Data-Stream & Self-Release

At the heart of O’Denver’s teaching is the fundamental assertion that our true nature, and the essence of everything, is awareness, which is synonymous with pure, infinite, timeless, and beneficent space. This is not a concept to be intellectually grasped but a direct, experiential reality.

• Awareness is Everything: “The essence of everything is love and the essence of everything no matter what it is, is entirely beneficial.” This beneficent essence is equated to “space,” which is described as “infinite, indestructible, it cannot be burned that cannot be changed it undergoes no transition…timeless.” Furthermore, “all appearances… everything that we might consider to be material is comprised of space.”
• Inseparable from Space and Love: Awareness is “inseparable from space…inseparable from the actual physical material basic space of everything.” This “Timeless awareness is synonymous with Timeless love completely unconditioned.”
• Aware and Wholly Positive: This space is not inert; it is “aware pure space a vivid appearance of aware pure space.” The essence of this space is “beneficial or wholly positive love based and that this space is aware.”
• The Magnificent Home: Awareness is our “Magnificent home in which everything within that home is perfect and complete and the great completion the great Perfection at all at once.

O’Denver argues that suffering arises not from thoughts, emotions, or experiences themselves, but from conventional beliefs about them, particularly the belief in causation (cause and effect) and the belief in a limited, independent self.

• At the Whim of Beliefs, Not Thoughts: “Most of us feel that we’re completely at the whim of our thoughts and emotions… and we do so only due to conventional beliefs we do so because we believe that these thoughts emotions and experiences can affect us in some way.”
• The Illusion of Causation: A primary belief system is “one of causation or cause and effect…these are belief systems that have ruled much of humankind until this point in human history.” Attributing thoughts and emotions to causes “leads to turmoil and suffering.”
• The Fabricated Self: We “believe we have a self and then we believe that the well-being of that self is dependent on all these other things.” This creates a sense of victimhood: “when we think something’s happening to us then we’re a victim.”
• Thoughts and Emotions are Harmless in Themselves: “Any thoughts or emotions we have… are just impressions… they’re energy within the basic space of mind… they’re inseparable from the mind but in and of themselves they don’t cause any trouble they’re not problematic in any way they only become problematic when we have belief systems that they are problematic.”
• The Futility of “Fixing” Appearances: Trying to “fix up all the appearances all the points of view all the perceptions that arise in Awareness that’s what will spend our life doing just working on those perceptions.” This is a “complete dead end” because “everything already is timelessly free.”
• No Independent Nature: All appearances, including thoughts, emotions, and even the “personal identity,” are merely “points of view” that have “no independent nature.” They are “empty appearances that leave no trace.”

The path to freedom and the realization of our true nature is not one of striving, effort, or changing what appears, but of effortless resting as awareness.

• Resting as Awareness: “The decisive experience of awareness is simply resting as awareness and resting as that wide open space that it’s so obvious right here.” This “doesn’t require all this efforting that we’ve been undertaking.”
• Non-Doing and Acceptance: “Nothing needs to be said or done about them [points of view] nothing needs to be noticed about them.” We don’t “need to change yourself in any way to realize awareness.”
• Uncontrived and Natural: The true nature is “entirely uncontrived so totally free already so naturally occurring so absolutely spontaneous and present.” It’s “just the natural order of everything as it is.”
• The Simplicity of Relaxation: “All we need to do is relax with whatever the contents of our own mind are and that is the natural state Nothing needs to be changed about the mind.”
• Thoughts Vanish Naturally: By resting as awareness, thoughts and emotions are seen to be “their own undoing…like a line drawn in water or the knot in a snake untying itself.” They “resolve in awareness” spontaneously.
• No Destination: “There is nothing to realize there’s no destination and no one going there.” We “already are who we are.”

As one rests in awareness, profound transformations occur, leading to the manifestation of inherent wisdom, boundless love, and a natural inclination towards benefiting others.

• Indwelling Confidence and Equanimity: Resting as awareness brings “tremendous indwelling confidence,” knowing “whatever appears we’re going to be all right.” This leads to “complete equanimity in all the circumstances no matter what they are.”
• Mastery Over Illusion: Gaining familiarity with awareness allows us to “achieve Mastery over all of our own points of view and this way we become a master of Illusion.” This includes awareness during dreams and sleep, “we can make the dream do whatever we want it to do.”
• Unconditional Love and Compassion: The true nature is “inseparable from compassion it’s entirely inseparable from compassion its entire reality is the emanation of benefit.” This love “cannot be held back it just floods and pervades everything because it’s Inseparable from everything.”
• Beyond Discrimination: “When we stop describing through simply relaxing as our own awareness what we begin to see is the pain and suffering of ourselves and the pain and suffering of everyone else.” This fosters “profound all inclusivity.”
• Wisdom Beyond Thinking: “Beyond thinking is wisdom and wisdom doesn’t need any systems or methods or conventional orientation to be wisdom.” This wisdom leads to “tremendous love power and energy that come about love power and energy that isn’t available through thinking isn’t available through doing.”
• Beneficial Activities: The realization of awareness leads to “beneficial activities of body speech and mind.” These activities are “beyond the realm of cause and effect,” offering “all kinds of ways to solve our own problems our family’s problems Community problems world problems that we never knew about before.”
• The Lions at the Gate of Enlightenment: Difficult or “afflictive emotional states” (like greed, anger, pride) are not to be fought or eliminated, but faced directly and recognized as “the face of God…the face of awareness and nothing else.” Integrating these “negative” points of view is crucial for “completely perfect Enlightenment.”
• Impartial Responsiveness: Awareness is “impartial responsiveness,” meaning “whatever people take points of view to be that is the impartial responsiveness of the dynamic energy of awareness whatever you take points of view to be they’ll be.”
• No Separation from Others: Realizing our own awareness leads to recognizing it in everyone: “everyone’s okay just as they are…everyone is us.”

While the path is effortless, O’Denver emphasizes the importance of a direct introduction and ongoing support in this realization.

• Direct Introduction: The “direct introduction to the direct experience of that allinclusive awakened awareness is the responsibility of settings like this.” This introduction is “permanent” and not a mere temporary state.
• The Role of a Teacher: A teacher can provide “direct instruction” and support in deepening the familiarity with awareness, especially when facing “lions at the Gate of Enlightenment.”
• No Self-Improvement Necessary: “To try to change your points of view in order to realize awareness is a complete dead end.” There’s “nothing to get rid of…no personality or ego or pain body or individual Identity or anything else” to be fixed.
• Beyond Intellectual Speculation: The reality of awareness “cannot possibly be understood in intellectual Meandering.” It is a “direct perception,” “beyond logic and reason.”
• Repetition and Familiarity: For those new to this, “rest naturally rest repeatedly for short moments many times until it becomes automatic.”
• Universal Accessibility: This teaching is “within the province of everyone,” regardless of intelligence or prior experience. “It’s not an individual attribute or characteristic.”
• The “American Ordinary Awakening”: O’Denver shares her own experience of realizing this truth in ordinary circumstances, highlighting that “nothing is needed” and it’s accessible to “ordinary” people.
• The Five Manifest Enlightenments: This process unfolds through stages, starting with recognizing “I experience awareness,” leading to the wisdom of equality, individual analysis, beneficial activities, and ultimately, miracles of magnificence, including the ability to directly introduce others to awareness and provide boundless benefit.