless, but since then I have been advised that people like to get a background of the person, so here it is...
My name is Adam Oakley, I am 25 years old and live in the United Kingdom.
When I was younger I was constantly looking to the future for happiness or peace. "Once I get this, then I will be happy" was a common theme. This continued for a while and I began to notice that this was just a continuous cycle that myself and others were continuing to live out. Nothing seemed to provide lasting peace.
I became fed up of not always feeling at ease. Situations, people and circumstances seemed to have complete power over my inner state and how I felt, and I knew there must be some other way of living.
As I got older I became interested in meditation and yoga, became qualified as a Reiki Healer, and continued to learn more about the nature of who we all are and what causes us so many problems.
We are completely dominated by our own minds. Rather than situations or circumstances upsetting us, it is actually our thoughts about these things that do us harm. So much of our suffering is self-created.
Once you learn about the nature of the ego and consciousness, you can begin to break free from your mind and find the inner peace that is always there, as part of who you are...
…this website has been made to share how to find this inner peace.
How This Website Came About
I had finished my University study in Natural Sciences about a year and a half ago after getting a good degree, as well as good education and work experience before that. My parents were proud and it seemed I was in a good position.
Leading up to this point my mind had become more and more chaotic. I was completely lost in thought most of the time. I had become more fearful, insecure, anxious and angry. The more I tried to get rid of all of these feelings, the worse they became. I would find myself doing such simple tasks as vacuuming or eating a meal and be lost in negative emotional states.
I would try to think my way out of these states of mind, which only made them worse.
The present moment was completely obscured by reliving the past or anticipating the future in some way. There was little inner peace.
I then became familiar with scriptures and teachings about the nature of who we are - consciousness. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, A Course in Miracles, The Bhagavad Gita, The Buddha, Jesus, Mooji, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Eckhart Tolle, Ramana Maharshi, Papaji and Adyashanti (and others) all speak of the same truth - that who you are is the awareness, the space in which everything arises.
You (or I) are not the thinker of thoughts, but the awareness in which they arise.
Realising this caused a dramatic shift within me, and a feeling of release and realisation. I remember feeling a sense of "this is it" - the truth of what I am and what everyone else is.
Before this I had heard of "the true Self", but I had never really understood what it was. It then became clear that the "true self" is awareness, conscious presence, free of thought or emotional forms.
The true nature of what we are is the main message of the essence of all religions and spiritual teachings - hinduism, christianity, yoga, buddhism etc. which I continued to read about in other spiritual texts and learn about from other spiritual teachers.
This suddenly seemed the most important thing in life to me. This state of consciousness was a way to become free of the world that was becoming increasingly unbearable. I could feel that all the peace and satisfaction we tend to look for in the world is already inside of use, beneath the turbulence of the conditioned mind.
As a result I became further uninterested in following a career path, and it seemed that there was no job that I wanted to apply for. I worked a part time job for a while and also did some Reiki Healing, but nothing major was happening externally in my life.
Suddenly my parents were no longer proud of me, they were disappointed, no one could understand why I had gone from an ambitious young man with high hopes and good prospects to one that appeared to be uninterested and lazy.
But the whole time I was undergoing a significant shift within myself, and space was being created for a new work to later emerge - this website.
Negative thought and emotional patterns still operated within me for a while, and at first they were still extremely strong. Since then they have gradually dissolved. The intense and turbulent mental suffering I was experiencing forced me out of identification with my own mind and emotions. What is left is a deep stillness, an awareness and space that is the source of all things.
Now if an emotion or thought stream arises, there is a far greater sense of space and peace surrounding all of it. There is no longer the "struggle to be at peace" that I first experienced. Awareness and oneness is felt in connection to all things, rather than being identified with any "little me" confined to a single form.
From my own experience of dealing with life, learning about the nature of the human mind, reading scriptures, learning from spiritual teachers, teaching others and becoming more conscious, I found myself writing out advice and teachings on paper as if they were for other people, but I had no one in mind. Then an idea came to build a website to write everything on, for all to see.
I also noticed that even though people would read spiritual texts and learn about the nature of their true consciousness, many had difficulty living in this space of awareness in their everyday experience. People could read the most profound and truthful texts, realise their meaning, and then soon go back into dysfunction without even realising.
People would ask me questions about these things, and I was able to direct them back to seeing clearly. This website is an extension of this.
I hope you enjoy and gain benefit from the site.
Main Themes
Some main themes of this website are:
- The conditioned, personal identity is only an appearance. Identity, thoughts, sensations and emotions all arise within a pure awareness. This pure awareness is the real Self. It is not an object or a person, or even something perceivable. It has been referred to as the "Self without a self".
- You don't need to fight with Life. Life has its own intelligence, which is obvious when you observe the natural workings of the body, mind and nature. You don't have to control such basic things as your breath, heartbeat or digestion, so why do we think we have to control everything that is secondary to this?
- The natural intelligence of Life can flow more freely when you are no longer resisting your present experience, when you are no longer wishing you were elsewhere. Progress in any area can still happen, but it will be easier, with less strain and struggle, when the mind is not maintaining its opposition with Life. This feeling of opposition and separation from Life that the personal self creates, is the main source of our everyday suffering.
- The judgements of yourself, Life and other people, as well as the related expectations, often serve to just restrict us. Without judgement or expectation, you will probably function even more effectively in the world, since you will be free.
- Time is a creation of the mind. We think of time as being a linear thing, with the past behind us, and anticipations appearing to be ahead of us. But all of this is just thoughts. Everything unfolds within the timeless Now.
- Give up trying to define yourself, other people, or what Life is. Let it all be an unrestricted mystery, and see how peace and intelligence moves further into your experience.
Other Recommended Sites
Inner Quest - A great Advaita Vedanta (non-duality) website with many words from sages and scriptures.
Mooji.org - Official website of the Advaita teacher Mooji, with free audios and videos.
Oshoba - Osho quotes - Although controversial, and even disagreeable at times, Osho, for the most part, had great wisdom and humour. This website has many useful quotes for different areas. (The official webpage of Osho can be found here).