Peter Brown on the Path of Enlightenment

Peter Brown may be the wisest being I've ever known

Dec 03, 2021

“Leave the realm of the describable! It doesn't exist!
You define your problems into existence, as well as their hoped-for solutions,
thus creating an apparent difficult, limited reality, where none exists whatsoever.”
— Peter Brown

Peter Brown is a shining jewel.

He may be the wisest being I’ve ever known.

He is one of my greatest teachers and one of the greatest men I've had the joy to know.

In my view, Peter is a realized master and a relentless wellspring of truth.

Sharp as a katana, he slices through conceptual fabrications with tremendous skill and compassion, always directing us back to the direct felt Presence of Now.

To interact directly with an enlightened sage is a gift of immense proportions, and it astounds me that Peter is so generous with his time.

Every week, he provides a 1.5-hour satsang via Zoom at no cost.

For a long time he did three of these per week at no cost, and he also provides occasional digital weekend retreats at no cost. He also does in-person satsangs and retreats sometimes, either at no cost or simply at-cost to cover the event’s expenses. This level of generosity is virtually unheard of in 2021.

Peter has also written several gorgeous and paradigm-melting books that I can highly recommend in this order: The Astounding Nature of Experience (compiled and edited by Stanton Hunter), Dirty Enlightenment, The Yoga of Radiant Presence, and The Yoga of Radiant Presence Revealed in the Gospel of Thomas.

You can find these and much more on his amazing website, The Open Doorway.

Peter is kind, hilarious, humble, approachable, friendly, patient, remarkably eloquent, surgically precise, and breathes the cage-melting fire of an illumined dragon when need be.

I have been shown more by this man than perhaps any other and I recommend his work more than any other teacher's.

More than any other he has shown me that God, The Absolute, is not in some far off abstract place like "the void" or "pure awareness"... But that The Absolute is forever and always here now—the only ‘thing’ we are ever experiencing, our very being.

Thank you Peter, I love you. I consider you a living saint and a Divine Gift to this Earth.

Peter Brown on the Path of Enlightenment

Now, I’d love to give you a taste of Peter’s medicine…

Here is a heartful video I made paying homage to his wondrous wisdom:

Peter’s style of communication is highly unique/refined and may take some getting used to. It is absolutely worth taking the time.

He calls his enlightenment teaching The Yoga of Radiant Presence, which entails going directly to what Peter calls “Radiant Presence”: The immediate, unsayable field of light that we call “now.”

Peter masterfully instructs us to non-conceptually engage the texture of experience—to non-conceptually feel the shimmering presence of Now with ever-increasing sensitivity.

As we do so, Radiant Presence—which is synonymous with Being, Reality, God, Tao, The Absolute, etc.—will increasingly reveal to us its actual condition and will begin to teach us directly.

It will teach us that it is, to quote Peter, “a miraculously present infinite field of transcendental being presenting itself to itself as subtle radiant energy of pure intelligence”… and We Are That.

Anyway, enough from me…

Enjoy these gorgeous quotes and passages from the legend, Peter Brown:

“What’s happening is it.
What is, is powerful.
You can never lose reality—it is always real, no matter what it looks like.
This is the powerful fact. You are real, this is real, you are this.
Here I am = the profound powerful simple fact.
Just feeling that is the ultimate meditation (but you can’t pin it down or find it!).”
— Peter Brown, The Astounding Nature of Experience

—

“Defining is clinging, and it kills the life of what it is you’re defining.
Anything that seems to be something is jail.
Naked open self never went anywhere, nor will it ever.”
— Peter Brown, The Astounding Nature of Experience

—

“Leave the realm of the describable! It doesn't exist!
You define your problems into existence, as well as their hoped-for solutions,
thus creating an apparent difficult, limited reality, where none exists whatsoever.
This actual, present condition is absolutely inconceivable;
ANY way you hold it to be with your descriptions and ideas
does not actually exist, and cannot in actuality limit or entrap you.
Your imagined un-realization, confusion, spiritual obscuration,
as well as the imagined enlightenment that you hope for as its solution,
DO NOT EXIST! They are defined into apparent existence
by your imagination.
This actual condition can be clearly known as it is,
but not if it is held to be this or that
in imagination.
Let go of all descriptions, and then what is this? You cannot say...
...but it is not nothing, and is wonderful beyond imagination.”
— Peter Brown

—

“Absolute receptivity and radiance is already the condition.
There is just this shining presence, experience IS.
All is spontaneously arising.
The mind is a spontaneous upwelling, it is just a medium or an interface.
Thoughts generate emotions and importance.
There is no need for urgency, it doesn’t matter.

THIS IS, is the solution, the mother lode. Feel it. Beingness.
This is, and can show up in any way, shape or form.
This is the paramount practice. See the beingness. It’s all “this”, no “that”.
IS = beingness
HERE = radiance
Dharmakaya: Beingness, clarity, the screen.
Sambhogakaya: Radiant presence, blasting.”
— Peter Brown, The Astounding Nature of Experience

—

“So we are left with Reality apparently being a wholly mysterious “consciousness/energies field”, consisting of nothing but itself; experienced by nothing but itself; and miraculously appearing in itself as a unified, infinitely complex, ever-changing, never-repeating open-ended whole, within which infinitely complex degrees of patternings are spontaneously simultaneously appearing/disappearing. This is close to the true picture. Now, commonly people are indoctrinated during their upbringing into a complex set of beliefs about Reality; that might include ideas that they are small, independent, material entities descended from apes, living within a huge, objectively-existing material universe that is separate from them, and consisting of myriad, independent objects interacting chaotically; and that their existence, fulfillment, and persistence, depends upon the achieving or avoiding of certain objectively-existing situations that they have limited power to enact/avoid. This might be the common world view of the majority of humans.
That model is profoundly different from that arrived at by our examination above. We have seen that no discrete objects can be meaningfully differentiated from the field of experience, and that the Experiencer (consciousness) can’t be meaningfully differentiated from the objective energies of experience, so on that basis alone, every element of that common model of our situation is refuted.”
— Peter Brown, Dirty Enlightenment

—

“Whatever is real for you now is your process.
Authenticity with where you are is the best way to progress.
What a tangled web we weave till we stop weaving it!”
— Peter Brown, The Astounding Nature of Experience

Peter Brown teaching at a digital retreat in 2021

“Access “points of wonder” — these are direct revelations you don’t know and can’t contrive.
Discover easy access points, find your strengths in this.
Become an expert at getting out of reference points—these strategies are very personal.
Even “manufactured” freshness (like forcing yourself to be very immediate with experience) is OK because freshness is all there is!
Dullness is made out of freshness!
The only building blocks of “dullness” are freshness and silence and mystery and openness!
Bondage is made out of enlightenment.
Confused dull thoughts are miraculous! What are they made of? Where do they happen? The answer is stupefying!
Notice their dynamism.
In regards wanting things stable and tied down: The certainty of oblivion/abyss is my parachute, my safety net. ( ! )
One’s personal point of view is a harmonic of infinite openness.”
— Peter Brown, The Astounding Nature of Experience

“Light, radiance, presence — let it reveal itself just by being with it.
Thinking we know blocks noticing.
Be present, not in a context, but floating.
Be with experience like a child, without holding it to be anything.
Undercut any knowing, cataloguing, stuckness—just leave it.
Look at a cloud, or attend to some weird sound, something not part of your story. The infinite will come to you, ready and eager to reveal.
Let go. Relax into it.
Let yourself get buzzed, blissed out. It’s seductive.
No need to figure it out, just enjoy it.
Loosen up, let yourself get playful. Get in the mood to play, to get seduced, not work!
Enjoyment is the most efficient, because it’s fun, luscious, seductive, a recreation.
It’s the life force itself. How good can that be? — Drug of all drugs!
Just bask in it, no need to be so forceful, contrived or controlled.
It’s about getting to the rawness and nakedness — actuality is already here, we’re just denying it.
It’s ready to wash you away. The “trickle” (only getting small tastes of it) is me blocking it.
Just surrender to what’s here. It turns out to be fantastic. It comes to us.
The textural (feeling the texture of experience) is a good way to go, but as bliss, sexual, yumminess. Letting go into a higher deeper reality.
We’re not doing, we’re being done by this huge tidal wave – it’s been done, we’re just being carried along.
It is not about individuality or self-development – it’s about letting go.
Control and rationality will not win.
The real power is in irrational immediate being.
You are already completely out of control.”
— Peter Brown, The Astounding Nature of Experience

—

“By the time strong emotional reactions are being dominant in experience, you're at the extreme of failure to recognize the true context, so from that perspective it's challenging. It's like asking what to do about the titanic when it's already hit the iceberg and sank, and is on the bottom of the ocean...
Strong emotional reactions are always reactions to narratives that the mind holds to be true, and in fact all mental narratives are hypotheses, just possibilities, and are never true. So there are a progression of stages in orienting to experience— 1) open experience, 2) mental possible interpretation, 3) orienting to the interpretation as if it was true, 4) emotionally reacting to that interpretation.
It's easiest to break this chain earlier on, so in yoga spend attention on noticing open experience, and the way possible interpretations spontaneously appear in mind, and notice that the interpretations are always simplistic and oversimplified in relation to the what is actually being experienced. Over time, you will develop a clear knowing that mental narratives are always inaccurate, and the tendency to believing in and reacting to narratives will diminish. In other words, save the titanic before it hits the iceberg, it's a lot easier then than after it's sunk!”
— Peter Brown

—

“This word experience, what that actually refers to is, inconceivable. It’s the literal presence of God. It’s the literal presence of the Absolute. It’s the manifest concrete presence of infinity. And we don’t recognize it, because we’re interpreting: “Oh, it’s just me, and I’m just living my life here in California, blah blah blah, watching the meltdown of civilization, so on and so forth, what’s new.”
BUT it’s not really that. It’s something else UTTERLY. And that’s the point—to get to that, “It’s something else.” And you get that most directly when you just FEEL it. Just feel this presence—the presence of experiencing. And right away you’re engaging it with a non-conceptual intelligence—with a very powerful assimilative intelligence that doesn’t use concepts, doesn’t use words, doesn’t use process. It’s just a direct KNOWING. And this knowing recognizes, this knowing deepens, this knowing knows and builds. And it’s the development of this irrational knowing that is what’s powerful in unfoldment.
And this knowing is developed by feeling actuality. By feeling it very intimately and sensitively and intelligently but not conceptually. It’s not a matter of suppressing concepts, but recognizing that concepts have nothing to do with it—it’s about the feeling. And because of our intense addiction and habit of being distracted by concepts, they sort of are the enemy in the initial phases.”
— Peter Brown

—

“What this is, what you are, is entirely independent from what it looks like, from what seems to be happening. Improving apparent circumstances won't improve what's actually going on, what you actually are; and perhaps the more welcome news is that if circumstances seem difficult or unpleasant, what is actually happening, what you are, is not diminished or in any way impacted.
As example, if you're watching a movie, watching a beautiful happy movie or watching a depressing or frightening movie, in no way changes the fundamental event of you watching a movie, which is in fact all that's happening in that case-
Spiritual achievement is realizing what the actual condition of this being is in itself, irrespective of what it may appear to be or be thought to be. This realization allows the yogi to enjoy the intrinsic nature of actuality, its absolute independence, eternality, omnipotence, completeness and meaningfulness etc., and to be freed from the more difficult limited implications of what it may be appearing as or be thought to be.”
— Peter Brown

—

“In actuality, you are a miraculously present infinite field of transcendental being presenting itself to itself as subtle radiant energy of pure intelligence. This truth is consonant with the view of Dzogchen, Kashmir Shaivism, Advaita Vedanta, Kundalini Yoga, primal Buddhism, and with all radical spiritual traditions. Since this is already and eternally the sole condition, the spiritual challenge is merely to recognize that this is the case, with no special conditions or abilities needing to be cultivated, nothing in one's life needing to be changed or improved in the slightest.”
— Peter Brown

—

“What you are actually is beyond words, but it would be not untrue to say you are nothing whatsoever other than pure, infinite, disembodied consciousness/intelligence; a field of miraculous infinite light; God dreaming itself; an infinite point of pure potential; or the infinite implications of nothing whatsoever.
The immediate presentation of this unspeakable actuality is the field of your experience, which is an instantaneously appearing virtual field of Radiant Presence as apparent qualities. This is the actuality of which every/ and any/ thing that you think exists consists. This is inclusive and complete; nothing whatever other than this field exists. In short, the entirety of Reality is the "bubble" of YOUR experience, the field of Radiant Presence, which alone exists.
This is the totality of Reality. This is not theoretical, but is actually, immediately real; always the case right here right now.”
— Peter Brown

—

“Your present experience, just as it is, is the miraculous presence of transcendental Absolute Reality. The process of coming to recognize that this is so is the Yoga of Radiant Presence.
The only thing that prevents this recognition is imagining that experience is limited, mundane, finite, and understandable, with its implications of dullness and unsatisfactoriness. This imagining is easily seen through by examining your experience without preconceptions, which will reveal its infinite, instantaneous, spontaneous, miraculous nature, and allow you to enjoy the implications of this Truth.
Please feel free to explore more;
PRACTICING THE YOGA of RADIANT PRESENCE—
Experience is Yoga.
Experience is actually the miraculous, spontaneous presence of consciousness exploring itself as hyper-intelligent engagement with an infinity of unresolvable richness.
Noticing that this is so is the practice of Yoga.
The impediment to Yoga is orienting to mental interpretations as if they were accurate.
This impediment can be addressed by noticing the constant presence of unresolvable richness, direct experience, nothing other than which is always present even when interpretation is appearing; and in comparing the interpretations to the context of direct experience, it is self-evident that interpretations are incapable of accurately including the infinity and instantaneous spontaneity of the unresolvable richness in their narrative.
Thereby the yogi becomes freed from belief in the accuracy of interpretations, and knows the infinite fullness of ever-present actuality that alone exists, Radiant Presence.”
— Peter Brown

—

“Regarding spiritual paths:
True spiritual power liberates, not enslaves (so be careful!).
The only place to look is at what your experience is, not working out being entrapped in semantic spider webs of different paths and teachings.
It’s about self-recognition, a subtle appreciation of self. Anything that facilitates that, good.
You can’t do anything wrong, it’s just a matter of efficiency.
You don’t need to solve problems, you just need to go to reality, which is completely available.
Completely ignore all situations, duck them and go to the present. Go to infinite radiant presence.
Resolution or rejection is fantasy, something to make peace with or not is imagination.
The most efficient way to deal with this is to see it is imagination. Like when trying to get out of a maze in a dream, just wake up!
Look at whatever maze is present.
The story truly doesn’t matter - undercut the story, just experience energy, patterns of light.
Once you think something’s there, you get sucked in.
Coincidences signal that you are getting back to your own real time energy.
There is not a game or puzzle that’s solvable.
The solution to a problem is to see there is no problem.
Just find places right now where you’re already open and incoherent, already not part of the story, interpretation, history, or identity.
Presence, I am here, is already here, it is unassailable truth.
“Here” in vague ways and sensations.
You’re already out of the soap opera.
“I am here” is already outside the game. It’s about learning to appreciate this.
The essential point is to notice more nakedly, keep your eye on that, but be careful not to turn that into some sort of secondary practice…
What’s in your face right now, BANG, the whole puzzle, the whole solution. My experience is already the ultimate koan.
“Failing” is never final.
In regards teachers and spiritual groups again:
There is nothing wrong with staying away from crazy, entrapping people.
The real power is outside the system.
The more concrete the system, the less it gets to the juice.
Magic doesn’t come by contrivance, only by grace, like lightening.
If you can’t jump into infinity, just be here, and it will happen.
It doesn’t matter what you do, see what it is that is happening.
The point isn’t states, playing one state against another, but that THIS can look like anything.
You’ll find that what’s happening in deeper states is always what’s happening in other states.
YOU is the only thing EVER happening. Here now.
You being you is profoundly powerful, the awesome presence of reality. Empowered, authorized, the highest authority.”
— Peter Brown, The Astounding Nature of Experience

—

““Fuck it” is the main mantra. Kick back, let go of letting go.
Be an aspiring bum.”
— Peter Brown, The Astounding Nature of Experience

—

“You being right here is reality, the meaning, the touchstone, the authority.
You verify this, it’s down to you.
The solution to ego is not in ego, but in context [that ego happens in], the non-conceptual aspects of you (like go to light, sound, sensations, etc). Ego/identity is not a problem in larger experience. It’s just not particularly important – not personal.
Stories don’t obscure reality, they are small – they exist in the context of reality.
The only problem is mistaking imagination/story for reality (actually there is only reality, and reality mistakes itself. Illusion is a mechanism of reality).
My consciousness/experience alone exists. …an aloneness of inclusion.
“Limit” is made of infinity. We are not limited by any condition, we are always “outside” of it, like a lucid dream.
Always go to the energy aspect of experience.
What you can’t stop is noticing.
Engagement with reality is a “full contact sport”, energy contact.
Notice what is already the case: Is-ness, the presence of present experience, the feeling of existence.
You are a field of infinite light.
There’s a nonlinear radiance when you relax tunnel vision. There is awareness beyond illness and death – just knowing there is this transpersonal awareness (that goes beyond death) is powerful.
You will keep running into the “same” stuff until it’s OK, no problem. Life throws shit at you until you can handle it.
Hang with problems that show up without labels, without them referring to you.
Or rather just see them as bright lights showing up – problems then take care of themselves.
So instead of “duck and cover”, you can just turn down the volume, “OK, here it is…”, then go to context.
Not to worry, it all takes care of itself, even if it’s not fun.
Problems;
a. Can deal with them on their own terms,
b. be more neutral, or
c. go to context, see it’s nothing.
All problems are from not seeing things as they actually are (but as we imagine)
The way out is by seeing things as they actually are.
Confusion is not a problem, it’s an output of clarity, it is happening in clarity.
Experience comes to you, you don’t have to go to it. We are swamped by experience.
This is not an accident, and meaning is inherent.
If you don’t grab for it, it comes to you.
— Peter Brown, The Astounding Nature of Experience

—

“The YOGA OF RADIANT PRESENCE is the actual nature and process of reality itself, so is intrinsically the most fundamental, essential, and efficient spiritual engagement possible. It consists of the settling of all identification with orienting experience toward partial and incomplete interpretations of what it is, into the comprehensive actuality of what is authentically present; partially describable as an absolutely transcendental field of Radiant "subtle energy", the actual energy of being/consciousness/experience itself.
This Yoga is the "process" by which any being who has realized reality has actually done so, regardless of the spiritual tradition or context that the being may seem to be imbedded in. This Yoga is the essence of Dzogchen, Kashmir Shaivism, Advaita, Tantra, Raja and Jnana yogas, etc.
However, this Yoga need not be presented in terms of the complex theories and terminology of these various philosophies, and here the endeavour is made to present it directly in common language.
This Yoga leads directly to realization, liberation, enlightenment, and actually uses the condition of the "goal" itself as the "path" to that goal.
Engaging in this Yoga directly requires "transmission", which is the discovery of the actual condition of one's experiential Presence. This discovery generally occurs through engagement with a being who embodies the realization of this actuality.”
— Peter Brown

—

Rest in absolute openness, absolute unfindability. Fluid, open, trippy – you have already dived in, there is no such thing as not swimming around. There is no obligation - be playful, loose, unstuck, not stiff, “fuck it”!
— Peter Brown, The Astounding Nature of Experience

—

“I” is not a little piece of the puzzle, it’s the fucking table the puzzle is on. It’s a matter of appreciating this fact. It is not a little factor, it is the ultimate factor.
Notice you’re always hanging out in being.
Being itself is juicy, it doesn’t need embellishment.
This is not about getting new information, but new priorities.
You can still seek experiences but without the desperation.
You understand through participation, not analysis.
What this already inherently is, is the kicker.
You can’t not have that, it is an absolute given.
All the pressure is off. That’s freedom.
Because clarity is always here, it seems mundane, we’re not looking at it.
It turns out the mundane is special.
— Peter Brown, The Astounding Nature of Experience

—

““Fuck it” is the best mantra. Truly.”
— Peter Brown, The Astounding Nature of Experience

Peter on Jed McKenna

I was tickled when I realized Peter had read the work of the notorious Jed McKenna, another one of the greatest trickster teachers of enlightenment I’ve come across. Peter said the following of Jed:

“Have you read the books of Jed McKenna? If not, I'd recommend them. I don't agree with the specifics of much of what he says, but the tenor of it, and the context, is right on the money.
[…]
Jed approaches this stuff from the opposite direction from me, but it's the same topic. His approach is to address and dismantle/destroy all clinging to delusion, leaving "the dark void" or "non dual abiding awareness" as that which remains; whereas I recommend ignoring the delusion and going right to radiant presence, which is in actuality what he refers to as his "void" and "anda". I think my approach is more efficient and a hell of a lot easier/more fun, but hey, there's no rule book…”
— Peter Brown, The Astounding Nature of Experience

A Final Gem

I haven’t been able to transcribe the exact quote, but perhaps my favorite moment ever with Peter came in a satsang when I asked him a question. I wish I had the entirety of Peter’s original answer because he said a few other things, and it was truly glorious. However, I still want to take a stab at the essence of what was said.

I asked (paraphrasing):

“Peter, some teachers place a large emphasis on the Absolute being “beyond God” or beyond Being or beyond Radiant Presence. Or, similarly, place a large emphasis on Parabrahman being beyond Brahman. Such teachers may insist that one must ascend through the various ‘jhanas’ of Buddhism until one reaches the ninth jhana and has ‘cessation’ or ‘pop out’ experiences/realizations, and only then does one realize the Absolute. What do you think of stuff like this?”

Peter immediately replied (paraphrasing):

“That’s ALL hogwash. There is ONE reality. This is it, right now. What else would this be? This is the Absolute. It can look like anything. It can look like this, it can look like rarefied meditative states, whatever. This is IT.”

As he said this, I felt a bubbling giddiness erupt like butterflies in my chest and I burst into uncontrollable laughter. It was an exquisitely juicy moment of transmission and confirmation for me.

Once more: I love you, Peter. Thank you for existing.

In the Peace of Radiant Presence,
JB

P.S. Be sure to check out Peter’s website, The Open Doorway. Within it you’ll find many golden breadcrumbs of wisdom, including the Zoom link / time for his weekly no-cost Saturday satsangs (in the ‘Events’ tab—there’s one tomorrow!), as well as a huge treasure trove of majestic audio / video clips of Peter’s teaching.

If you feel called to go deeper, consider Simple Freedom and Brothers of the Ever Innocent Heart.

Jordan Bates is a dad, husband, and author of 6 books.