Pointers to CONSCIOUSNESS (A Guide to YourSELF)
Sudhakar V Reddy
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INTRODUCTION
Pointers to the nature of Consciousness is presented based upon the wisdom of the ancient Upanishads, the Perennial Philosophy of India. These pointers should serve to clear any doubts that a seeker has in his/her path to Self-Inquiry and Self-Realization.
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The Source of the Manifestation is called Pure-Consciousness or Supreme Reality, also known as 'Chith-Sath.' 'Chith' is Limitless-Knowing or Limitless-Intelligence and 'Sath' is (its) Limitless-Existence or Limitless-Aliveness. Limitless-Existence being inert/insentient (all-pervading empty space) needs Chith as its Witness and Chith needs Limitless-Existence to "be." Chith-Sath being the Absolute (there can be only one limitless/formless entity), it is one and the same, 'Sath-Chith.' Without being, you cannot know and without knowing, being is not. Pure-Consciousness=Knowing of IS-ness=Knowing of Aliveness=I='Aathma'. Chith-Sath/Pure-Consciousness is the The-Whole, The-All. Pure-Consciousness, although being the One-and-Only Source, is referred as Chith-Sath (as two apparent causes), because the apparent cosmic duality of subject and object is hidden in it as Chith and Sath. Chith and Sath are like two sides of the same coin. Chith-Sath is transcendent as well as immanent.
Whatever you can be conscious of...is not Pure-Consciousness. Pure-Consciousness is that which truly IS (in past, present and future). Pure-Consciousness itself is eternally knowing just by being, just by its presence, just by its aliveness; it is the unchanging and the ultimate "subject." It can never be found/known as an object because we cannot find/know something that we ourselves are (we cannot know what we are and we cannot be what we know). An eye can see everything else, but cannot see itself. Fire can burn the other, but cannot burn itself. The proof for Pure-Existence/Sath is Pure-Consciousness/Chith. The proof for Pure-Consciousness/Chith is Pure-Consciousness/Chith itself.
Chith-Sath is Peace-Happiness ('Aananda') itself because there is no "other" in The-One. Darkness hiding in light is light itself. In the interest of experiencing its glory, Chith-Sath must "separate" out in its dream to "become" two: Chith and Sath or light and darkness or intelligence and inertness (The-All cannot separate out actually because it has no parts or it is not a compound or it is not composed, dream is the only way). Without experience, Chith-Sath's glory remains as a concept only. It must also be perceptual.
The Changeless/Action-less Pure-Consciousness ('Brahman') is not available for any transaction until it reflects on energy/matter (or Ignorance or 'Maya'; 'maya' means that which measures and limits everything), just like pure light is invisible until it reflects on an object. Reflected-Pure-Consciousness makes life/transaction possible just like a reflected light makes seeing possible. Chith-Sath gets seemingly separated in its reflection (like in a night-dream). Reflected-Chith is the intelligent or knowing principle (consciousness or intelligence or 'gnyaana', non-moving, non-changing), Reflected-Sath is the material or life principle (aliveness, energy or 'praana', moving, changing) and Ignorance/Maya is the desire/illusion/cause in Manifestation. Reflected-Pure-Consciousness starts moving to become the world and the pseudo-subjects while the background/substratum, Pure-Consciousness, remains unchanged/unmoved (like the unmoving sun promoting the movement of a plant, like the unmoving magnet promoting movement of iron fillings). Pure-Consciousness is, thus, called The Unmoved-Mover. The original and its reflection simultaneously, pure light and reflected light simultaneously (an intense movement with lightening speeds is taking place inside a solid rock and yet, the rock as a whole is not moving). This is how Chith-Sath's dream gets started. The Dreamer, however, is the Reflected-Pure-Consciousness, not Pure-Consciousness (Pure-Consciousness is Action-less and Desire-less). We may call this Dreamer as God, the Creator ('Eeshwara').
What is the difference between Pure-Consciousness and Reflected-Pure-Consciousness? Pure-Consciousness (Chith-Sath) is not Self-Conscious whereas Reflected-Pure-Consciousness or, simply, Reflected-Consciousness, or Consciousness is Self-Conscious, or knows itself as "I AM." "I AM" is known, as it is reflected in a medium (of energy). Reflected-Consciousness is the impersonal presence of sense-of-presence whereas Pure-Consciousness is the absence of both the presence of sense-of-presence and the absence of sense-of-presence. Pure-Consciousness also knows itself by mere being (sun shines on objects and also on itself just by being the sun), but it does not know itself as "something," or as a "self" because there is no "other" for it, and also, there is no medium of energy available to be reflected upon (energy is not separate in Pure-Consciousness "prior" to Manifestation/dream). This medium of energy is only available to God/Creator or Dreamer due to Ignorance/Maya (your night-dream can only happen to you when you ignore your limitless nature in the interest of a limited world). If Pure-Consciousness is like the unseen fire, Reflected-Consciousness is like the seen fire through a medium of wood.
Reflected-Consciousness may be called as Consciousness-at-Rest and the world as Consciousness-in-Movement (world is a modulation of Consciousness-at-Rest like TV images are modulations of the TV screen). This is the brilliance of Chith-Sath's dream, an apparent separation by reflection, a subject/mind from inside and an object/matter outside, just like in a night-dream. The pseudo-subject is you, the imaginary Chith ('I') or the imaginary soul, and the object is the world (including your body-mind), the imaginary Existence or the imaginary Sath ('AM').
Due to the apparent separation in The-One for a perceptual experience, Peace-Happiness that was in The-Unity is temporarily lost. This is by design, as you have to lose Peace in order to experience Peace. In order to re-claim that Peace-Happiness, Chith-Sath embarks on the journey of life/transaction in a playful manner by experiencing itself through an apparent/imaginary "other." Chith-Sath wants to wake up itself to itself in a hide-and-seek play (because it is the only One to play). How does it wake up? By dissolving the imaginary "other" into itself knowingly. Being knowingly is the highest state of existence. The first to be dissolved is the separate-self (pseudo-subject) and the next, the world (object) and, with that, the Creator (God).
Whatever stays with you at all times and in all conditions is you. And that is Knowing or Pure-Consciousness or Chith-Sath. In waking and dream states you know that you are conscious. In deep-sleep you know (or you are conscious) that you are not-conscious of any objects and you also know that you have enjoyed peace and aliveness. Since you, as Consciousness, are conscious through all times and in all states, it is the only continuous element of experience (body-mind is dormant in deep-sleep and you have a different body-mind in a night-dream), and so, you are that Absolute-Knowing (not a body-mind). Chith-Sath or Pure-Consciousness is your intrinsic nature.
Consciousness/Awareness is not the same as Alertness (Consciousness and Awareness are interchangeable words). Mental Alertness/Attentiveness/Focusing can be switched on and off, but Consciousness can't be switched on and off. Consciousness is always on, 24/7. When you are (alive), you are aware. And you, as Consciousness, always are (alive). You are alive in deep-sleep (knew that you were alive and peaceful) and so, you will be alive in death also (death is nothing but a "longer" deep-sleep). A rock is alive (a lot is going on at the microscopic level with an order; Pure-Consciousness which is alive is All-Pervading) but not alert. Alive-ness means to "be-alive" or, simply, to "be," and a rock "is." It is impossible to separate out Consciousness and Aliveness/Existence/IS-ness in actuality. You are alive in this body, or some other body or no body at all. You will never die (in the absence of any body, Chith enjoys its Aliveness/Sath as Infinity). Life begets life and cannot know death, ever. When in a body, you are expressing your Aliveness/Existence through that body. Body is a medium of expression for Consciousness. Unlimited form requires a limited form for its expression. Doesn't space find its expression when a pot is filled with water (that pot-space is now useful)?
If God is real, it is unchanging. If you are false or changing, there is no question of false joining/uniting with God (because of two distinct natures). Therefore, you must also be real as God, but forgot about it in ignorance or dream or imagination. Wake up from this waking dream by knowing your true nature to dissolve the falsity. Twilight’s rope-snake (falsity) will dissolve/disappear upon clear-seeing because it was never there to begin with.
Whatever seen outside of you is a part and seems real. Whatever is seen inside of you, becomes an imagination and you are not afraid of it. Night-dreams and day-dreams are good examples (a day-dream tiger is not a problem). Therefore, expand your mind to include all. See the world in knowledge, not with knowledge (if a dream is seen in knowledge upon waking, it is false as seen; if seen with knowledge inside the dream, it seems real and outside of you). The world must be dream-like because for the awakened, it dissolves like a dream and yet seen by him as well as the rest, whereas the rest believe that the world is real. If it was real, and when the world is dissolved for an awakened, it should have been gone/disappeared for everyone.
What is the use of Self-Realization? To lose ignorance of not-knowing your true or absolute nature or Absolute Knowledge. Absolute Knowledge or the Base Knowledge or the Complete Knowledge makes all other relative knowledges pseudo because the Absolute Knowledge can never be falsified/negated. In Self-Realization there is only "One-Self," the "otherness" is dissolved into that "One-Self" like shade dissolving into light, dream dissolving into waking. Is otherness or separateness not the cause of all the misery in life? What is the method to Self-Realization? Listen to guru and scriptures, contemplate and live that truth by seeing that truth in the world. This is the only method as the Absolute-Truth is the only 'One,' because the Absolute (Non-duality) is transcendent as well as immanent (dreamer's mind is transcendent as well as immanent to its dream world; if the world is manifested out of the Absolute, it can never be away from the Absolute; as above, so below; if a thing comes in to existence only when another thing is present, and ceases to exist when the other thing is absent, then the two cannot be different from each other, they must be of the same intrinsic nature just like gold and gold ornaments, like dreamer's mind and dream objects). In relative world, however, there can be many paths to the same goal, but, not to the Absolute. The paths to the temple may be many but there is only one door to the temple.
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Anything changed/formed/seen/known or knowable is inert. In other words, anything that is changing and finite is inert. Transaction between the unknowable/imperceivable/unthinkable/unchanging and the knowable/perceivable/thinkable/changing, or a transaction between the Infinite and the finite is life. If both of them are knowable/finite they would be inert. One inert object cannot transact with another inert object. If both of them are unknowable/infinite, they would be one and the same. Absolute or Infinity, like space, cannot transact with itself.
Identification with a limited body-mind makes it (seemingly) real (like in a night-dream). World seen through this body-mind makes the world also (seemingly) real. Transaction between these two supposedly real entities leads to suffering (you and the world, ideas and forms). What to do? Lose your ignorance (as a separate-self, as a limited body-bound consciousness) through absolute knowledge, the world will dissolve in you, the Limitless-Consciousness, as your appearance or reflection. The world will not bother you then, as excess heat cannot bother fire. Ignorance (world is outside of me, a partial knowledge) means not having the complete-knowledge about yourself (world is inside of me). Upon Self-Knowledge, you can witness the world (which includes your body-mind) as your own existence and enjoy the play. Chith enjoying Sath. I enjoying AM. I AM THAT I AM.
Duality: An impersonal play of life with two inter-connected opposites. A mind inside knowing matter outside (association with a body-mind). An Impersonal Manifestation. Observer object and observed object. Dualism: A personal play of life with "me" and the "other" (identification with a body-mind leading to separatism). Me and the other are taken as real. Monism: Oneness. Subject and object are parts of a Single Reality like sparks of a fire and the fire. However, one brings the concept of two or one derives its meaning from two. Non-duality: Non-existence of a second "thing" as other than itself. Life becomes a witnessing. Judgement of one against the other is dropped. Chith enjoying Sath. Non-duality is called 'Advaitha' in Vedic tradition (Advaitha teaching is known as the science of the Absolute). The Subject alone exists. In Duality: A equals A and B equals B. In Dualism: A equals A and cannot equal B. Monism: A equals A and B. Non-duality: B neither does nor does not equal A.
Out of knower, knowing and known, knowing is true. Any knowledge happens only in Unity-Consciousness (true knowledge is non-dual). Chith (the unchanging aspect in you that knows) must contact the Sath (existence or aliveness or being aspect that IS) in an object to shine as Chith-Sath or Pure-Consciousness. Knowing is knowing the Knowing. Every time we perceive or conceive an object, Pure-Consciousness reveals itself. But owing to the covering by the primordial ignorance, common person is not aware of this constant self-revelation taking place in his day-to-day life. Remember, if all is changing then change cannot notice a change (a thought can never know a thought and can never know another thought).
For a body-bound Consciousness or mind (limited light), world (darkness) appears to it as outside. However, any object has to be in or inside Limitless-Consciousness to be truly experienced (experiencing food on the table is not enough; food has to be inside you, to have it dissolved in you to have a satisfactory experience). For Limitless-Consciousness (infinite light), world (darkness) is inside of it and, so, dissolves into it to "become" it (darkness is always outside of light; if it comes inside of light, it becomes the light). The world, then, cannot be experienced by Limitless-Consciousness as separate from itself (Consciousness as Infinity cannot perceive Consciousness). And that is the reason for life/transaction, Consciousness to experience itself, itself as love, through an apparent "other." Consciousness is that with which experience is known, in which experience appears and with which experience is made.
You know (in other words, you are conscious) that you are conscious. Are you not? Being conscious is our experience. Or, it is our experience that there is Consciousness. What is it that is conscious of being conscious? Or, what is it that is conscious that there is Consciousness? Obviously, it is only Consciousness' experience that it is conscious or there is Consciousness. In other words, it is Consciousness' experience of itself. This proves that Consciousness always knows itself (whether it knows an apparent object or not). Whatever does not require another instrument of knowledge or witness over it or self-experiencing or self-evident must be self-existing or independent or eternal (matter is not self-evident and, so, not self-existent and, hence, never "prior" to Consciousness; if Consciousness was the property of body/matter, why couldn't the body see it?; matter/object doesn't know itself and any other; object/body comes and goes but the subject/Consciousness, as the witness, must stay; if matter and Consciousness are homogeneous, any seeing is not possible). Therefore, you-Consciousness, can never experience your own birth or death. You are knowingly ever-present, ever-alive. Did you (or anyone else) ever have the experience of Consciousness appearing or rising?
In ignorance, 'I' will appear as 'me' and 'mine.' In knowledge (recognition of your true/absolute nature), 'me' and 'mine' will dissolve into 'I.' When you see the rope in twilight clearly, the rope-snake will dissolve into the rope automatically (the snake was never actually there to begin with). There is no need to abandon 'me' and 'mine,' only right vision is needed. With right vision, 'mine'/world/matter is Sath and the pseudo-you/mind/'me' is Chith. 'Me' and 'mine' cannot dissolve into 'I' ('Aathma'/Essence) if they are real, they can only be merged/dissolved into 'I' if they are reflections/modulations/shadows/false ('Anaathma', Non-I). As mind and matter are inter-dependent, they are false.
The ultimate form of prayer or meditation is to fall asleep whilst remaining awake. You are aware and awake in the “gap” between thoughts. Extend that “gap” by being aware of being aware in the midst of thoughts. Identifying with thoughts veils Awareness. Remain as Awareness/Consciousness and see the thoughts as the activity of Awareness. See the landscape in the movie as the activity of the screen so it shines with the screen.
Witnessing is not a thought. By making it a thought, you lose witnessing. If the thoughts are simply passing by and there is no idea that “I am witnessing,” then it is pure. If you are witnessing or knowing a thought, not as a distant witness but as your own activity, then it is pure witnessing…experiencing the experience. It is like an aware screen knowing its own movie where there is no distance from it to its movie or activity or coloring. There is no distance from an actor to the character he is playing unless he identifies himself as the character (then there is an apparent duality).
Bhakthi means ‘to catch hold of.’ Do not catch hold of God as a second person. Second person is always finite. You catch hold of you, the first person, the universal/infinite you. If you do that, you will not see any ‘mine’ that is not you, because the second is dissolved into you as you. This is true bhakthi.
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"I" is the name that whatever knows and also knows itself gives to itself. In other words, whatever knows, must also know itself (It is only Consciousness that can acknowledge the presence as well as the absence of Consciousness; Consciousness saying, "There is no Consciousness" is like someone saying "I don't have a tongue." "I" and Consciousness are synonymous words).
For darkness, there is light. For light, there is no darkness. In Chith-Sath, all of darkness is dissolved into light. In movement, darkness is expressed along with light like a shadow underneath an umbrella (shadow=matter and mind or forms and ideas, umbrella=ignorance/maya; there is a subtle difference between ignorance and maya, ignorance under control is maya and maya uncontrolled is ignorance).
World (of matter and mind) is apparently real, is a step towards liberation. World is real as Pure-Consciousness/Me, is liberation ('Moksha'). Moksha is the knowledge and feeling of oneness (or, more precisely, not-two-ness) right here, right now. Thinking about objects is bondage, thinking about Chith-Sath (Conscious-Ness) is liberation. They both reside in the mind. Freedom from anything different than you is moksha.
Liberation is not freedom from the other; but, more precisely, it is the freedom from the misconception or the illusion of the other.
Experience rises and falls in the Now or I AM. Therefore, time/thought is an illusion and, hence, space/perception. Illusion requires a background or substratum (movie requiring a TV screen; twilight's rope-snake requiring a rope). Time and space are also inter-dependent requiring something else that is independent for their existence. And that independent existence/background is Chith-Sath which is property-less.
No doing can take one to "being." Only with the recognition/remembrance of one's true nature as the Limitless-Consciousness, one can "be," because Pure-Consciousness is ready-made and everywhere. What kind of doing technique will you employ to "grab" space (Pure-Consciousness may, at best, be thought of as "knowing-space" or "intelligent-space" or "light-space")? In case of a formless/dimensionless substance, the idea of that substance in your mind is itself "being," is itself actual because it is the same inside and outside (it is all-pervading, transcendent as well as immanent; in relativity or finiteness, idea is different than actual because the actual-outside forms an image inside). Pot-space doesn't have to get out of the pot, it needs to recognize or have an idea that it is the infinite space already (pot-space "becoming" a pot-space is merely notional). Who is going to give you horizon, as it is everywhere? You are already in horizon. Just its recognition is enough. You will not attain horizon by traveling. Identification with a limited body has taken root at certain point in your mind ('Anthahkarana') and de-identification will take you out of that ignorance (ignorance means lack of complete-knowledge or lack of self-knowledge). Any doings (like prayer, rituals, karma-yoga, bhakthi-yoga, raja-yoga, etc.) are not necessary (this generation is ready for knowledge-yoga or self-inquiry as a direct path at once). All dualistic yogas (unions) help, but must terminate into 'gnyaana-yoga,' the path of knowledge or self-inquiry (because you are already THAT and you simply forgot). Self-inquiry is the necessary and the only path for Self-Realization (in karma-yoga, effort's result will be partial; in bhakthi-yoga, God's appearance is a form that is known as a second person which is false; in raja-yoga, one ignores the world and can never see Consciousness face-to-face). In this non-dualistic path, the one who is trying to merge, the one to be merged into and the merging are all one and the same.
Any object has apparently two aspects: unchanging and changing. The unchanging aspect is natural/comfortable/effortless/eternal and, hence, the essential aspect (if you take out the unchanging aspect from the changing, the changing aspect disappears whereas the vice versa is not true). For "moving" matter, the unchanging aspect is Knowing/Consciousness and for the "non-moving" matter, it is Being/Existence/IS-ness. Ultimately, Knowing and Being are one and the same, Chith-Sath; Consciousness of I-ness and/or Consciousness of IS-ness/Aliveness.
Falsity means it is false as an idea or form (mind or matter) but real as Pure-Consciousness in the same way as a movie is false as seen, but real as the TV screen. From the point of view of intellect, mind and matter are false but from the point of view of Consciousness, mind and matter are also real (only real can "emerge" from real). Illusion is another word for falsity ('mithya'). Anything known that is other than yourself, is false (Consciousness can only see something inert/lifeless, Consciousness cannot see Consciousness). Falsity or fiction is that, "which is not." We cannot say something is false unless we have a base which is Truth. However, from Truth's/Reality's perspective, falsity is false. Truth never goes out of Existence, falsity never comes into Existence.
Consciousness cannot be false as Conscious-ness means being conscious or being aware. What is the meaning of being aware? What is its reality?…Being aware. You cannot go any further than that. Consciousness’ reality is shining with itself.
Relativity means inter-dependence (which is false like a seed and tree that depend on the soil for their existence) and Absolute means independence which includes relativity. Anything seen/known as different than you, is false, because there is only One Reality. Besides, world is your imagination/thought which can be negated by you. The only aspect you cannot negate is yourself. Falsity is, thus, an appearance in you. Any form or concept or change or movement (space, time and causality) is, therefore, false. Which does not exist at both ends cannot exist in the middle either, it can only appear to exist. However, falsity can only be recognized upon seeing the Reality or Self-Realization (dream is falsified only upon seeing the waking). The recognition is that the world as the world was never there, but the world as Pure-Consciousness was always there. To know the false as false is the foundation of the quest for truth (except this, there is no other way of realizing the truth).
Ego, world and God/Creator are not there either in the beginning or in the end. Their apparent existences are in thought form (ego is a thought, world doesn't tell us that it exists, Personal-God is a human concept/creation) and Pure-Consciousness is "prior" to and "beyond" thought (beyond means in and through the world but not affected by the world or unreachable to the world like light pervading a hand). Pure-Consciousness is there in the beginning, in the middle and in the end. Pure-Consciousness must be the base for falsity as well as truth, because it negates falsity and it cannot negate itself.
Consciousness has never become the separate-self (ego). If it did, it could never get back to its original condition (there would be no scope for liberation). Consciousness "becoming" a separate-self is purely notional. And that's the only way Consciousness could "get out" of that condition.
What is known by the mind is unknown to Consciousness and what is known by Consciousness is unknown to the mind. Consciousness cannot be found by seeking, but only seekers find it.
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Matter and mind is the way of Consciousness' seeing and experiencing itself. Matter and mind are instruments. Mind (reflection of Chith in subtle matter) is the agency through which Consciousness sees matter (reflection of Sath) just like we manifest a mind-character (pseudo-subject) inside our night-dream to view the world (object). Consciousness only is the true "experiencer," experiencing itself.
Recognition of change as changeless and as your presence is true experience.
Awakening is not achieving something new but discarding the misconceptions that you are not awakened already. It is a cognitive shift, not an experiential shift. You are always experiencing Godliness, but you are simply ignoring to recognize.
Consciousness does not require mind to be Consciousness, but it requires mind to claim, "I am Limitless-Consciousness," just like a mind claims it is happy through a tongue.
Deep-sleep is the absence of duality. Awakening is the knowledge of the absence of duality. In awakening, the pseudo-subject also becomes an object to be witnessed together. It is called the enlightened duality. World being not there in deep-sleep gives you Peace. The understanding that the world is not really there in waking state gives you the same Peace. In waking and dream, I and mine are present. In deep-sleep, I and mine are absent. In enlightened state, only I is present as mine is merged/dissolved into I. Deep-sleep is not the absence of Consciousness, it is the Consciousness of the absence. From the perspective of deep-sleep itself, it is Pure-Consciousness or Sath-Chith.
Ignorance is only real from the illusory point of view of ignorance. That's why ignorance is called the illusion of ignorance. Ego is there because of ignorance and ignorance is there because of ego. Inter-dependence make both of them illusory.
Without realizing Self, if you perceive God, that would be a concept or an object (any object to a subject, Consciousness, is imagination). Upon realization, there is nothing other than God in Manifestation, the Universal-Consciousness, the Impersonal, Self-Aware Existence. Anything seen in the infinite mirror of Consciousness is its reflection and is false as the reflection (like your shade).
Hoping to join a God in heaven (a future experience) is like someone having a snake biting on his head now and saying that he is waiting for a doctor there, located in another country. You are prior to experience and all experiences vanish. Solve your problem now and here while alive. God is everywhere because It is both the intelligent cause as well as the material cause (the Maker) and, hence, must pervade the world (the Made) in and through every atom. God is everywhere, true, but you can find him no-where. Find him now-here. Now is the timeless time and here is the spaceless space, I AM. "I AM" is the closest door to "I AM Limitless-Consciousness." Trying to go to far away places to see the sky/space (or horizon) is meaningless.
If you are trying to join a God of your choice in a location called heaven upon leaving this body, why would you want to go there for eternity where there is a hell somewhere else?
Consciousness only knows itself. Illusion cannot know illusion and illusion cannot know Consciousness. If illusion thinks that it knows either illusion or Consciousness, it is a double-illusion.
If you can catch hold of the Formless-Existence (without qualities) in an object, it is non-duality where the object is dissolved into you (Pure-Consciousness) as a reflection/modulation. If you catch hold of a form in an object (with qualities) and see it as existent, it is duality which is binding.
Matter is a way of perceiving, not something really perceived. Mind is a way of creating that perception, not something really created. Because, whatever it is being created, has already been created in the eternal "moment" of Now. Therefore, life is an opportunity to re-create that Reality the way you want it. And the best way to do it or celebrate life is through re-creation or recreation (play of life) and demonstrate Who You Really Are.
Anything changing or moving or finite is inert and knowable. Is body-mind conscious? No. Only Consciousness is conscious and unknowable. Life is a transaction between the unknowable and the knowable. The knowable depends on the unknowable and, therefore, false. Because, there can be only One Reality. Reality playing with itself in a round-about way is life/transaction.
How best a mind can imagine Consciousness? Think of it as an infinite empty space filled with intelligence or knowing (eternally knowing). Now realize that the world is an appearance/modulation/'aabhaasa' of that, in that (like screen images are modulations of the TV screen, 'aabhaasa'='mithya'=it appears but not real; aabhaasa is limited/mutually-exclusive and dependent/perishable). If someone is sitting and standing, the one who is sitting and the one who is standing is the same 'I,' but standing by itself and sitting by itself, apparently different as poses, are his aabhaasa. The poses are real in reference to 'I,' but not-real in reference to the forms of the poses. Aabhaasa is there when seen but never actually there, Consciousness is not there when not seen but is eternally there. 'I-feeling' is the Substance/Consciousness/Aathma and 'mine' or something different than 'I' is aabhaasa/anaathma.
A tree is, a table is, a molecule is, an atom is, an electron is, a sub-atomic particle is, space is, thought is, unmanifest is etc. IS-ness is common and/or constant throughout the phenomenal existence and, hence, not limited by any existent or limited object. That means IS-ness or Existence is unlimited. Existence without being witnessed/known, is useless or basically dead, a No-Existence. So, Existence must be conscious. And that is Sath-Chith, One Limitless entity.
Awakening/Enlightenment is the simple recognition that, "I am Limitless-Consciousness, already/as-is."
You have "fallen" into thinking that you are limited to one finite body. That is ignorance (lack of complete-knowledge or lack of self-knowledge). You have "fallen" into thinking that you need to acquire the rest of the "not-you" into you. That is desire. You have "fallen" into "doing" to grab objects to fulfill you. That is action. Ignorance, desire and action form a circle of mundane life, i.e., the causal-body, the subtle-body and the gross-body. How do you get out of this circle? The truth is that you, as the Pure-I, are never there in that circle of ignorance. You just forgot all about it in the excitement of experience. Recognition is the only way you can get out of that imagined circle called samsaara (Truth is the most simplest "thing" in life. Truth should be the same or common for all, at all times and under all circumstances. Therefore, it must satisfy these three conditions: 1. Truth must be ever-present. 2. Truth must be unchanging. 3. Truth must be known by itself. This means, Truth=I AM...which is the common knowledge that everyone agrees upon and so this knowledge of I AM, Consciousness's knowledge of itself, must be the foundation for world's peace; not the body/matter: race-gender-color-etc, nor the mind: opinions-beliefs-religions-etc, but only the Consciousness. Take your stand as Consciousness). Whatever is never there, is called ignorance. Twilight's rope-snake was never there. Only the rope, Pure-Consciousness, is there. Realize.
If misery is away from Consciousness, it cannot be experienced. If it is in Consciousness, it will “become” Consciousness (Consciousness can only experience/know Consciousness). Misery cannot, thus, touch Consciousness. Therefore, misery is an illusion. But the ego pops up and says, “I have experienced misery and it is real.” This makes the ego an illusion also.
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"I AM" is God's name, the Universal-Ego, the Feeling of Aliveness. Impersonal, Self-Aware Existence. And so is our name because that is the only truthful statement we can say about ourselves (continuous impersonal experience that is true at all times and in all states). When we say, "I know that I am," the 'I' that "I am" is the same 'I' that knows that "I am" (knowing's presence or knowing's aliveness cannot be separately located from knowing). So, it is our experience that Existence is known by itself. In other words, Existence is self-knowing or self-aware ("I am aware that I am aware"). Since IS-ness/Existence is common to all things and cannot share any limits of existent things, it must be limitless and infinite, but when it becomes self-aware it adds a quality but is still infinite (there is no awareness of time and space in the impersonal "I AM"). So, when we say 'I,' the Impersonal Self-Aware Existence, or when God says 'I,' we must be referring to the same Infinite 'I' because there can only be one infinite entity. But why can't we feel that we are the same as the Creator? Because we entered this waking-dream unknowingly whereas Creator entered the waking-dream knowingly. He is a lucid-waker, a Witness ('Saakshi'). He is in the world but not of the world. Therefore, "I am a person" is blasphemous. Giving a personality to God is also blasphemous.
From "I AM" manifests, "I am this body-mind." From "I am this body-mind" manifests, "This is the world." From the last two, we either imagine a Personal-God or a No-God (both are beliefs; when an atheist says, "There is no God," he has already made up in his mind what God looks like, where it is, what its properties are; he has already decided that God is not currently here). And the Source for I AM is Chith-Sath (there is no presence of Self-Awareness in Chith-Sath).
Saying, "I AM not" is like someone saying, "I cannot speak."
Experience happening is the biggest miracle in life. And it happens on its own, just like our night-dream. It is a mystery. You cannot solve a mystery within the mystery. Illusion begets illusion. The only way to solve this is to go beyond it, at which point the question itself will drop away. Wouldn't all questions about our night-dream drop away upon waking?
World is real as Pure-Consciousness but illusion as matter-mind-soul. God/Creator is (and as) a giant-matter-mind-soul which, ultimately, is also an illusion. God/Creator can be negated as a seen or an unseen entity but not you, the negator/seer. If God is perfect and the only "One," there is no need for any Creation. As any individual, we could not have created the world. Therefore, Creation/Creator is NOT.
Matter, mind, soul are Pure-Consciousness but Pure-Consciousness is not matter, mind, soul in the same way as golden necklace, bangle, ring (names and forms of gold) are gold but gold is not necklace, bangle, ring (river means water but water does not mean river). Ideas and forms are dependent on the substance, because substance cannot be taken away from ideas and forms. Without the substance, ideas and forms are void. However, when ideas and forms are taken away from the substance, substance remains.
Time is never experienced. Time is an imagination device we use to divide the Indivisible, thus to see and experience the Indivisible more fully, as we are creating the time arbitrarily. Time as a thought form arises, abides and subsides in Consciousness and, hence, non-existent.
Selves/Objects don't have Existence. Existence has selves/objects (that too, from time to time). Existence/IS-ness is not a property of selves/objects, just like space is not a property of selves/objects.
We think that seven billion people are seeing one world. In actuality, One Consciousness is seeing seven billion worlds. Consciousness is One and is there prior to, during and after perception. All sense perceptions arise and sink in Consciousness.
For direct experience, see/think/feel Existence or Substance or Reality in existent forms. Complete experience happens only when forms lose their forms and become formless (seeing a meal is not enough, you get complete experience of knowing+feeling, only when it is absorbed or disappeared into your body). However, in the case of how to feel the Existence, knowing (or the knowledge) that the Existence is in you and you are in Existence is all that is required, because Existence is ready-made and present everywhere. Is the concept of space in your mind not feeling the space?
Life/Manifestation is a mystery. Do not try to understand life; just live it. Do not try to understand love; be the love. Love is God ("God is love" is less accurate). God is there as the world; therefore, see the world as God/Infinity. You -Pure-Consciousness-, however, is not a mystery. It is self-evident and self-revealed. When there is a mystery, there must be one that is mystery-less (seemingly defined is always indefinite like a twilight's rope-snake but the definer is always definite). When you "be" your Self, questions about the Manifestation will dissolve on their own.
Ego is not real as mind but real as Pure-Consciousness. World is not real as matter but real as Pure-Consciousness. God is not real as the Creator but real as Pure-Consciousness. Ego, world and God are the apparent activities of Pure-Consciousness but Pure-Consciousness itself cannot act.
In a night-dream, an individual soul is experiencing what is inside of it as an outside world. In the waking-dream, the Universal-Soul (God/Creator) is witnessing what is inside of it as the outside world. You, as the Pure-I ('Aathma'; Pure-Consciousness that is seemingly individuated in a body-mind-complex; the name that anything gives to itself is 'I' ), can also witness both the dreams. This witnessing (Pure-I) continues as long as Consciousness has an apparent medium of a causal-body to reflect upon. Once "out" of this medium, Pure-I stays as it is...Pure-Knowing-Being, Pure-Knowing-Aliveness, Pure-Knowing-Energy, Chith-Sath, Pure-Consciousness.
In meditative samaadhi, you are one with Reality (world is absent). In realization (‘advaithic samaadhi’), you realize that you are the Reality (world is your appearance).
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Consciousness is in movement as well as in non-movement. The only way to Self-Realization is to "grab" the non-moving aspect first because the moving aspect is illusory like a horizon which can never be "grabbed." Mentally separate your body from the Real-You. Go from "I am the body" to "this body is mine." Separate all experience from the Real-You. Upon realization, you can easily understand that all the moving aspects are a mere modulations of the same Non-Moving-Consciousness. There are no two entities there. Images on a TV screen are nothing but the TV screen. Waves in an ocean are nothing but water. Unless you see the rope first (in twilight's rope-snake analogy), you cannot dissolve the snake. You will now come to an understanding that "All is I" and "I AM all."
In relativity/duality, action brings one closer to one's goal. In Absolute, action takes one away from one's goal because Absolute is ready-made and is present everywhere (and also present where one is). In Absolute, action coincides with knowing, so recognizing is enough (Knowing is prior to experience and, thus, experience can never validate the Absolute). Pot-space doesn't have to go anywhere to realize that it is the same as the infinite space.
Ignorance, like darkness, cannot destroy ignorance. Action/Karma stems from ignorance. How can action destroy ignorance, then?
If one can see his own creation as a Witness, he is the Creator. If Creator falls down into his own creation, he becomes a creature (a separate-self).
Whatever seen (or known objectively) is duality. And whatever IS, is non-duality.
No-existence (void) exists as not, which means Existence IS. Sath IS. And the Witness of Sath is Chith or Pure-Consciousness. So, the position of no-existence can never be attained. Whatever is eternal (Being), it is always present. Whatever is transient (non-being), it is never actually present like a bent rod in a pool of water or a rope-snake in twilight. Thinking that the eternity is not present but the transient is only present is called illusion or ignorance or forgetfulness or lack of complete-knowledge.
If you only include (and mix) a little bit of 'mine' or matter/energy into Consciousness (the Real-You) and identify as you, it is called ego or separate-self or illusion ('Ahamkaara'). Trying to grab the rest of the matter to fulfill you is called delusion ('Mamakaara'). It is impossible to grab the whole with a limited body-mind. Disentanglement/Dis-identification with the body-mind-complex leads to liberation/freedom.
The idea that there is no attachment and no liberation is liberation. Only you, the one which says that these two are false, is the ultimate truth. For a disciple, liberation cannot be the goal but the removal of ignorance, as health automatically shines with the removal of a disease in a body.
If you see the world as a fact, it leads to suffering. Twilight's illusory rope-snake will certainly cause fear if it was imagined to be real. If you see the world as a waking-dream or an impersonal play, it leads to entertainment.
Fear is the result of seeing/knowing something or someone "other" or different than yourself. And this includes God/Creator also. There is absolutely no fear in yourself about yourself. So, be careful with fear because what you fear, you create. Out of all fears, the fear of death is the most fundamental (all other fears rise from this). Since your nature is Eternity, you feel squeezed in a time-bound body (time is the "other" for you). Knowing your nature as Infinity and Eternity will cure your fear. Fear is a false evidence appearing real.
Karma creates birth and birth creates karma. Since they are inter-dependent, they are relative. And relativity is false as they must depend on something independent. Since birth is false, soul/ego is false. If soul/ego is false, the world is false. If the world is false, God/Creator is false. The only independent, continuous, birth-less element in life is Consciousness. Consciousness alone truly exists. Therefore, relativity is real as Consciousness.
The known (matter) has apparently mixed up with Knowing (Consciousness) to form the knower or a finite body-bound consciousness (mind/ego). Yet, Consciousness is pure, whole and uncontaminated like space (actual split is impossible like one's night-dream). All it requires is to dissolve the minute little body of yours (out of an infinite world of matter) to claim your infinite nature. By dissolution (a psychological separation), darkness dissolves into light to "become" light.
In duality: one is not, then it is, then it is not. In non-duality: one that is, is always is and one that is not, is always not.
Relative or dualistic or objective science is analytical, fragmentary and inter-dependent and, thus, always endless and incomplete. There is always, "What is next?" Incomplete scientific knowledge, therefore, can never find solutions to life's problems (fear of death and suffering). Then what kind of science is required for a permanent solution? Whatever is left when you throw away all of the relative sciences. And that is the Absolute or subjective science. Relative sciences are many but subjective science is only one (independent). It is the science of non-duality, Advaitha. Advaitha or non-dualistic science is not created like any relative science because creation means duality (creator, created and the act of creation or 'thriputi'). Advaitha science is self-existent, that's why it is the truth. No one has created it, sages have intuited it. In Advaitha, the knower, knowing and the known (or the ego, world and God) are dissolved into One Reality (Pure-Consciousness). Through this path, one can realize that there is no second thing that is different than him, the Pure-I. Upon Self-Realization, the question, "What is next?" and all other questions about life/samsaara will drop away.
The science that will not stay valid even if it is grabbed is relative science. The science that can be grabbed without being grabbed is absolute science and says (warns) it is there for you even if you don't grab it.
"I have experienced God" is illusion because God in this statement is a third person. "I am God" or, more precisely, "I am that I am" is the truth because complete experience/knowledge always happens in the first person, 'I,' never in a third person, God. You seeing God as 'mine,' is an illusion because experiences come and go, only the first person's firm knowledge stays. "I have the experience of a man" goes away (because it involves knower and known), but the knowledge, "I am a man" stays. And the same with God. “I have become God” is also an illusion because that God becomes an object to you. Experiential knowledge is always subjective. God can only claim, “I am God” through a mind like pure light can only claim, “I am light” by reflecting on an object.
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Consciousness ('I') knowing Consciousness in the absence of apparent objects is deep-sleep. Consciousness knowing Consciousness in the presence of apparent objects is Awakening. 'I' can never see 'I' directly (like a physical eye) and there is no need. However, 'I' can see its existence/magnificence through its modulations (objects/world) like an eye seeing its existence through a mirror. Claim your presence/existence everywhere. When your own presence everywhere is seen different than yours, it is mundane life; if seen as your own presence, it is freedom.
Movement apparently hides/covers movement-less form. Form/Perception apparently hides/covers thought. And thought apparently hides/covers Consciousness like a cloud covering the sun. Realize non-movement in movement. See your non-moving presence or existence everywhere.
No one can have an experience of Consciousness either appearing or disappearing because Consciousness has to be present to witness it. Consciousness is the only One that is conscious. Inert objects like birth, death or body-mind cannot experience anything. Only Consciousness can. Therefore your birth and death are illusions because Consciousness has to be there prior to your birth or during the death to witness the change/experience. If it is witnessed by you, then it is neither your birth nor your death. If it is not witnessed by you, then also it is neither your birth nor your death because it is not your experience (if you are not there at your death or if you are not conscious of your death, then it is not your death; if you are claiming your death, then the claimer must be there). That's the beauty of it. Experience is always a first person experience. Someone else witnessing your birth is a second person experience and not trustworthy. Would you trust your direct experience or someone else's indirect experience about you? It is like someone saying, "I have the experience of you not having an experience of your birth." Is there any validity for such a claim (one can only know one's nature directly by himself)? Besides, birthing is a process, a doing. Doing cannot be without a doer first (who is first?...an actor or acting?). If the doer is there already, then whose birth is it? If there is no birth, then there is no death (if you are present before birth, then you must also be present after death). Millions of your experiences are your past and you are the observer of them. Body's birth is also your past. So, you must have been the observer of that birth also. Birth and death are, indeed, illusions.
Feeling of otherness, anything other than your nature in the form of dormant desires or impressions called 'vaasanaas,' causes causal-body. Causal-body causes subtle-body. Subtle-body causes gross-body. Gross-body causes ego. Ego causes world. World causes Personal-God or No-God. All this causes likes and dislikes or mundane life or binding life or 'samsaara;' good and evil, happiness and unhappiness, etc. Where does the thinking of otherness reside? In the mind. When thoughts become divided (like in dream and waking), it leads to happiness and unhappiness. When thoughts become undivided (like in deep-sleep), it leads to Peace alone (however, the thought in deep-sleep is that of ignorance, or "I know nothing."). Therefore, by knowing your true infinite nature, cultivate the undivided and steady thought of infinity (there are no two things in infinity) in your mind in the waking state. If finite thoughts arise as part of life, do see them from a witnessing standpoint (with no feeling of either doer-ship or enjoyer-ship). The seen (feeling of two) has to be dissolved into seeing (feeling of not-two).
Cultivating purer thoughts to replace impure thoughts is not good enough, because you are still in duality, in movement, in ignorance. Morality and immorality are both false as they are opposites. As a witness, you don't do any acts (neither moral nor immoral) with a feeling of doer-ship and you don't enjoy any fruits of actions with a feeling of enjoyer-ship (in actuality, there is no "entity" called a person or a separate-self; deep sense of being an illusory separate-self always promotes irrational or irresponsible behaviors like that of Hitler's; when the understanding happens that there is no personal responsibility, one's behavior would be inline with the totality and would serve the totality). Purer thoughts will produce purer karmas; will not free you from karma altogether because you will have to enjoy the effects of those purer acts in future. This will not free you from 'samsaara.' Choosing of one act against another act is ignorance because one is not able to see non-duality in all acts or everywhere. Moving thoughts are binding. Unmoving, undivided, single thought of infinity or one-ness is liberation/freedom. Natural state (Being) is liberating and unnatural state (doing) is binding. Experiencing binding thoughts and unnatural state now and hoping for heaven after death is imprudent. Heaven is here now. Find out why you are not in heaven now. Liberation, like suffering, also resides in your mind.
When do you wake up as a night-dream-character? When your subconscious/subtle memories/desires rise and you ignore your nature. When do you wake up as a waking state waker? When your conscious memories/desires rise and when you ignore your nature. When do you wake up (i.e., sleep) as a sleeper? When your superconscious/causal memories/desires rise and you ignore your nature. But all these are done naturally for you, the soul. If you want to be free of these states (binding desires), raise your superconscious/absolute knowledge (knowledge about your true nature or essence) willfully and make all of your binding desires non-binding (binding desires control you). However, this knowledge is eternally there, you don't have to create it (you can't walk towards yourself). You just have to uncreate the misconceptions/illusions you have about yourself. That is all. The Absolute will respond accordingly and/or automatically to wake you up from this waking-dream. The Absolute will self-reveal as you, will shine like a diamond with mud uncovered. Anything you do positively in a relative plane will only take you away from the absolute plane. Absolute is "prior/higher" to doing/experiencing and, thus, doing/experiencing cannot reveal the Being/Absolute, like a perception cannot reveal a thought. It is like taking darkness out of a room with a bucket (duality cannot dissolve duality). Besides, ignorance (sleeper, dreamer, waker) causes doing/experiencing and doing/experiencing reinforces ignorance forming a circle.
Space is infinite and there is nothing outside of space. Since you are conscious of that infinite space, Consciousness must also be infinite (you can’t find any limits to Consciousness). So, everything must be inside Consciousness. If Consciousness, then, sees anything outside of itself (like in waking state), it must be an imagination (like our night-dream). Since Infinite-Consciousness cannot see itself, it can only see objects in its imagination.
Without ‘holding on’ to Consciousness, you cannot ‘catch’ any object. Without holding on to gold, you cannot catch any ornament. Therefore, all objects are made of Consciousness, like all ornaments are made of gold.
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One can only uplift oneself by oneself (social uplifting is a misnomer because society is just a word for individuals; helping others must be spontaneous, must not be a mission because there is no "other" for a sage). Unless we know the truth of the knowing mind through which everything else is known, nothing true about the known can be known and experienced fully. Therefore, know thyself first. Do not try to see the white snow with orange-tinted glasses. Only by knowing the Truth, you can know that the world is false.
The main problems for humanity is fear of death and suffering. The science that solves these problems is true science. All other sciences are pseudo.
The seen Sath-Chith is the world. The unseen world is Sath-Chith. World is only notional (mind is an instrument that facilitates Infinite Existence to be seen in finite forms). In both the cases, only Sath-Chith is known. When there is an appearance of the world, only Sath-Chith is seen as the world. The seen rope in the twilight is the snake and the unseen snake is the rope. Snake is only notional. When there is an appearance of snake, only the rope is seen as the snake. Rope's play-character is the snake. So, snake is false as the snake but real as the rope (appearance implies an appearance without being birthed). Why is the snake seen, then? It is seen because you are not seeing it as the rope. If you see it as a snake, you are the ego (the 'I' in "I am this body-mind"). If you see it as the rope, you are the Witness-Consciousness (the 'I' in "I AM").
Mind has this wonderful capacity to form images of finite things. Even more wonderful than this is that it can expand infinitely to form the image of the Infinite. The only way it does this is by disappearing into Pure-Consciousness knowingly. Mind disappears into Pure-Consciousness all the time between thoughts, but unknowingly. Is Pure-Consciousness same as the mind, then? No. Mind is Pure-Consciousness but Pure-Consciousness is not the mind (wave is water but water is not the wave). Pure-Consciousness may be called as the mind of the mind.
From the point of view of 'I,' there is only 'I,' the Absolute. From the point of view of 'non-I,' there is 'I' and 'non-I,' (the relative). There are five non-I's: possessions/objects; pleasures/relationships; fame/pride/merits; mind; body. Out of these five, the first three can be dissolved through dualistic yogas (such as karma-yoga, bhakthi-yoga, samaadhi-yoga, etc.) and the last two through self-inquiry (gnyaana-yoga). Not progressing to self-inquiry from dualistic yogas will make you stuck there for ever (organized religion and politics are the biggest impediments to human progress; a religionist is a politician of the inner and a politician is a religionist of the outer; and together they have evidently caused enormous destruction to human life; the first three non-I's, especially, have become more divisional and disintegrating). Self-inquiry is the most direct method to dissolve mind and body. If this is done first, the hidden desires accumulated through all of your lifetimes will easily dissolve because the realization is that there is no ego (as a separate and independent self) and there are no desires associated with this ego to begin with.
All we have is the Absolute and the Relative. Relative is forms and functions (ideas or concepts are subtle forms). Relative is the Reflection of the Absolute, the Substance or the Reality. Relative is not different from the Substance (they are different poses of the same Substance). When a functional aspect is gone, we think that the body is dead and useless. But the form is still there. And its substratum is still there. Go beyond the functions and forms and "grab" the Absolute with your mind. The information we gather with our limited minds is just that: in-form-ation, knowledge of the form alone which is illusory. Knowledge of the Substance which is the basis of forms and functions is that what is all needed. The background of all forms and functions is the space and the background of the space is its Substance or Existence-Consciousness or Sath-Chith. "Grab" Sath (the "empty-space-like" Is-ness aspect of forms and functions) with Chith (the "uncontaminated" Knowing-ness aspect of your mind/soul). Forms and functions will, then, appear as appearances of You.
Since there can be only one Real Entity, God must be Real. You, the ego, must be an illusion, a reflection, a shadow, a dream of the God. How can a shadow merge into the Real Entity? The only possible way is that you, yourself, is that Real Entity but thinking that you are that shadow in ignorance. Know thyself. The only way a dream character "merges" into the Real-You is for you to wake up and realize that you, yourself, are that Real-You.
You are Limitless, Changeless and Real. But when you think that the limited and changing body is you, that body feels real and the Limitless/Changeless feels not-real. When you, then, see the other limited and changing objects in the world, they also feel real. Transaction between this body-mind and the rest of the world (two seemingly real but, in actuality, false “entities”) is mundane life, ‘samsaara.’ Whatever this body-mind experiences (pain and pleasure, misery and happiness, etc.), then, becomes your objective knowledge and you suffer from its limitations. Holding on to the Limitless in limit, Changeless in change is Absolute Knowledge and is wisdom. Infinite-Consciousness cannot be affected by any limitations like space cannot be affected by any object.
If your vision/consciousness is moving towards an object to see it, the object must have the same consciousness in it to establish a relationship so it can be seen. If your vision is nothing but the Infinite-Consciousness (you can’t find any limits to your vision), so is the world.
When an object is seen, we see only its properties. Minus properties, object is space. Space is also a property of Is-ness or Sath (space IS, no-space is IS). Limitless-Sath can only be seen by Limitless-Consciousness or Limitless-Chith. The meeting of Sath and Chith is the Ultimate Reality, Sath-Chith. Therefore, see the world as Limitless-Sath (may be as Infinite-Space first) for the experience of “Oneness." Expand your perspective.
In waking and dream states, “I” and “mine” are both present. In deep-sleep state, “I” and “mine” are both absent. When “I” alone is present, it is an “enlightened” state where “I” will be seeing its reflection everywhere in the mirror of “I.”
Your night-dream becomes an appearance when it is all contained within you in the morning. Outside world seems real as long as Consciousness is limited to your body because it is not all contained within it. From the perspective of Infinite-Consciousness, the world is an appearance because it is all contained within it.
Relative/Worldly knowledge is learning. Absolute knowledge is unlearning.
Either I, ego, is there or I, Aathma/Witness, is there. They cannot co-exist.
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If something came in the middle, it requires a medium/standard/instrument of knowledge ('pramaana'). In other words, anything known to you as an object must have come in the middle, not self-existing. It is there when seen, not there when not-seen. And anything that came in the middle cannot last for ever. So, whatever does not require or does not need a 'pramaana' must be self-existing or eternal. Eternity implies beyond time-space and, so, present-everywhere and/or all-pervading (not limited by time and space). That is Pure-Consciousness. It is impossible to negate its existence. 'I' can never negate 'I.' Another name for 'I' is Knowing. Knowing requires no proof. Knowing is required to prove anything else.
When a pot is made out of the mud, is the mud born? No, it is already there. But, was the pot born? If the pot was dormant in the mud, then the pot is not born. If the pot was not there in the mud, how can we say that a pot is born? Something that was not there, cannot be born (something cannot come out of a void). Pot is, therefore, an appearance or an illusion as the pot, but real as the mud. And so is the world. World is an illusion as matter and mind, but real as Consciousness. World is notional. TV images are not born, and neither they will die. They are appearances of the TV screen. Their reality is the TV screen. IS cannot be born from IS, IS cannot be born from IS-NOT, IS-NOT cannot be born from IS-NOT and IS-NOT cannot be born from IS. However, IS can appear out of IS and could be mistaken as the world.
Observe your life. Everything seen/known to you is changing. But the knowing element in you (Consciousness) with which you are seeing/knowing the changing world is not changing. This implies that the nature of the seen is changing and the nature of the seer/seeing (which is you) is unchanging. When it is our experience (all seven plus billion people experience this) that Consciousness' nature has been unchanging all your life, why do you assume that it would change (or not existent) before birth and/or after death of the body? When there is no proof of Consciousness dying in your lifetime because of its unchanging nature, do not assume that it does (against your experience). Since it is no one's personal experience that Consciousness dies after death (or died before birth), it is silly to discard the known fact and believe the unknown and unproven theory as the fact (truth has to direct and non-mediate experience/knowing). Going from the known to the unknown is very scientific. You can, thus, never experience you dying. If you do, then who is having that experience? Consciousness is seeing this body alive and Consciousness will see this body dying. You, the Unchanging-Consciousness, is the Witness of both.
In sunlight, you see/know objects. In the absence of sun (in total darkness), you do not see/know any objects; but you are there to see/know the absence of objects. That Knowing-Being is Pure-Consciousness and innumerable times larger than the sun.
If your God/Reality is not the same as my God/Reality and/or my God/Reality is not the same as your God/Reality, then both the Gods are not God at all. If God manifested all of this universe, then he must be the same for all of the universe, just like when we manifest a dream the sleeper is the same for all of the characters inside the dream. If these Gods are not the same for everyone, then they are human imaginations and, hence, illusions.
Intellectual understanding of your true nature is the first step in Self-Realization. This understanding must, then, be transferred into physical reality through practice-less practice. Practice, because your illusory misunderstandings have to be removed by illusory but "correct" thoughts (thorn to be removed by another thorn). Practice-less, because you are already THAT and Limitlessness (like the ready-made infinite space that is everywhere) cannot be "grabbed" by any practice. Do not try to reach horizon by travel, it is where you are standing.
Pain is an intelligent signal from the body that you need to attend to it. Similarly, suffering is an intelligent signal from the mind that you need to attend to your true nature as the limitless being. So, do not try to avoid suffering. Inquire into it.
Anything that changes requires the presence of something else to cause that change. Or, it is dependent. So, it cannot be real as that. Changing is only its incidental nature. Its intrinsic nature must be different because intrinsic nature cannot change (fire cannot be cold). The apparently changing/moving "thing" is Sath. The Knowing with which the change is witnessed is Chith. Mind is manifested when the movement apparently starts.
Doing something and sitting quietly is observing (mind is observing forms). Doing nothing and sitting quietly is witnessing (mind is witnessed along with forms). In witnessing, there are no preconceived notions, prejudice and judgement; only pure seeing (seeing like a mirror). When we are watching a movie, we are witnessing. Replace the screen by the world. In witnessing, one "gets out" of one's body to claim infinity and to witness the world including one's own body.
A desire that has come and gone is a thought. A thought that has come but not gone is a desire.
In nature, there is creation but no creativity. Animals are not creative because their minds are set, pre-programmed. Human mind comes with a clean slate, un-programmed, lots of possibilities. One loses creativity if one’s mind gets filled with information, memories, relative knowledge. Clutter free mind can pave the way to Godhood, the Self-Aware Existence.
“My” thoughts are of five kinds: my people, my things, my social ideologies/ideas, my common identities (group, nation, religion, etc.) and my own ideas/philosophies. Select one from each kind, lose it or forget it and see how it affects you. You may be on the way to lose all of “my” thoughts/memories. When you lose “my,” you will also lose “me,” the body thought. Then the Witness remains not affected by the ups and downs of life. Remember, attachment/obsession to objects forms memories.
In order to understand the misery and confusion, we require clarity or right thinking. We need to know how the mind is made before we try to know how the world is made using our mind. Right thinking can only come with Self-Knowledge, without which, what you think is not true.
Why does Consciousness seem limited to your body? Because the world has apparently “fallen” on you. Why? Because you are holding on to a tiny piece of that world (your body). Therefore, try to witness your thoughts and objects including your body. Then your body “joins” the world separating Consciousness and the rest (this is purely psychological/notional because you - Consciousness - has never really “mixed” with the body/world). You are now the All-Pervading Consciousness. Then, seeing the world in you as your Existence/Aliveness is liberation (both all-pervading entities are one).
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Infinity cannot be born from Infinity. Finite cannot be born from finite. Finite can only be apparently born from Infinity (appears as if it is born, like in our night-dream). Infinite-Potential manifesting as a form is "birth" and form de-manifesting into the Infinite-Potential is "death." Mother and father do not actually cause the birth of a baby. When a baby is born to parents in your night-dream, the "cause" is your potential-mind/soul, not the parents. A pot-space appears as if it is born from the infinite space, but infinite space is not divided.
What is the experience of Self-Actualization? Seeing yourself in all beings and all beings in yourself is that experience (seeing none other than "I").
World can only be known through perception, thought and feeling. But the reality of the world cannot be known that way because those are the indirect/mediate/limited means. Therefore, know yourself first because the absolute knowledge of I AM (which we all experience within ourselves and with absolute certainty) is direct/immediate. Explore I AM. Once you know your reality, you can easily approach the world to know its reality because your (soul's) perspective is much, much bigger/higher then. The world can only dissolve in you when your perspective changes from finite to infinite/formless/all-pervading vision. The world can only dissolve in you (the Reality) when the world is pseudo or false or appearance.
We are a "combination" of soul, mind and body. Soul knows Godliness but wants to feel Godliness because Complete-Consciousness is achieved when it perceives+knows+feels love simultaneously. For that, it requires mind and body. Mind (thinking instrument) is used to create experience and body (perceiving instrument) is used to create feeling. And soul (an individuated primary reflection of Pure-Consciousness, 'Chidhaabhaasa') feels it or experiences the feeling. It desires to feel love (love is the collapse of any relationship). In that feeling of love or Complete-Consciousness, the soul realizes that it itself is Godliness and there is nothing other than Godliness. The feeling of love is a by-product of "rising" Consciousness. Separate (psychologically) the images/movie from the TV screen first to recognize the essence before you embrace the truth that the images are nothing but the modulations of the TV screen.
Soul feeling the reflection of Pure-Consciousness as Peace in the form of infinite blankness is subjective experience (singularity). Soul perceiving the world (hearing, touching, seeing, tasting and smelling) as a unit is pure experience (unitary). Soul conceiving the world in the form of thoughts is objective experience (duality). Soul knowing its own being as it is, in the absence and/or in the presence of objects, is pure knowing (non-duality). In pure knowing, knowing is knowing the knowing.
Whenever you have a thought, you are knowing something. Therefore, it is made of knowing. More precisely, Pure-Knowing. When the thought disappears, where does the Pure-Knowing go? It stays where it has always been. Only the coloring or modulation disappears. Pure-Knowing apparently takes the shape of a thought to know an apparent object.
Duo means two (duality, double, deuce, etc.), subject and object or mind and matter or me and mine, relative. Nothing true can be known in duality. It is always doubtful. Doubt's root word is duo. Why? Because they depend on each other, they affect each other so nothing decisive can come out of it. Two real entities can never meet/merge. Science must be decisive, not doubtful. Not-two or non-duality is decisive because there is only "one" and is itself independent. Absolute knowledge can never be negated/falsified. So, there is no doubt, no argument. If you see duality, the second thing must be an appearance of that "one" truth. Then also it is decisive and accurate. That truth is Pure-Consciousness as it is real and ever-present. Objects (perceptions, thoughts and feelings) are its modulations, poses, activities.
Dream is false. The one who experienced the dream (waker is not there to experience the dream) and negates it, is real.
When you experience God as a second person, God is an object and the experiencer/knower is Consciousness.
You cannot know yourself as an object. You can be yourself as the subject.
‘Prakrithi’ is the manifest form of the Unmanifest Existence. It is the material body of the Whole. Prakrithi is prior to Creation and appears or “changes” as the Creation. Consciousness, then, “enters” the Creation as the Changeless. Changeless is required for the change to be observed. ’Nature' is not really a proper word for prakrithi. In nature, there are no degrees; the quality of hunger, sleep and beauty are the same (there are no two in this experience). The state of truth is homogeneous, oneness without any degrees and that is our nature. Existence/Is-ness, Consciousness, Bliss/Love is our nature. States with degrees are dualistic and not truthful. Truth is apparently veiled in duality.
Consciousness and body are natural. Mind is a confused mixture of Consciousness and body. A body takes what it needs, digests, converts it into aliveness/energy, discards what it doesn’t need and balances itself. Let the mind follow the body: take the information, keep whatever is necessary, adopt any changes, discard the junk and leave it empty and still. Body is pure in the absence of diseases and mind is pure in the absence of binding worldly thoughts. This is one form of meditation.
Worldly knowledge is endless. The more you know, the more you want to know; you can never be satisfied. Self-Knowledge is also endless, but there is no need to know more; you are completely satisfied.
Do nothing does not mean abstain from doing. It means do without a doer feeling, so doing remains (like the process of breathing). That is living. Life means movement/change in the 'now,' an expression of Consciousness. The force/source behind life is aliveness or ‘praana’ or Existence or Sath which is nothing but Consciousness or Chith. Chith experiencing Sath as itself is life, a mystery.
Popular meditation is experiencing the prevention of arising of thoughts. True meditation is experiencing deep-sleep state in waking state. In deep-sleep state, mind and the world are sleeping so you can be fully awake. You can also be fully awake in the waking state by not seeing any particulars of the objects (including space) to judge but seeing only the unchanging essence of the objects.
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The easiest way of Self-Realization is when one understands that there is no "one" to be self-realized.
Now is when 'I AM' is and Here is where 'I AM' is. Now-Here or 'I AM' is the key to Eternity and Limitlessness. Time is Eternal-Consciousness objectified by thought and space is Limitless-Consciousness objectified by perception. Dimensionless or Pure-Consciousness apparently expands to appear as space (movement-less, say a point), movement of space (or point) appears as single line of time (series of pints) and that single line of time expands to appear as the three dimensions (objects) within the space simultaneously ('desha-kaala-vasthu' manifested by the three qualities of 'sattva-rajas-thamas' of Maya/Ignorance). By ignoring the substratum of time and space, we erroneously think that the world appears in time and space. Mind (the inside self) and matter (the outside world) are, thus, born as the offsprings. If we look at Consciousness from the point of view of Consciousness, we see Consciousness. If we look at Consciousness from the point of view of mind, we see time. If we look at Consciousness from the point of view of body or matter, we see space. All there is, is Pure-Consciousness and Pure-Consciousness knows only Pure-Consciousness. One can either see a landscape in a movie or the movie or the screen.
We have three bodies (forms/media): gross (physical), subtle (mind/intellect) and causal (soul). In a pot halfway filled with water, pot is like a gross-body, water is like a subtle-body, the reflection of the space-light on the water is like a soul and the empty space above the water is the Witness, Pure-I (Saakshi, Aathma). Anything that is divisible or changeable or limited is a body/energy (ideas, forms and functions). Body is as good as "dead" because it is dying every moment. Gross-body perceives (interacts with the world), subtle-body thinks (creates interaction/experience), soul-body feels and the Pure-I witnesses. Soul's purpose of life is to feel Godliness through perceiving and thinking. Those are its tools. Soul doesn't care for what it does, but only how it does. In that knowing-experiencing, soul feels limitlessness/completeness/love and realizes its identity with Pure-I which is none other than Pure-Consciousness (the space above the water in the pot is none other than the infinite space). Pure-Consciousness is the All-Pervading IS-ness/Aliveness and Knowing-ness.
Mind or pseudo-intelligence seeing (sensing) inertness/matter is mundane life, samsaara. In other words, samsaara is an apparent transaction between two seemingly real and/or finite "entities." Limitless-Intelligence (Chith) pervading and knowing the Limitless-Existence (Sath) is freedom from objects. You are Limitless-Intelligence erroneously thinking that you are only finite-body-bound intelligence. If your (mind's) nature was not Limitless-Intelligence, you will not be able to see an inert, finite object. There is no need for Infinity to see Infinity, so the only possibility is for Infinity to see the finite object (world) indirectly through the tool of a finite subject (mind) like in your night-dream. Therefore, when you change your perspective to all-pervasiveness or all-inclusiveness (which is your true nature), finite objects dissolve into you (they become apparent). Nothing that is observed is unaffected by the observer. The place from which you are looking determines what you see. Perspective changes easily once you understand your true nature (as Limitless-Consciousness) and establish firmly, and fast, in that knowledge. Body-mind having consciousness will have to change to Consciousness having a body-mind. When you grab the infinite/limitless aspect of the world or the IS-ness of the world, world's finiteness disappears into you (when you grab gold out of ornaments, ornaments disappear because ornaments lose support). This is the "union" of Sath-Chith.
Space, time and causality are discontinuous through waking, dream and deep-sleep states (time and space are different in night-dream). This suggests that the waking-I cannot claim, "I woke up, I dreamt and I slept," because the same waking-I "entity" is not there in the other states. The Unchanging-I that is continuous across these apparent states is Pure-Consciousness (experiencing is continuous).
All experience happens in the Now or Present. You are there in the Present as the Presence. Present is a pre-sent "moment" from the Presence and, hence, the gateway to the Presence or Pure-Consciousness.
Whatever IS, is the truth. Whatever is seen/known, is the untruth/illusion. The Ultimate Reality is both the truth and the untruth/illusion.
Silence/Stillness is not the absence of sound. It is the absence of mind’s movement or thoughts of objects, but the presence of the thought of Infinite-Consciousness. Feel that you are not only inside of your body but also outside, to begin with. If you don’t include your body with the world, the world will be seen as multiplicity (like in a night-dream). Once you see your body inside of You, it becomes easy to include the rest.
The idea that karma - doing or performing something - can bring me liberation is based on the idea that reality is duality. It is based on the appearance of things, not on the reality of things. And appearances are not permanent, so the liberation you may gain through action will not last.
Information is relative (becomes memory); knowledge cannot be negated (it is natural). Experience is knowledge but knowledge is not experience. Knowledge is beyond experience (transcendent as well as imminent). A body is knowledge, a tree is knowledge, a dog is knowledge, all of cosmos is made of knowledge. Experience does not transfer from individual to individual. Knowledge transfers like fire jumping from one candle to another.
Practice is not required for attaining something that is natural to you like sleep. Actually, practice hinders it. Without any practice, sleep is wholesome. In the same way, liberation or moksha is already there, wholesome and natural to you. Practice/Effort to "gain" it, hinders it.
Witnessing is seeing things as they are - with equal vision; with no comparison, with no opinion, with no judgement, no reaction, no memory. Seeing and doing wholesomely (there is no distance between witnessing and experiencing, experiencer/subject and the experienced/object become one). No practice is needed as it is your nature. Practice is needed to see that comparison, opinion, judgement do not enter. Witnessing is practice-less practice. In witnessing, there is no claimer or practitioner because there is no practice. Any practice in time and space cannot take you beyond time and space.
Death, like deep-sleep and samaadhi, is wholesome. Any practice involving death will be learned wholesomely, like swimming. In wholesome acts, mind is very close to the body (imagination is done by mind alone and, hence, partial experience). That’s the reason soul (knowing), mind (creating experience) and body (creating feeling) working in concert produce Complete-Awareness (knowing+feeling). Mind and body are soul’s instruments to experience/feel itself (we need a minimum of three factors for any creation) through the world.
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When a subject sees an object, only seeing or experiencing is there. This is name-less experiencing or pure experiencing or unitary experiencing (like that of a child's experience because that child has no memory; the child does not see a separate form but a universal flow of energy). Any experiencing (hearing, touching, seeing, tasting and smelling) is projected onto the screen of Existence/Being. Then the subject says, "I see a tree." In this naming, mind/memory is brought in to label the experience. This happens in time-space and is, strictly, an imagination (pseudo-subject, object and experiencing or 'thriputi'). This is not pure experiencing. So, there is apparently no-thing or nothing there. But, in actuality this nothing is called Existence/Being. Therefore, the naming is erroneously superimposed on this so-called nothing or Existence. That's why, name (idea) and form/limit are apparent or illusory. We can call this "name-ful" experiencing or objective or dualistic experiencing. Any experience (perceptions, sensations, thoughts and feelings), ultimately, is false (because it is known to you). In case of a sage, he knows that the pseudo-subject and object are apparent and the experiencing is made of Knowing or Pure-Consciousness or Pure-Being (he knows that a wave and its form are apparent but the real substance is water). Life becomes a play for him, like a child playing with his own body parts.
Mind stores experience in the form of memory which is mistaken for Knowledge. Your soul (I AM) holds Knowledge. The function of the gross-body is to gather data from the physical environment to assist the mind in assuring its survival and to create feeling (the seat of the body/feeling is the heart). The function of the mind is to create experience and assure the survival of the Totality of You as long as it takes to fulfill the agenda of the soul (the seat of the mind/experience is the head). The agenda of the soul is to experience and feel as many aspects as possible of Who and What It Really Is (the seat of the soul is the navel, the life center, the center of fearlessness, the being center; when soul experiences knowing+feeling love simultaneously, it is thrown into the navel center). The soul uses the gross-body and the subtle mind as tools to accomplish this. Mind's memory produces desire, yearning for more experience. Soul's Knowledge reveals intention, yearning for a particular kind of experience (for love) based on Knowledge, not prior experience. When your body, mind and soul work in unison and you demonstrate Who You Really Are, you achieve Self-Actualization.
Anything that has a limit is an illusion. Limitations are four: limited in space, limited in time, limited in object-ness and limited in dependency (object-ness implies this is the object and there is nothing else like this in the whole cosmos). God/Creator is the universal causal state (like our deep-sleep) which is not limited either in space or in time or in object-ness but is dependent. Dependent on the Supreme Reality or Pure-Consciousness. Why?...Because God is the apparent cause for this world but Supreme Reality is causeless. Therefore, God (as God) is an illusion (from the point of view of Pure-Consciousness). Anything dependent is an illusion. By the same token, anything changing is an illusion. Anything seen (or perceived) is an illusion. Anything known (as an object) is an illusion.
Pure-Consciousness must satisfy these six conditions: 1. Independent Existence, 2. All-Pervasiveness, 3. Eternal, 4. Changeless, 5. Causeless and 6. All-Knowing but unknowable as an object.
So long as we continue to seek happiness through others or objects, outside our own essential Self, we will continue to experience only "relative" happiness and/or unhappiness. If we let others seek and experience happiness through us, we can experience "absolute" happiness, i.e., knowing of our own being as it is.
Only that is positive, and not that which is negative, can be the Absolute, because that which is positive does not require anything other than itself either to negate or to relate to in any other way. Negative is the veiling of the positive. However, in order to claim the Positive/Absolute only a negative approach (I am not this, I am not this, etc.) will work because you are already THAT.
Limited effort can only bring you limited result. Removal of limited knowledge about yourself, however, can "bring" you unlimited result because you are already that Unlimited.
Renunciation is not leaving the world, but leaving the illusion/misunderstanding that the world is real. Therefore, be in the world.
In meditation (‘samaadhi yoga’), thoughts are to be avoided. But thoughts are also Reality. By avoiding thoughts, you are avoiding the Whole. You are avoiding the seen world and trying to see the unseeable Brahman. Part can never “give” you Realization. Develop a thought of Infinite-Existence (Sath or Is-ness) in your mind in the midst of the world which will, then, include/dissolve all other thoughts. See the gap between thoughts as the empty space. The meeting of Chith and Sath is the Real-You. Recognize.
Do not desire for the experience of God in the future, because all experiences go away. Desire for, “why am I not God now?”
Reality waking up to itself is Realization. Mind cannot wake up to “become” Reality. A dream-character cannot wake up to “become” the dreamer. But the Reality knows itself eternally. So, what gets realized?
World is inert and cannot cause any suffering. Mind thinking, “world is real and is causing me suffering” is the suffering. Find out that the world is an appearance only while alive in your body (a permanent solution). Appearance cannot be different to/than your nature. Going to astral worlds upon death is not a permanent solution. There is no proof for such claims. World is real, is like having a disease in your body. World is an appearance and not any different than me, is like having no disease in your body.
In a night-dream, Consciousness, seemingly limited to a body, thinks of an outside world (because it is not all-pervading). Upon waking, you realize that the dream was all inside of you because your perspective is much bigger and includes all of your dream. How come you never ask in your dream, “I am awake now and how come the world is not appearing inside of me?” Well, the same thing happens in the waking state also. This is a waking-dream because Consciousness is seemingly limited to your body only and everything else is different than your body (dualism). In sleep, the world is inside you (me and mine are dormant); in dream, the world is seen as an appearance (me and mine); in waking, the world is seen as real (me and mine). Cure your disease by waking up from this waking-dream (world is dissolved into “I” alone).
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The two universal human problems are fear of death and suffering. It is a fact that no one wants to die. Even a fly doesn't want to die. The imaginary ego/separate-self wants to resist death because it wants to perpetuate itself for ever. Death threatens its personality or identity. And also, no one wants to be miserable. We all seek Peace-Happiness. Why? Because our nature is Infinity, Eternity and Peace-Happiness. We are apparently separated from our infinite nature and are manifested as a tiny little body-mind. By identifying ourselves with a finite body-mind (with the idea of separation), we unknowingly feel squeezed, contracted in time and space and naturally try to get back to our original condition. Space limitation causes desire to be infinity (infinitely happy) and time limitation causes to be fearful of death. Desire and fear (or seeking and resistance) are the hallmarks of a separate-self. They are basically one and the same, two sides of a coin. The one that doesn't understand life will resist death. The one that didn't live fully will resist death. Life is, simply, an impersonal flow of energy. The moment one drops the idea of separation or limitation or non-wholeness, the fear of death disappears because the whole never dies. The one that doesn't understand one's intrinsic nature as the permanent Peace-Happiness itself or the Whole itself, will desire to seek permanent Peace-Happiness in temporary and finite objects indefinitely. The root cause of these problems is ignorance of our true nature and identification with experience (perceptions, sensations, thoughts and feelings) for which the solution is complete-knowledge.
In an apparent separation, you (finite body-mind) appear real and if you see/know "another" that also appears real (like in your night-dream). Seemingly real entities gather seeming strength. Transaction between these two illusory realities (but seemingly real) is mundane life, 'samsaara,' and the cause for suffering. The fundamental cause, however, for the cause for separation, is ignorance or lack of complete-knowledge. Partial knowledge is "I AM," and "I AM this." Complete-knowledge is "I AM Limitless-Consciousness." Go from "I know that I AM" to "I know what I AM."
You are Life and yours is the death. You are Peace-Happiness and yours is the suffering. Anything that is yours is an illusion. The apparently unnoticed You is always there and the apparently noticed death/suffering/world is never there (energy is neither created nor destroyed).
There is nothing wrong in worshipping a Personal-God as long as you see him/her as You, the Unlimited. If you see him/her as a second person and no matter how seriously you are worshipping, you are in duality and duality can never "take" you to non-duality (total merger cannot happen). Duality/Separation is the biggest impediment that is stifling society's progress. In duality, one apparent limit is seeing another apparent limit. Change your perspective to unlimited and see the limit as unlimited. The limit will dissolve in You and You will remain as You (like darkness merging into light).
When a pot is moving, is the pot-space moving? In dualistic thinking, it is moving. From a non-dualistic perspective, it is not moving but appears as if it is moving. Forms/Objects don't have Existence, Existence has forms/objects. This topsy turvy view is illusory and causes samsaara. Therefore, do not say/think, "Tree's existence," but say/think, "Existence's tree." Because "Tree's existence" limits the Existence to that tree only.
If God is everywhere, why do you try to catch him as a person somewhere in heaven? If It is everywhere, It is Here-Now. Here is a spaceless space and Now is a timeless time. Be in the present, not in the future, not in the past. In other words, be in your soul (working-mind), not in your thinker-mind. Soul is merely concerned about what is happening (no projections are made into the past or future). When it is concentrated at one job/object, the space disappears because there are no two objects. And since there are no two events, time disappears. You will understand that there is no "other." Present, therefore, is the doorway to the Presence, the Eternal Presence. It is okay to use your thinker-mind to attend to practical situations, to inquire into its nature and to celebrate life (not more than that). In all other situations, mind needs to be a working-mind, not a dormant mind like in bhakthi-yoga (prayer) or samaadhi-yoga (meditation). Mind/Intellect is required for the absolute knowledge to take place in the middle of objective experience so ignorance can be removed.
The one who does not know meditation, is meditating by stopping all other activities. For the one who knows meditation, all activities are being performed by meditation.
When you see an object with limited vision, the object is not seeing you. When you see an object with whole or complete vision, the object also sees you and only seeing remains.
The states of deep-sleep and death (from their own points of view) and samaadhi (in waking state) are equivalent, absolute, complete, perfect and whole states. In a “state” of wholeness, there is no ‘other’ and also no ‘I,’ no ‘I’ as ‘something.’
Hunger is natural and common to all. We don’t search for hunger because we know it and it is one of the most common elements of all. We only enquire why one is not hungry. The same with sleep. Peace-Happiness is natural and common to all. Why don’t we enquire into why we are not peaceful or happy? If we recognize Peace-Happiness within us, the search stops. If we recognize Peace-Happiness within all, we experience it fully.
In duality, there is an answer for every question. In non-duality, question and answer are one. If the question is the world, the answer is Sath-Chith which is everywhere in the world (the answer is everywhere or the answer is hidden in the question). If the question is lack of complete knowledge, the answer is right knowledge or intuitive knowledge. Few people (with high intelligence) will grasp this right away (“I” alone is). Few people (with average intelligence) will do practices to grasp Brahman (“I” and “other”). Few people (with low intelligence) will want to grab the result alone without any practices.
Deep-sleep is the only common experience of all, that is qualitatively the same for all species at all times and that all humans can agree upon. Whatever IS in deep-sleep, it appears as our dream and waking worlds. It must, therefore, be the cause of this cosmos. We may call this God. Investigation of deep-sleep reveals that it is Pure-Consciousness-at-Rest.
A soul knows the world, knows itself and knows it is part of God. But it does not know itself as the whole of God.
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If a second thing seems real as you, it is duality. If a second thing seems like your appearance, your shade, your modulation, it is non-duality. The so-called birth and death are there for your appearance/image (like your image in a mirror), not for You. Weather your appearance/image is there or not, You are there. World (including your body-mind) also has a (so-called) birth and death (like in big bang and big crunch), because it is an appearance of Pure-Consciousness. When the world is gone, God/Creator is also gone. But, You are still, and eternally, there (like in your deep-sleep). Dis-identify yourself with your body-mind complex and identify yourself with Yourself, Pure-Consciousness or Sath-Chith. The funny thing is that you have identified yourself with a body-mind complex without being informed but you would not identify yourself with Pure-Consciousness even after repeated informing by the wise.
Non-duality is not "I" becoming "mine," or "I" becoming God, but "mine" dissolving into "I," or God dissolving into "I." That "I" is You, the Pure-Consciousness, the only Reality.
Body/World dissolves into thought. Thought dissolves in to Reflected-Consciousness or soul. Soul dissolves into Aathma or Pure-I or Witness (like in deep-sleep). And Pure-I is none other than Pure-Consciousness (pot-space is nothing other than infinite space). Soul has to ignore/forget its nature to see something (seemingly) other than itself (i.e., the world) and in doing so, it identifies itself with a mind.
Can we see Pure-Consciousness? Yes and no. If you see it as an object (something other than yourself), it is not that. Anything perceivable, thinkable or knowable is inert, and basically dead. If you can not-see any object/limit, like in 'Savikalpa Samaadhi' in the presence of intellect, then you are feeling yourself as Infinity. That feeling itself is seeing/experiencing (like seeing the taste of a sweet). Then you are seeing you as your Infinite Presence/Existence/Being ("I am aware of my presence", "I know that I am"). That is Pure-I. Seeing Pure-I is being Pure-I. This (Awakening or Self-Realization) is only half way. If you can now see the objects/world also as Pure-I, you have "reached." So, "grab" the Infinite Existence aspect of the objects/world and see it as your Infinite Existence/Being (because it is the same). This is Self-Actualization. If you didn't do this, the world will grab you and cause bondage/suffering, as usual. See the wold in you and you in the world. Go back and forth. This is called 'Advaithic Samaadhi.' Avoiding the world will make you sleepy.
Extrovert or objective science takes one to analyze finite objects/world infinitely with no end and no result (periphery has no end). Introvert or subjective science takes one to the Source (center is reached with no further to go, a synthesis) which is infinite in nature and, thus, realizes that he is Infinite-Consciousness and also realizes that the objects/world are also infinite in nature and are not any different from him (there can be only one Infinity). Reaching the center/being, shows you the end because the beginning and end are the same in the Absolute. Doing to know takes you away from the center while knowing to "be" takes you towards the center. Being as seen is not important, seeing as being is.
Who is the true experiencer? From an individual perspective it is the soul. From an universal perspective it is the Universal-Soul or God. However, any soul is a reflection of Pure-Consciousness and, therefore, illusory. For Pure-Consciousness, it is all by itself. It cannot know and experience a second thing. It only knows itself. Who gets enlightened then? No "one."
Advaitha Vedantha Philosophy: 1. Recognizes two “entities:” ‘Aathma’ or I/Subject/Knower/Unchanging and ‘Anaathma’ or Object/Seen/Known/Changing (Non-I). Change/Movement is impossible without a changeless background. 2. Aathma is the Unchanging I-Consciousness and Anaathma is everything else. 3. Anaathma includes inner space (feelings, thoughts, sensations, perceptions, etc) and outer space (earth, water, fire, air and space). Space, time, objects, ideas, forms and processes/functions are all Anaathma (physical space changes/disappears in deep-sleep). 4. Aathma is Consciousness that is quality-less/formless/all-pervading (it is our experience that our Consciousness is boundary-less or limit-less because it is aware of any or all boundaries or limits). Since it is All-Pervading, it is Real, Ever-Present and Independent. It uses its intrinsic power to “be.” Space satisfies most of these qualities except that it is inert or unconscious. Space does not know that it is. 5. The one who says Aathma is such and such, must be that Aathma himself. For if there is Aathma as a third person, it has to be known to him, which, then becomes Anaathma. Are you not aware of the all-pervading space? 6. If you are All-Pervading Consciousness, why are you in your body only?…Because you identify yourself as that body alone (inseparable relationship) and think that you are limited to that body. 7. Now that All-Pervading Consciousness is seemingly divided into two: Individual and the world. 8. An Individual (‘Jeeva’) is a seeming mixture of Aathma and Anaathma, a mixture of Consciousness and matter (mind is subtle matter). If Jeeva thinks that he is I-sense only, he is Aathma but if he thinks that he is I-sense plus body then he is Anaathma. 9. Why did this seeming identification and division happen? Due to Ignorance or lack of complete knowledge about your true infinite nature. Individual/Jeeva is the result. With Jeeva as the apparent knower, a world is manifested. 10. Jeeva and Ignorance are inter-dependent (what is first cannot be solved) and, therefore, illusory. If Jeeva is illusory, so is the world. 11. Pain and pleasure of life are for Jeeva only as Consciousness cannot be affected as it is All-Pervading (space cannot be affected by objects). Pain and pleasure do not belong to the inert body either. 12. If Jeeva and the world are illusory, how are these seen then?…They can be (and they are) seen as illusion only, not real (a second/lower order reality like your night-dream, like your shade). Therefore, all there is, is Aathma/I/Consciousness.
For any experience to take place, your mind has to take the shape of that object first and then that object has to lose its form in you (food is experienced only when it loses its form in your stomach). Therefore, in order to experience Godliness/Sath-Chith, your mind has to take the shape of Sath, or Infinite Being, through/in an object. See the Is-ness of the form (the real substance), not the form. See the Existence in the existent. See the friendship in friends. See the gold in ornaments (ornaments are gold but gold is not ornaments because gold is gold and never changes or becomes anything other than gold but the ornaments have to change their shapes to become gold). Objects without Existence Proper, become support less and disappear as objects and shine as the Real-You.
Prior to world’s Manifestation, Sath-Chith was there alone and the world was hidden as Sath-Chith. Upon Manifestation, Sath-Chith appears as the world. Sath-Chith plus the world, Sath-Chith is apparently hidden as the world. All there is to the world is Sath-Chith like all there is to a golden necklace is the gold. Nothing new can be created.
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The two fundamental human problems are suffering and fear of death ('samsaara'). They both are moving/changing. How can you stop a moving target by moving yourself? If you are doing, that means you are moving. If you and the other are both moving, you cannot stop the other. Therefore, any doing technique will not work to realize freedom from suffering and death. Consciousness cannot resist anything (like infinite space) and is beyond suffering and/or death and is motionless. Stop motion with motionless "effort." The only thing that can be "gained" without a doing-effort is something that has been "gained" already but hidden by ignorance. Remove ignorance (and, thereby, 'samsaara') through knowledge of remembering/recognizing your infinite and eternal nature (and this can happen to a pure mind in a flash). This is called an effort-less-effort. Effortless because you are already that, effort because you have to recognize it.
Space is infinite. Does that mean that it is Existence/Being? No. If space was Existence, what about earth, what about happiness? Earth IS. Happiness IS. We also say space IS. IS-ness is common to all Manifestation and "prior" to Manifestation. Therefore, space is Existence but Existence is not space. Existence cannot be limited by space. Existence is limitless.
Common knowledge is, "I am Limited-Consciousness and what I see is different than me." Discriminative knowledge is, "I am Limitless-Consciousness and what I see is illusory." Intuitive knowledge is, "All is Me, The Limitless-Consciousness."
Where is Pure-Consciousness? Pure-Consciousness is where non-movement, purity, freedom and knowingness resides. Space satisfies the first three, but cannot know (it is inert). Our individuated-consciousness satisfies all conditions except it is not free (it is bound by the body). The only solution, therefore, is if our individuated-consciousness can come "out" of the body and claim the total space. And how does it do? By losing the misconception or ignorance that it is not infinite already. It is impossible for finite to become infinite unless it is already infinite but forgot it.
Bypassing yourself and looking for God elsewhere is duality because they are separated. And then you are trying to catch God, which is a "becoming." God is Being. Becoming can never "bring" you to Being as you are only getting away from Being in becoming because Being is ever-present. You are already THAT. You cannot walk towards yourself.
Prior to space/time or Manifestation, The Source must be Formless/Infinite/All-Pervading. How can the world be born or created from Infinity? One seemingly finite thing can be born from another seemingly finite thing (a baby from a mother) because there are two existent things with separate spaces. In case of The Source and the world, it is different. Where can the world be placed if all there is, is Infinity. Therefore, the only way the world can be manifested is through dreaming and that the births and deaths are apparent. In other words, world, birth and death are mere appearances.
The three tools of creation are words, actions and thoughts (they produce results). All words emerge from and dissolve into silence which is “one.” All actions emerge from and dissolve into energy which is “one.” All thoughts emerge from and dissolve into Consciousness which is “one” (thoughts are known by the same Consciousness). Similarly, all finite things (world) must emerge from and dissolve into the “one” that is Infinite. The idea/awareness that there are spacious limitations/boundaries must require a limitless/boundary-less/formless Existence beyond space. That is Chith-Sath.
God (Divine Being) wants to experience itself through you. God’s highest state of ecstasy/bliss is when you realize yourself “being” God.
How can the only thing that is never experienced, matter, give rise to Consciousness, the only thing that is ever experienced? How can something intermittent, matter, give rise to Consciousness, which is continuous or ever-present? How can the perceiver be made out of the perceived? It is meaningless to say that there is no Consciousness but there is matter. It is like saying, "I see matter but I have no eyes." Matter is revealed by Consciousness but Consciousness reveals matter as well as itself (it is self-revealing). Experience is possible without matter but not possible without Consciousness. The unmoving presence of Consciousness "gives" the inert matter an apparent movement or change, like fire making the wood burn and/or change, like a magnet making the iron filings move (the unexpressed Consciousness cannot be seen or expressed without a medium because Consciousness is infinite/all-pervading).
If you catch dualistic/relative knowledge, it will not stay because it is inter-dependent. Absolute/Non-dualistic knowledge is already and always there even if you don’t catch it because it is independent.
We are being God because we are not away from God or The Whole. But we are not knowing it. It is like a poor man sitting in a hut where treasure is buried right underneath his seat. Know yourself to be God as any experience must be in first person only.
By knowing yourself as Pure-Consciousness, you know all because all knowledge exists/resides in Consciousness.
Being present and being conscious is the constant and continuous element of all experience. That is Sath and Chith or ness and conscious or Conscious-ness. Objective experience comes and goes (including the experience of body and/or mind) but you are always Consciousness. Being conscious without any element of objectivity or otherness is You. In other words, being conscious of being conscious is You, the Pure-Knowing.
Changing or manipulating your thoughts or feelings from negative to positive will not take you any closer to Awakening/Enlightenment or what you essentially are. "Go" there directly because you are yourself. Walking towards or walking away from yourself is meaningless. Simply recognize in the midst of experience.
Trying to catch the Unchanging through Changing is partial. Catching the Unchanging in the Changing is Wholistic and you cannot do this unless you are already Whole. If you don’t realize/know the Whole, there will be a second thing other than or different to you and you will be back to square one (duality). Get out of your seeing the world as a second thing (your perspective), not from the world because there is never a world as other than Aathma or You.
When you don’t have any head aches, you are not aware of your head. When you don’t have any “my…” feelings, you will not be aware of your mind. The more of “my…” creates the more of “Ego-I.” The simplest form of practice for Self-Realization is to see that you are free of “my…” feelings including “my body.” Then, “True-I” shines as your nature and consequently, “my” gets resolved into or understood as “True-I.” Awareness/Knowing/True-I is the state of Being. Experiencing that, is the state of Fullness.
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A star, light years away is visible, seems to be there, but it may have disappeared long, long time ago. You are looking at the star that was present light years ago, because the traveling light (that took light years to reach you) is reporting the fact that existed light years ago, not now. This is an illusion because the star is not a 'now-object.' The farther an object is in time and space, the more illusory it is. Pure experiencing happens in the 'now.' So, if you were to meet the true God face to face, he/she must be a 'now-object' and you must be a 'now-subject.' If God/Creator is in a heaven somewhere at an infinite distance away from you, it is an illusion (the seeable God will bind you, the unseeable God will protect you) . The only logical location for pure experiencing is deep within the subject/observer itself (t=0 for the subject is within you and t=0 for the object is also within you). Mind (always in the past or future) can move to pure experiencing consciously by dissolving into Consciousness (always in the present). And when it does, you only realize your self, or your Self (Consciousness realizes Consciousness), but no God to be found.
When you are limited and identified as your body-mind, the body-mind appears real and the world appears real (like in your night-dream). When you realize that you are Limitless-Consciousness, the body-plus-world becomes your modulation/reflection. When you leave your causal-body for good, the world dissolves into you (Pure-Consciousness) as your power/energy/maya (maya is the inseparable power of Pure-Consciousness like the sweetness is inseparable property of the sugar). There is still an apparent form in modulation for a self-realized being, but there is none in Pure-Consciousness.
Anything not perceivable is infinity (like space). Anything not conceivable or knowable is limitlessness (like Consciousness). Infinity is not necessarily limitlessness (space is conceivable). Thinking that limitlessness is limited, is ignorance or lack of complete-knowledge. In other words, thinking that Consciousness is only body-bound is ignorance ("your" consciousness is not knowable; if it is not knowable, then it is not a limited object). And ignorance is the root cause of suffering. Perceive, think and feel like Limitless-Consciousness and the world will respond accordingly, as Limitless-Existence. Chith and Sath are, then, "united."
In any dualistic yogas (karma-yoga, bhakthi-yoga, samaadhi-yoga, etc.), you are bringing God down to your level as a Personal-God. In Self-Inquiry (gnyaana-yoga), you are "growing up" to reach to God's level. The funny thing is that you are at God's level already because your body-bound consciousness is none other than the Universal-Consciousness (there is only one Consciousness but many minds). How long does it take to "grab" God's level when you are already there?
Being aware of being aware is the highest form of meditation (it is called samaadhi, meaning homogeneously placed, like space).
Deep-sleep is to be with yourself in the absence of objects (induced by nature). Meditation/Samaadhi is to be with yourself in the absence of objects (induced by self-effort). Enlightenment is to be with yourself in the presence of apparent objects (induced by self-knowledge). What is the difference between deep-sleep and samaadhi, then? In deep-sleep you identify yourself with ignorance/causal-body/soul whereas in samaadhi you are free of ignorance/causal-body/soul temporarily. Repeated samaadhi practices may help reduce the impressions/karmas you have accumulated and make the mind purer.
If space was believed to be there first without a witness (as the determining factor), then the space must either be totally there or totally not there (there is no distinction between being and not-being and, hence, they are one and the same). Since there is a possibility of space being not-there, it cannot be proven (“benefit of doubt”) that it is there by itself without a witness. Therefore, this proposition stays as a belief, not as a fact. You are the witness of your experience which is inert. Why wouldn’t there be an universal witness (Chith) of the inert universe (space, Sath)?
We all agree, “I am conscious of my experience.” Since experience is always changing, the only element of us that is constant or unchanging is, “I am conscious.” “I am conscious” does not share the limits of experience. That must be our nature then, being-conscious in an unlimited way. In other words, Limitless-Consciousness. Since limited mind cannot see Continuous, Limitless-Consciousness, it wrongly attributes the continuity to the world.
Fear and Worship (Bhakthi Yoga) go hand in hand. Fear arises because of an imagined second thing different than you (either the world or a Personal-God).
“World is not different than me” is non-duality. “I am not different than this world” is not non-duality. Why? Because in the second statement, “I” will disappear when the world disappears. Be the magician, not the magic.
Any knowledge about any limit is limited knowledge. Knowledge about the Absolute is unlimited knowledge. When you “have” that unlimited knowledge, desire to have objective/limited/particular knowledge becomes non-binding.
For a common man, world is real as matter-mind. For a seeker, world is an appearance (‘aabhaasa’; in a bundle of sticks, sticks are real but the bundle is aabhaasa). For Eeshwara and a master, world is real as his glory (‘vibhoothi’). For Brahman, there is only Brahman. "All is Brahman" is 'swaroopam' and "Brahman is all" is 'vibhoothi.'
Don’t look for Brahman/Aathma, The Source, directly (like in yogic meditation which is dualistic in nature because it avoids the world). That will lead to either sleep or the world. Try to see the Unchanging (Sath-Chith-Love) in the changing world in the midst of experience ('advaithic meditation' which includes all). Catch the Whole with the Whole by cultivating wholesome thought when you see the parts.
The densest material in Existence is space as planets and stars with that much weight cannot penetrate space which supports it from all around. However, space disappears in deep-sleep and in big-crunch. Limitlessly densest non-material is Pure-Consciousness as it pervades space and is ever-present.
In Wholeness, the present IS and the absence/void is also IS (the presence of the absence IS). That Whole is “I,” Aathma.
If you catch what IS, is Gnyaana Yoga (path of knowledge) and is complete. If you think, “What I caught is what IS,” it is all other yogas (Karma Yoga, Bhakthi Yoga, Samaadhi Yoga, etc.) and is partial or incomplete.
Truth is paradoxical because it contains both the negative and the positive and also transcends them both, although not all paradoxical things are truthful.
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"If Consciousness is one, how come I am not knowing someone else's experience?" Because you are trying to know it as your mind (minds are many and one mind may not know the other mind). Consciousness is knowing all experience because there is no "other" in Consciousness and, in fact, it can only know itself. When you can see yourself in all beings and all beings in you (or realize that there is no "other"), you can also be All-Knowing because there is only I-ness everywhere.
In dualistic paths, one is trying to merge/unite into a second thing; limit merging into another limit results in limit (which is not freedom). Truth can never be directly revealed by any dualistic method because the plane of relativity is of a lower order than the plane of the Absolute Truth. Doing is of a lower order than Being (a dream-character inside of dream worshipping a Personal-God will not take him anywhere). Being is prior to doing or experiencing and, so, no experience can reveal the Being. In non-dualistic path, however, everything else is dissolved into you and you alone remain as the Limitless because you are that Limitless to begin with. You simply forgot about true-self and are identifying yourself with a limited-self in error. Absolute Truth can only be self-revealed as You, the Limitless-Consciousness. Absolute Truth is given, already there. A separate-self (limit) can never realize itself as Consciousness, only Consciousness realizes itself as Consciousness (a dreamer realizes that he is the dreamer-consciousness and never was the dream-character to begin with; therefore enter the dream knowingly or as a lucid-waker or with complete-knowledge). Experiencing Peace (or any kind of experience) is duality ("I had/have Peace" means you are not the Peace, you are separate from Peace). The knowledge or clarity or understanding, "I am the Peace" is Awakening.
Perceptions, sensations, thoughts, images, feelings and desires (all of experience) rise out of I AM and die into I AM because I AM is the only truth that stays with you at all times. This constant experiencing over I AM covers/hides the I AM which makes you fascinated/obsessed with your experience. Therefore, inquire into I AM to realize 'I.' I AM is the gateway to 'I.' One side of this gate is illusory experience and the other side is Reality. I AM is not a thought or memory; it is knowledge, but partial knowledge. Partial knowledge is "I know that I AM." Complete-knowledge is "I know what I AM." With this perspective of Limitless-Consciousness, see the Limitless-Existence aspect in the objects of the world. Chith contacting Sath is Chith-Sath or Pure-Love or One-ness (because there cannot be two Infinities). The knowledge I AM may be compared to the white sun on a painting of all colors on a white canvas (sun's image is the only one that is not painted). From an individual perspective from the colored part of the painting, the sun is the knowledge that is seemingly painted white, but from the white canvas's perspective it is itself.
Whatever is self-evident, self-knowing or doesn't require any proof is Real. Anything known (as an object) to that real entity is false. Whatever appears in Consciousness is false as the appearance, like an image appearing in a mirror is false as the image. Consciousness seeing/knowing the world as Consciousness is Real.
Fire cannot be seen by itself. It needs a medium, say wood. When fire burns the wood, fire is seen. Wood does not produce fire. Fire is already and always there. Fire makes the wood change, move. Fire is dormant/unexpressed, but is now expressed through the medium of wood. It is the same with Consciousness and body. It is impossible for the limited body to produce the Unlimited-Consciousness (it is our experience that body has limits and Consciousness has no limits; space is infinite and, yet, you are conscious of that). The presence of Unlimited-Consciousness activates bodies just like the fire activates the wood or sunlight activates plants' life. Fire cannot also burn itself (but burns and shows everything else) like Consciousness cannot also see itself (but knows and sees everything else). Fire is, thus, compared to Consciousness through this quality.
God/Creator is an Impersonal and Self-Aware presence. And so are you, but you "made" yourself personal by imagination. You have "fallen" from Infinity to finiteness, from All-Knowing to limited-knowing. That's the difference. You may ask, "But God as Creator created this universe and I did not have any experience of creating it." How do you know, for sure, you did not create this universe? You did not have any experience creating your own night-dream, but you did create it. Think, feel and know that you as Consciousness is also All-Pervading. God will, then, disappear and you alone will remain as the Sole Reality.
Happiness and unhappiness both reside in and as the status of one's mind. And so also can a status of liberation. Mind has this tremendous capacity to imagine an All-Pervading-Thought or Wholesome-Thought of Not-Two-ness ('Brahmaakaara Vritthi'). Right vision destroys the wrong notions, all at once. Experience of the same sweetness hidden in different varieties of sugars is like that Thought.
Sath (Existence) has apparently changed to become the objects/world (matter) and has no urge/responsibility to go back. Chith (Consciousness) has apparently entered into the objects/world (mind) and has the urge/responsibility to go back and unite/merge.
If we raise two walls in a vast open space, that open space will appear to be divided into three confined spaces. Similarly, when our mind imagines the existence of two different types of bodies in the waking state - gross and subtle - the infinite space of our true and absolute self-conscious being appears to be divided into thee separate finite states, which we call waking, dream and deep-sleep. But deep-sleep is continuous throughout the three states. If waking is movie#1 and dream is movie#2, then deep-sleep is the screen. What we experience in deep-sleep is Pure-Consciousness and we are THAT.
Devotion means motion towards deva/light/God. ‘Bhakthi’ means ‘to catch hold of’ (God). You can never catch hold of that God as ‘My God’ because 'mine' is temporary/slippery. You can only catch hold of him as ‘I,’ because your and God's nature is 'I' which is permanent. Catch the essence, not the particulars.
Inert nature cannot act/create without Intelligence/Consciousness. Intelligence/Consciousness, however, is the unchanging eternal witness and cannot change/act/create. Also, creation with have's and have-not's implies an unfair Creator. Then if there is a so-called creation, it must be an illusion or an appearance of that which always IS because an actual creation cannot happen. World getting birthed is an action. Actor must precede an action. If world existed prior to its birth, then whose birth is it? Creation is NOT.
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"World is different than me" is a game of interconnected opposites, likes and dislikes. "World is my reflection, not different than me" is a play of one-being's-hide-and-seek.
Reality ('Aathma') must be One and if there is a second thing seen (object or world or 'Anaathma'), it must be Reality's reflection/modulation. Whatever seen is not whatever IS; but whatever IS, is whatever seen. We can never see the substance, we can only see its seeming properties. In other words, if Reality is seen, it is an illusion/world/object ('Anaathma'). If illusion/world/object is not seen but simply IS, it is The Reality/The Subject ('Aathma'). When sunlight in a desert is seen as water, sunlight is hidden. If the water is seen for what it actually is, as the sunlight, then water is hidden.
We cannot say, "My consciousness" because, "I AM Consciousness." “My” limits Consciousness. And what is conscious of that limited consciousness? Must be Consciousness itself. There is only One Consciousness and only One 'I.' That 'I' is God/Creator and that Consciousness is Pure-Consciousness. From the point of view of God, It is witnessing all experience impersonally and from an infinite perspective. From the point of view of Pure-Consciousness, It is ITSELF (It is not even a Witness). Infinite ocean is witnessing all the movements of waves but water is being water.
Mind is an apparent form/movement of Consciousness, a localization of Consciousness. Consciousness must be higher and beyond mind, for it witnesses mind (thought cannot witness another thought or itself). Consciousness may be called as the mind of the mind. What witnesses Consciousness? Only Consciousness. In other words, Consciousness is self-witnessing. Consciousness witnesses and also witnesses itself. It must be independently existent (cannot be limited by any other entity). If so, it must be all-pervading. That also means there is nothing higher than that. All-Pervading entity cannot be seen (like space) but can be experienced/known through a medium. Perception (body), thought (mind) and feeling (soul) are that media. Fire cannot be seen by itself but can be experienced/known through a medium, like wood.
When one says, “Reality is Formless and All-Pervading,” he is saying that with his Knowledge or Consciousness, so he must be that Reality. Space is formless and all-pervading but is not aware. The one that is aware or can say space is formless and all-pervading with Knowledge/Awareness is himself that Reality (‘Aathma’, 'I'). If he sees/describes Reality in third person, it must be known/visible to him as a second “thing,” which will make that Reality pseudo or false ("mine"). Therefore, he himself must be that first person Reality ("I"). Are you not aware of the all-pervading space?
One's intrinsic nature can never be thrown away because the "one" who is trying to throw it away is itself that nature. Fire cannot be cold and cannot burn itself; that is its nature. Our nature is Pure-Consciousness. Fire that makes something burn is like mind. Fire that burns is like Pure-Consciousness.
Prayer to God involves three stages: I am a piece/part of You (Bhakti Yoga/Worship/Devotion, surrendering the ego), You are all of me (Raja Yoga/Samaadhi-Yoga/Meditation, reducing the impressions, singularity), and, finally, “I AM” is You (Gnyaana Yoga, non-duality or enlightened-duality).
The feeling-knowing of I-Consciousness without “mine” is Pure-I.
Man wants to be eternally and infinitely happy. So, the problems of life are two: how to be free of birth and death and how to be free of misery. The first one is related to the individual/ego and the second one to the world because the world is seen by the ego as something different. The solution to this is given by the four Vedas in the form of four “Great Sentences.” 1. “Pragnyaanam Brahman.” Talks about our true/original nature. Absolute knowledge without the knower and the known is Brahman (The Source, Whatever That IS). 2. “Ayam Aathma Brahman.” Talks about the ego being Aathma/The Unchanging “I” and being Brahman. Ego is a form/reflection of Chith. This is the path to dissolve the ego. 3. “Sarvam Khalu Idham Brahman.” Talks about the world (includes your body-mind) being none other than Brahman. World is a form/reflection of Sath. This is the path to dissolve the world. Now, Chith+Sath=Chith-Sath=Pragnyaanam. 4. “Aham Brahmaasmi.” Talks about the Ultimate Reality being the “I-Consciousness.” The feeling of I-ness in waking state without any thought-waves is Infinite and, so, Brahman as there cannot be two Infinities. This is experiential and the result or solution to the problems. Chith-Sath is ready-made and everywhere, so this recognition is enough. Claim it as You. There is only “One-Infinite-You” without a second because Chith-Sath is in You and You are in Chith-Sath (water is in the wave and the wave is in the water means all there is, is water). Remember, “I have the experience of Brahman” goes away (experiences come and go, 'paroksha gnyaana'), “I am Brahman” stays because the experiential-knowledge is always in first person (=I know Brahman as I, it is knowledge that stays, 'aparoksha gnyaana'). “I have become God” is also an illusion because that God becomes an object to you. With, "Aham Brahmaasmi", “Brahman Ahamasmi” also becomes true. Brahman must "become" I for your first person complete experience, otherwise the experience belongs to Brahman. The four steps of Guyana Yoga (Listen, Contemplate, Apply, Realize) are inline with these four Great Sentences. These four proclamations need to be studied and understood in detail.
Consciousness is eternally one. Existence can, apparently, be two: one is composed (particulars/changing), the other one is un-composed (unchanging/space). Consciousness cannot see itself, but can see Existence in its composed aspect (like you, as "limited consciousness", can see your limited body).
God must be Limitless-Existence, has no problems, but its Existence is uncertain (it is only a faith, unprovable). An individual is limited existence, has problems, but his existence is certain (it is a direct, immediate experience; I AM). Join these two for perfection. And that is the only possible and provable way for a whole or perfect God. I AM Limitless-Existence (a first person experience/knowledge). Realize.
No one is ever away from experience, including God. Like us, God must have the experience/knowledge of being. Otherwise, it is not. And what is the essence or the unchanging or the common element of all experience without which the experience would not be possible?…Consciousness which is separate from any experience like light on an object. Therefore, God must be that Pure-Consciousness and so are you.
Consciousness/Love has an apparent desire to see/experience itself as an object, which is also reflected in us. And the result is this internal and external worlds of subject and object. Therefore, experience love knowingly (you cannot experience what you do not know because knowing/awareness is prior to experience and validates experience, otherwise it is partial experience). Know that you are Limitless-Consciousness (not a body-bound consciousness) and nothing is separate from you. A wave realizing that it is water “becomes” the ocean. The ocean experiences the waves as itself.
Pure-Consciousness IS AWARE (in Eternity and Infinity). Universal Reflected-Consciousness/Eeshwara/God is aware of itself (in Now and Here). An ego is aware of a second which is different than itself (in time and space). The ego is in illusion and knows not. God is in illusion and knows it as such. Pure-Consciousness is not aware of either the presence of illusion or the absence of illusion.
True thoughtlessness is not the absence of thoughts but the absence of any fondness/relationship to thoughts in the presence of experience. The relationship between Truth and experience is like the relationship between the colorless sky and the colorful sky, between the TV screen and the movie.
Awareness of your Impersonal Presence is Peace and sharing that presence with the world is Love.
If a magician is by himself with his power dormant, he is like Paramaathma/Brahman. If he desires to display his power and manifests objects (as his glory), he is like Eeshwara/God and the displayed objects are like the world. If the magician thinks/imagines that one of the objects is himself (identifies with an object) experiencing the world, he is like jeeva/separate-self/ego.
If a pot is moving, the pot-water is also moving with it because they both are finite. Is the pot-space moving? No, the pot-space is not moving with the pot, it is only moving ‘as if.’ Why? Because the 'one' space is everywhere homogeneously including the pot. If the pot was any different than space, then it must divide the space. In other words, pot must be completely made of space (space is undivided). Space must be appearing as the pot. That is the only way. Pure-Consciousness is like space filled with pure light of knowing, kind of a knowing-space, All-Pervading Knowingness (Consciousness is apart from mind/body/objects, it pervades and illumines mind/body/objects, it is not limited by any object, it is known/experienced by the functioning of mind/body and it cannot be experienced without mind/body).
If you cannot grab a pot without touching the mud, then the pot is the mud. If you cannot know the presence of objects (matter) without the presence of Awareness, then the objects (matter) are the Awareness. As Awareness is All-Pervading, transaction is possible only when it is hidden/unexpressed in matter (matter is known) but risen/expressed in mind (mind/soul is the knower). Non-duality is not the disappearance of a second entity, but seeing the second entity as non-different than you (like seeing it as your shade).
If there is no resistance and no possibility of any resistance between two qualities or selves or objects, then those two are essentially the same. Since there is no resistance between space and all of its contents, the contents are nothing but 100% space and/or its modulations (science claims that matter is over 99.99% space). Empty space being inert cannot claim its existence unless it is conscious (or else, it is no-existence or void). Therefore, the apparent world as space is nothing but Consciousness and/or its modulation. All is Pure-Consciousness and you are THAT. In order to proclaim it, you must feel your presence everywhere. Search for yourself, you will "find" Pure-Consciousness; search for Pure-Consciousness, you will "find" yourself.
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