Inspirational Perspectives, Part 2
This article offers various perspectives on Enlightenment, Ultimate Truth, The Source, The Absolute, God, whatever you may choose to call it. There is a longer introduction to what that refers to, and what the title of these articles refers to, in Inspirational Perspectives, Part 1. I definitely suggest that you read Part 1 before you start reading this one.
Pain and suffering are not one and the same thing. Suffering is the consequence of not being able to accept and embrace the present experience as it is.
When we follow the mind’s imagination of an alternative to what is, we may come up with something that we would prefer, and suffer because things are the way they are. We may believe that the alternative would be better for us, but how can we know that? Maybe it would, in the short-term perspective, but how can we know what the far-reaching consequences would be?
But more to the point; There is no alternative to how things are in the present moment! There has never been a moment that was different than how it was, and there never will be. Other than in imagination.
Embrace the present moment. It is a gift, a present, a miracle beyond all comprehension, that THIS moment shows up in/as awareness, now and never again!
In and of themselves, mindfulness practices and nondual beliefs are of limited use, unless combined with kindness. Make kindfulness your practice!
In the subject-object conceptualisation, the subject is aware of the object. It is fairly simple to establish that it is impossible to distinguish between the object and the awareness of the object. To speak of awareness of the subject is non-sensical, since that would make the subject just another object. Now, investigate; is it possible to distinguish the subject from awareness?
Every one of your senses are mirrors through which awareness perceives itself.
Consciousness is not generated by any process within the person. The person is generated by a process within consciousness, the process of identification. Hence, consciousness is the source of the person.
It is not a task for the person to identify as its source. It is the task for consciousness to stop identifying as the person.
You are being been by Life, and the invitation is to witness Life being you.
Life is a dream without a dreamer. The dream appears, but there is no perceiver of it. There is no experiencer of the dream. There is the dream, and the dream itself is aware, that is all.
The attitude from which to approach true meditation can be formulated as the question, “What is the nature of the subject, who/what is aware of the meditator meditating?”
What you are seeking cannot be found by seeking it. What you are looking for cannot be found by looking for it. It finds itself and transcends itself in everything being just as it is, just as it appears. No need to go beyond appearance. No need to go anywhere. Just being with it as it is, being aware of it as it is. Being in the awareness of it as it is. Being aware of being aware of it as it is. Just like this. Very ordinary. It finds itself and transcends itself. No need to look for it, no need to seek.
Ultimate Truth can’t be found at the edges of the universe. The Universe is infinite. Looking for the edge of the Universe, you will only find more and more and more of it, because it is infinite. Ultimate Truth can’t be found by looking into the smallest either, because it is truly infinite in that direction too.
The further you look, the more you magnify, it continues to reveal more and more, because it is truly infinite, going into the microscopic scale as well as the macroscopic scale. So, it doesn’t matter if you are looking through the microscopic for the end, or through the macroscopic for the end, you will not find the end, you will not find the ultimate.
Ultimate Truth is to be found in that which is looking.
The so-called first-person experience shows up only as a result of the thinking mind introducing the concept of a person, the <your name> concept, the “me” idea. With the first-person idea also comes the “not-me”, which is the world surrounding the “me”.
Investigate this first-person experience, to establish its nature, and you will find that a better reference to it would perhaps be the zeroth-person experience.
The illusion, the dream, is that this is happening to someone, that someone is experiencing this, or something is conscious of this. It is also part of the dream, that the someone/something is somehow going to awaken from the dream.
But there is no someone that will awaken. There is no someone who is experiencing this. There is no something that is conscious of this. Not even consciousness is conscious of this. Consciousness is not conscious of anything, not even of itself. Consciousness just is, and is conscious. It is nothing and everything, and it is conscious.
There is no such thing as awareness, there is only “aware-ing”.
The mind objectivises, i.e. it creates concepts, representations of sensory phenomena. That’s what it is for. And that’s what makes it useful. However, the usefulness stops at the point where the mind also objectivises the subjective perspective, and makes an object, a concept, out of “I”.
All searching, including searching for “I”, is done with the mind. It combs through its objects, or creates new ones. But everything that hence shows up is another object, and therefore can’t be the subject.
The subject is of a completely different nature. It exists in a realm not accessible to the mind. Really, even talking about it like this is misrepresenting it, since only objects can be referred to as an “it”. To “find” the subject, searching for it must stop. The subject is always the subject (duh!) and can know itself only directly, without going via the mind. The subject is that to which all objects show up, the clearing where aware-ing takes place.
“I” is the knot without which I am not.
When the knot is undone what remains is all One.
In Enlightenment, are there thoughts?
Yes, but there isn’t anyone having the thoughts.
Nor is there anyone not having the thoughts.
Don’t try to capture that brief moment of inspired insight. Let each moment go.
Release each insightful moment. Including this one!
It is within Manifestation’s very nature to have limitations, definitions and attributes.
By definition, or unavoidable restriction. As such, by its sheer nature, Manifestation organises itself.
The perceived reality, the world, is the way that phenomena (i.e. elements of manifestation) are organised, by the organising principle that is inherent in Manifestation.
Phenomena, in and of themselves, carry no organisation.
Like the ink is not the rabbit seen in the ink blot, yet not separate from it,
The Absolute is not the manifest Universe, yet not separate from it.
Liberation is simply the release of the belief in a limited “self.”
Liberation will never happen to you, because that belief is all that you are.
Liberation will never happen to anything else either, as that in which this belief appeared was never bound by it in the first place.
I can’t be reached through conceptual thinking, it needs to be realised!
I is reflected, in beingness, as “I am”.
I is what IS – prior to beingness.
I is the attributeless nature of the primordial state.
Dig deep into your sense of “I” and I will sooner or later reveal itself!
Consciousness is not a mental or cognitive or psychological or personal phenomenon!
Trying to find your true self is like trying to see seeing.
The “I” is a concept, a construct created for the purpose of organising experience. It borrows its “real-ness” from that which is not a concept, from that which IS.
When that which IS identifies with the “I” concept, the “I” concept appears real.
But only that which IS is real, and when “it” realises “its” independence from all concepts, “it” also realises that only “it” is real.
Thus, “I” and all other concepts lose their sense of real-ness. That is all.
There is nothing the “I” can do to make this realisation come about. Yet, the “process” of realisation appears to the “I” to be work that it is doing – seeking the truth that it can never find; its own unreal-ness.
Consciousness and world show up simultaneously.
They are inseparable.
They are one and the same!
Enlightenment is the complete realisation that this is what enlightenment is like!
Continue to Inspirational Perspectives, Part 3
If you are interested in deepening your spiritual awareness, you may want to consider participating in the Integrating Awareness Meditation course…
