Certainty of Being

last SG · 2010-04-21T15:16:13+00:00

If you find out what is a non conceptual thought, what is the essence of the mind at rest, it may be revealed that it is that same powerful presence and cert...

An Eternal Now SG

Your mirror-like awareness has no limitations, has no boundaries and edges. It does not belong to any object that appears on it. It does not belong to the body-mind object that you identify as 'yourself'. It does not belong to anything. But everything arise from that.

Try to find out if Awareness belongs to an individual self in your own experience. When you are able to go beyond concepts, you realise that it is not 'you' as a body-mind that contains awareness, but rather, the body-mind are appearances within Awareness. The appearances come and go, but Awareness does not move. It is timeless, formless, and capable of manifesting everything. It is like space - space does not belong to anything, yet everything manifests from within that. Your Awareness is like space - it is the universal/impersonal space in which every thoughts and sight and sensation manifest, but no object or person can claim ownership of space just because they manifested within it.

Right now you identify yourself with your mind and body. This is the cause of the sense of individuality. But if you break that identification, it is like the 'small space' inside your body-mind merges with the 'great space' outside, and you realise there is no difference. There never was separation, there never was a real individual identity.

It is like the light from a small lamp when put under the sun, will dissolve into the Great Light and become inseparable. Similarly, when you realise your True Identity, your self-consciousness will dissolve into the Universal/Impersonal Awareness.

Some of us may think that it is actually the body-mind that is animating the consciousness, and as such consciousness is a personal/individual byproduct of the body-mind. Actually we got it completely backwards! Consciousness/Awareness is what is animating the body. A dead body or corpse has no consciousness, which shows that body itself is insentient and relies on the Presence of Awareness for its functions.

Impersonal/Universal Awareness is animating or ‘powering’ the body and the personality like electricity is powering the TV to show the images on screen. Whatever happens on screen is ‘run’ only by the ‘power’ of the One Mind. Everything and everyone is the spontaneous functioning of One Mind, there is no individual doers/actors/selves.

Just had a conversation with Thusness about this.

He told me that there is a problem of saying more than what is necessary, and that it comes from a clinging mind. That is, stripping of 'individuality' and 'personality' becoming a 'Universal Mind' is an extrapolation, a deduction. It is not direct experience like "in thinking just thoughts", "in perceptions just perceptions", "in seeing just the seen" - just 'what is'.

Similarly when I experienced 'impersonality', it is just 'impersonality', but it becomes an 'Universal Mind' due to clinging which prevents seeing. And if I further reinforce this idea, it becomes a made belief and appears true and real.

Therefore when I said 'impersonality', I am not being blinded as I am merely describing what I have experienced. This Mind is still an individual mindstream, and though impersonality leads one to have the sort of 'Universal Mind' kind of sensation, one must correctly understand it.

Buddhism never denies this mind stream, it simply denies the self-view. It denies separation, it denies an observer, a thinker. It denies a perfect controller, an independent agent. This is what 'Self' means, otherwise why is it a 'Self'? An individual mindstream remains as an individual mindstream, but it is nothing related to a Self.

Hence it is important to understand liberation from the right understanding, otherwise one gets confused. There is the experience of non-duality, Anatta, 'Tata', Stainlessness, but these have nothing to do with Self. Hence if one wants to understand Presence, then one must clearly and correctly understand Presence.

It is important to refine the understanding of Presence through the four aspects: impersonality, degree of luminosity, dissolving the need to re-confirm and understanding why it is unnecessary, and effortlessness.

These have no extrapolation and are what I am experiencing currently, and these requires improvement so that one can progress from "I AM".

There is the experience of impersonality. It is the stripping off of the personality aspect, and it causes one to link to a higher force, as if a cosmic life is functioning within me, like what Casino_King (a forummer who posted many years ago in both the Christian and Buddhist forums) experienced and described - the impersonal life force, which he called Holy Spirit.

It is as if it is all the functioning of a higher power, that life is itself taking the functioning, so dissolving 'personality' somehow allows me to get 'connected'.

I agreed with Thusness and told him that just yesterday I remembered a Christian quote that is very apt in describing this aspect: "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." - Galatians 2:20 and "Thy will be done" (Matt. 26:42)

Thusness agrees and told me that it is about surrendering to this greater power, that it is not you, but the life in you that is doing the work. It is the key of getting 'connected' to a higher power, to a divine life, to a sacred power - and one wants to lose oneself for this divinity to work through us. And this is what Thusness meant by Thusness Stage 3 experience, the 'I' is the block, because of 'holding' one is unable to 'surrender' completely. When one completely surrenders, the divine will will become your 'will'.

This is not the non-dual sort of experience, nor is it about I AM or the Certainty of Being, nor is it about Anatta.

For example, "I AM" allows you to directly experience 'your' very own existence, the beingness, the inner most essence of 'You'.

A true and genuine practitioner must give rise to all these insights, and understand the causes and conditions that give rise to the experiences and not get mixed up. Many people get mixed up over different 'types' of 'no self'.

For example, no-self of non-dual, no-self of anatta, non-inherent existence and impersonality, are all not refering to the same experience - but rather they are different results of dissolving certain aspect of the tendencies.

Hence a practitioner must be sincere in his practitioner to clearly see, and not pretend that one knows. Otherwise practice is simply more mix-up, confusion, and nonsense. It is not that it cannot be known, it is just that the mind isn't clear enough to see the causes and conditions of arising.

An Eternal Now SG

BTW I just remembered a month ago, someone posted a link to 'innerfrontier.org' and I sent one of the articles to Thusness who said that it is on the I AM and the four phases including impersonality, and I think it is pretty well written, however it is only up till I AM (and the four aspects) stage.

http://www.innerfrontier.org/Practices/JacobsLadder.htm

A Meditation: Climbing Jacob's Ladder

In this meditation, as far as we are able, we climb up Jacob’s Ladder, the ladder to the higher spiritual worlds. We might work at this meditation when in a particularly good state. Or when in difficulty. Or when we feel an especially strong need to delve into the depths of being. We do not expect to climb all the way up. Indeed, this meditation can be a measure of our progress, of the quality of our being and the purity of our will, of how thoroughly we can release the grip of self-centeredness and all the rest that keeps us mired in unfulfilling modes of living. The attempt itself to climb this ladder, to operate in progressively higher energies, gradually strengthens our being and purifies our will.

To fully enter this practice may require an extended block of time: an hour or more. Give each of the stages its due. They cannot be rushed or pushed. Let each phase take as much time as it needs to ripen into fullness. You will know when that happens.

We begin with a thorough relaxation, letting go the tensions, large and small, in every corner of our body, in our thoughts, and in our emotions.

Next, we open to the energy of sensation in the whole body. Energy breathing can help build the sensation. We sit in the midst of this remarkable body of ours, in full awareness of the whole of it through sensation. We continuously direct our intention, our will to support, strengthen, and inhabit our full-body sensation, which grows more and more and more substantial. Our will-to-be manifests through this whole body of sensation.

We become aware of ourselves, of who we are. We become ourselves. We experience ourselves as wholly and firmly present, as I Am. "Here I am, sitting in this body of sensation, in robust presence. I am here. Unique. Wholly myself. I fill the whole field of awareness with my intention to be. I am making an act of being, of being here, of being whole in the fullness of my current experience. I sit. I am. I am complete. I continuously renew this act of being." These sayings are not intended as affirmations to repeat to yourself; rather they describe what you do, what you create and experience in this stage.

After some time, we notice the growing spaciousness around and in our awareness. We naturally shift into that fundamental, spacious awareness, that cognizant stillness behind and beneath all sensation, thought, and emotion. While maintaining the full-body sensation and the experience of I Am, we rest in consciousness. No longer entangled with random sensations and sensory perceptions, we let them be. We let all the sensory input be embraced in the context of our consciousness, our pure awareness, the field and background within which sensory perceptions flare up and fade out. This transparent awareness forms an empty vessel, through which all the sensory perceptions, thoughts, and emotions pass freely, unhindered, appearing and disappearing. Behind it all, we rest in conscious awareness, as I Am. We may notice a new relationship with time: we are partially released from its dominion. Our perception of space also changes at this level, where the categories of inner and outer no longer apply.

Gradually, consciousness itself grows porous. Then, with the whole of our being, we simultaneously reach out toward and open to a greater world beyond ourselves, beyond consciousness, and begin to perceive the world of sacred light. Inwardly calling out to the Divine, we repeatedly open to that ultimate, creative light until only it remains. All separateness, all the ten thousand things merge into that Primordial Sacred Sun. That light is part of our nature, the source of wisdom. We become the light, basking in unimaginable joy.

Next — and remarkably there is a next — we become aware of the other side of I Am, of the source from which it arises, within a stillness of surpassing quality. We see our I as a knot that blocks off the depths, a knot that makes itself the source of our will, intentions, choices, and decisions, including the intention to meditate in this moment. Gradually we loosen the knot until it gives way, until I let go entirely of being myself, of being my own source.

Until this point, our ascent has been into the depths within us. But always we have remained at the core of the experience, with the experience outside of us, of our core. Now we must empty that very core and open to what is deeper than our innermost center. We ourselves become the outside to the Sacred Will of the World, Who is our Source, and let that Will come through us, as us.

We inwardly prostrate ourselves, begging for reconnection, begging to become a part of that Greatness. Silently and wholeheartedly calling out to the Ultimate, completely and utterly opening the very kernel of who we are, we reach beyond the world of sacred light, into the unbounded emptiness, which is also an overflowing fullness, an intimacy with all, with the All. This is the Sacred Will of the World, of Whom I am now a particle, Who lends me the will to be myself, Who lends me my I, Who lends me the will which is me, Who is my very Self, Whom I hope to become able to serve by emptying myself completely, in Whom we are all united, Who continuously creates and sustains the universe in love.

This last stage of the meditation comes only as an act of grace from Above. It lies well beyond our ability to make happen, although our emptiness, our surrender, and our love are necessary. Attempting to enter here, prayer may help. If you are so inclined, silently repeat one of God’s names, one close to your heart, one that both expresses your yearning and brings you peace.

Beautiful951 SG

In the above mentioned meditation, is it supposed to bring one into the "now" state of mind?

Rainbow Jigsaw SG

http://www.innerfrontier.org/Practices/JacobsLadder.htm

A Meditation: Climbing Jacob's Ladder

We begin with a thorough relaxation, letting go the tensions, large and small, in every corner of our body, in our thoughts, and in our emotions.

The article above talks about God in the last paragraph. :)

An Eternal Now SG

The article above talks about God in the last paragraph. :)

God as ground reality, not God as a dualistic person separate from you that you can talk with (which will be delusional). As longchen said before, 'The function of existence is impersonal and without self.' - there is no such thing as a personal God, so if anyone talks about God as if it is an individual person separate from him, I know he has not realised the true nature of reality. Once you have this realisation, your view about 'Source'/'Self' and reality will totally change. It cannot remain dualistic and separative.

Thusness's post to longchen and casino_king in August 2006 in Is God A Thing?:

This is an interesting topic and since it is allowed to discuss more about God in a Buddhism forum, I would like to talk a little more about the experience of 'AMness" in all things. Razz

Like a river flowing into the ocean, the self dissolves into nothingness. When a practitioner becomes thoroughly clear about the illusionary nature of the individuality, subject-object division does not take place. A person experiencing AMness will find AMness in everything. What is it like?

Being free individuality -- coming and going, life and death, all phenomenon merely pop in and out from the background of the AMness. The AMness is not experienced as an entity residing anywhere, neither within nor without; rather it is experienced as the ground reality for all phenomenon to take place. Even the moment of subsiding (death), the yogi is thoroughly authenticated with that reality; experiencing the Real as clear as it can be. We cannot lose that AMness; rather all things can only dissolve and re-emerges from it. The AMness has not moved, there is no coming and going. This "AMness" is God. Smile

Not yet. "I am who I am" is still not enough. Smile

An Eternal Now SG

In the above mentioned meditation, is it supposed to bring one into the "now" state of mind?

The article is talking about various stages of the path.

First it talks about relaxation, letting go, so that you can drop away your attachments to your thoughts and your body.

Next step is to remain mindful, aware of bodily sensations, to anchor yourself into the present moment, so you can be in the state of Presence. It is important that the letting go does not lead you into a trance state, or a hazy and dreamy state, rather it is an anchor to the experience of Pure Consciousness like piercing through the layers of clouds to touch the Primordial Sun.

For me, I would suggest that in the next step you should ask yourself 'Who am I?', the undoubtable sense of I AM will 'manifest' and eventually you will realise the innermost essence of Who You Are with a conviction beyond a shadow of doubt. If you can be in a state of Presence, then the realisation of I AMness can come much easier.

The next step is to experience the impersonality aspect, which the article calls the 'Sacred Will of the World'. This is the aspect that Thusness said, Impersonality will help dissolve the sense of self but it has the danger of making one attached to a metaphysical essence. It makes a practitioner feel "God".

There are stages beyond that, but the article stops there. Anyway I recommend getting 'The Power of Now' by Eckhart Tolle, found in bookstores all over Singapore, which talks about these stuff in a practical way. It is a bestseller.

An Eternal Now SG

This is an important note...

This thread may become confusing for people, as Buddhism teaches about Anatta, No Self.

The 'I AM' and 'divine force' is simply a phase I am undergoing. It is not necessarily what Buddha taught, though I believe Buddha had undergone those phases prior to his final enlightenment.

Also, though not all Buddhist traditions (e.g. Theravadin Vipassana) emphasize going through the same stages, some do.

An Eternal Now SG

Randall Friend:

Q:   How do I find my true Self?
A:   Find the emptiness of this moment
Q:   Where is that?
A:   From where are you looking?
Q:   From the eyes, from the body
A:   Do you know the eyes and the body?
Q:   Yes, of course
A:   Then can that be from where you are looking?

Nisargadatta Maharaj:

Just realise the One Mover behind all that moves and leave all to Him. If you do not hesitate, or cheat, this is the shortest way to reality. Stand without desire and fear, relinquishing all control and all responsibility.... What is wrong in letting go the illusion of personal control and personal responsibility? Both are in the mind only. p.151

Stevens Rodney:

The myths surrounding self-knowledge are legion. They include your needing to be "fit" (morally, temperamentally, and spiritually) for any inquiry into the Self; your needing to enter or "merge with" Presence; and your needing to make a spiritual journey to some remote locale (whether it's the Ganges or the Himalayas). Go to those places because you want to go or because you've long been curious about them, not because of what you hope to "get" out of the journeys.

*****

It is your own, everyday awareness that is the "all embracing Reality" that is pointed to and spoken about by the sages. Don't move from that ordinariness. It is sated with brilliance, nuance, and peace. And don't think that you have to gain it through renunciation, austerities, unnatural silence, or meritorious works. Indeed, why toil and grovel for something that has already been given to you?

Nisargadatta Maharaj:

“Unless you make tremendous efforts, you will not be convinced that effort will take you nowhere. The self is so self-confident that unless it is totally discouraged it will not give up. Mere verbal conviction is not enough. Hard facts alone can show the absolute nothingness of the self-image.”

An Eternal Now SG

Thoughts are never the problem and can never obscure awareness.

Rather, it is believing in the dualistic concepts and stories and losing direct intuitive awareness that creates the sense of separation, doubts, problems and confusion. If a sense and concept of self and separation arise (out of habit and conditioning), question and investigate that assumption of a 'self' and let those concepts dissolve into the clear light of Awareness.

Non-conceptual Awareness is different from conceptual thinking as it only knows Itself by Being itself in a clear, direct, and non-dual way without intermediary. It allows no doubts and confusion.

From direct seeing, thoughts are almost like waves appearing in vast ocean, it is seen as insubstantial arisings in infinite Awareness.

An Eternal Now SG

Last night I wrote to Thusness,

"Just now i sense that the certainty of being, the certainty of existence, actually encompasses everything... that means everything seen, heard, experienced is part of that certainty of existence and being. Sort of like the presence/seeing and the seen are inseparable. The certainty of being and what is experienced is simultaneous and I cannot point to where being ends and phenomena begin.

And also that everything is occuring spontaneously without effort... Awareness is what is spontaneously happening without any effort at all, as our natural state... when our mind/conceptuality quiets, what's left without any effort required is spontaneous mirror-like perceivingness/awareness and presence and spontaneous happening.

It's like extra effort to practice or cultivate something is not even necessary... but what is important is direct seeing and recognition. And I sort of intuit that all the various insights can be integrated in one moment... but I don't think I'm able to see that at the moment."

His reply was that I am experiencing is still not Anatta. But it is better to drop all theories at this point in time even anatta and emptiness and focus just on this simple presence but direct all attentions to phenomena. What is required now (for me) is not to hold on to any conceptual views including anatta and emptiness, but I will revisit it later.

He also commented on my suggestion that even dancing can become a spiritual practice and be conducive to insights into egolessness, spontaneity and awareness, (based on my experience and the article in http://buddhism.sgforums.com/forums/1728/topics/399540) and Thusness said it not necessary as it is present in all activities but what I have described still lack the understanding yet. However I am experiencing all the 4 aspects of "I AM" moving towards non-dual and ready for One-Mind. Yet I have not grasped the essence of non-dual awareness yet.

Arapahoe SG

Thusness agrees and told me that it is about surrendering to this greater power, that it is not you, but the life in you that is doing the work. It is the key of getting 'connected' to a higher power, to a divine life, to a sacred power - and one wants to lose oneself for this divinity to work through us. And this is what Thusness meant by Thusness Stage 3 experience, the 'I' is the block, because of 'holding' one is unable to 'surrender' completely. When one completely surrenders, the divine will will become your 'will'.

This is not the non-dual sort of experience, nor is it about I AM or the Certainty of Being, nor is it about Anatta.

For example, "I AM" allows you to directly experience 'your' very own existence, the beingness, the inner most essence of 'You'.

The question here is thus Duality vs non Duality or singular. the only way one is to observe the impersonality is the observer. If duality is non existent than how one consiousness is to avoid non observer and still be aware of impersonality? as quoted below........

the many impersonality so we basically move from one impersonality to another? isn't that a statics movement that it reaches equalibrium and move to the next almost like Jacob ladder but Jacob ladder introduce the concept of "Time". Time is a function of our mind. Ones minds must be consiousness to count sheep ...?

If ones reach the higher level of consiousness isn't simply to say the self isn;t important no more, as it is part of a bigger collectiveness that stretch our imagination? so how does surrender to the state of being different different from "I AM"

AtlasWept SG

Of being and non-being

'Something that exists with true existence, what need is there for it to have a cause? Something that is wholly inexistent, again what need has it to have a cause? Even a hundred million causes will never transform nonentity. For if nonentity keeps its status, how could entity occur? Likewise, what is there that could so change? When real and non-real are both absent from the mind, nothing else remains for the mind to do but rest in perfect peace, free from concepts.' - Bodhicaryavatara

An Eternal Now SG

Of being and non-being

Hi AtlasWept,

I'm curious how you interprete the following by Guru Padmasambhava who said the 'intrinsic awareness' is self-originated and causeless:

Since (intrinsic awareness) is self-originated and spontaneously self-perfected without any antecedent causes or conditions,
How can you say that you are not able to accomplish anything by your efforts?

An Eternal Now SG

forwarded to next post

An Eternal Now SG

The notion that there is an Observer on one hand, and an object of observation on the other hand, is purely the product of conceptual thinking/dualizing.

In actual experience, once you touch that 'certainty of being' that I mentioned, there is no observer and observed distinction. There is just a non-dual sense of Existence, Being, Presence, Knowing, without a sense of 'me' being separated from 'that'. You Are That Knowing which is certain that You Are! The distinction between knower, knowing, and known dissolve into That. You Are That!

Impersonality is a further deconstruction after having experienced the 'Certainty of Being'. There is no one to be aware of impersonality, impersonality is not an object, and neither is there a separate person to be aware of impersonality (and the very idea itself sounds ridiculous!). Rather, impersonality is the absence of that separate 'me' person that is aware, experiencing, doing things. You clearly see that such a separate person is clearly a fiction of thought. What is left in the absence is pure impersonal perceiving and functioning of the One Mind/Consciousness/Life.

You clearly see that so called 'individuals' are really the expression, the pure functioning of the One Life, just like different TVs are powered by the same energy.

It is as Ajahn Brahmavamso said: you can recognise that that mind, essentially, is no different than that process of consciousness which is in all beings. Whether it's human beings or animals or even insects, of any gender, age or race, you see that that which is in common to all life is this mind, this consciousness, the source of doing. - http://www.buddhanet.net/budsas/ebud/ebmed065.htm

the many impersonality so we basically move from one impersonality to another?

What Thusness is saying is that impersonality is a type of 'no self' experience. But there are different 'kinds' of 'no self', the term 'no self' can mean different things, as accordance to the Thusness/PasserBy's Seven Stages of Enlightenment. It can mean Impersonality which is still at the I AM level (Thusness Stage 1 to 3), it can mean No-Self as in no subject-object division in Non Dual (Thusness Stage 4) level, or it can mean Anatta (Thusness Stage 5). All these various stages of enlightenment/insights talk about 'no-self' but what they refer to isn't exactly the same. That is why one must correctly recognise these phases of insights as they occur and not confuse one with another.

Also just a note... the Thusness/PasserBy's Seven Stages of Enlightenment actually applies universally - if you did a 'case study' of all the contemplatives around the world regardless of tradition or religion, you can see a similar pattern of insight unfolding - or rather even if the pattern in which it unfolds is different (certain types of practitioners may some skip to non dual without going through 'I AM'), there will be similar insights unfolding concerning the luminous essence. All these contemplatives will also talk about 'no self' one way or another.

However it is Buddhism that emphasize 'Anatta', 'Emptiness' and 'Dependent Origination' as essential to true liberation from the bond of seeing inherent existence, which corresponds to Stage 5 and 6, and this teaching is peculiar to Buddhism.

isn't that a statics movement that it reaches equalibrium and move to the next almost like Jacob ladder but Jacob ladder introduce the concept of "Time". Time is a function of our mind. Ones minds must be consiousness to count sheep ...?

Time is simply a conceptual way to navigate in the relative world. We navigate relative world in concepts. But it is not the Absolute truth. So when Jacob talked about time, he is talking about it in relative terms, in terms of concepts, inference, relating.

From the perspective of the Absolute, which is your own direct experience, concepts like time and space does not apply. The Absolute is just pure impersonal, non-dual and non-conceptual awareness. It is timeless without any sense of movement.

As I explained earlier, the difference between 'decision awareness' and non-conceptual awareness is that the previous consists of knowledge, thoughts, that are relative truths based on concepts, inference and relating, while non-conceptual awareness is direct, intuitive, without intermediary, without separation, immediate - so immediate that it is simply What Is, prior to all thoughts, relating, inference etc. The seeing of clock ticking is just that - seeing of clock ticking, in its immediacy, in its suchness/thusness/isness. The Absolute cannot be grasped conceptually, and precisely so it is called Absolute - it can only be itself in its completeness and perfection untouched by concepts. The moment you relate, infer that the signs are referring to something - to time, etc, then you have moved from the Absolute to the Relative concepts. But even these concepts are arising in the immediacy of the Absolute. Nothing occurs outside of the Absolute. The Absolute alone IS.

The same applies to 'time awareness' (Relative) and 'timeless, non-conceptual awareness' (Absolute). You do not actually experience moving from the past, to the present, to the future - that is a thought arising due to relating. In actual experience, there is just Timeless, Eternal Now.

As someone wrote before regarding time:

Dalai Lama likes to say sunyata is simply the discrepency between every thoughtform and how reality is. Time, yourself, other people exist in your mind as highly flawed thoughtform packets/bundles. For example, go look at clock right now. It is just an object with two pieces of metal pointing at two different spots on a dial. There is no such thing as time.

Furthermore as I wrote previously:

When you are abiding as I AM, there is no sense of time and space. There is only the all-pervading Self. It is very obvious that Awareness doesn't move! It is totally timeless. From this perspective, there is no death. Why? Because Awareness is the ground reality, the Eternal Now, in which things come and go, pops in and out of this Ground, but this Eternal Present, this Awareness, which is what you are, is unaffected, unmoved. As Awareness, you are unborn, undying. Ask yourself - things come and go, thoughts come and go, but have you ever moved out of the Present Moment, and is the Present Moment even affected in any way by the comings and goings? The answer is No!

First of all, 'higher level of consciousness' isn't exactly accurate, since Consciousness is just Consciousness. It is just that we get to uncover deeper and deeper insights into the nature of Consciousness, even though those natures of consciousness is always already so - just not recognized.

Second is, it isn't so much that 'self isn't important no more' - rather, it is that 'a separate person is clearly a fiction of thought'.

The 'self' or 'I' that is assumed to be at the center of my life, experiencing and living and controlling our lives, is really seen to be an illusion of thought. The "I" that we imagine ourselves to be is actually non-existent.

What is actual is this impersonal awareness that is non-conceptual: it transcends the imaginative, conceptual faculty of the human mind, it cannot be placed under any mental categories of 'individual' or 'collective' or anything - but there is indeed the intuition that everyone and everything is the expression of the One Mind.

With this insight also comes the seeing that it is not 'I' who lives, it is that we are all being lived, we are the pure spontaneous and effortless functioning of One Consciousness.

The difference between surrender and "I AM" is that "I AM" is a deep conviction and certainty of your very Existence, the innermost core and essence of your Being. You realise that I Am, and 'What' I Am, without a single thought and concept.

You have to start with that - that means, you have to realize this I AM first, before any meaningful progress can occur.

But after the initial glimpse and realization of I AM, the 'individual person' notion is still not totally deconstructed. The 'individual person' notion must be deconstructed in the next step. Then you'll see how everyone, and every thing, is the pure impersonal functioning of Consciousness. At this point you will want to 'surrender' your clinging to any sense of personhood. This is where the monotheistic contemplative/mystical traditions emphasize surrendering into a higher power, such as Christianity, or Islam (the word which literally means 'Surrender'), etc. As I quoted: "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." - Galatians 2:20 and "Thy will be done" (Matt. 26:42)

However one who has experienced the 'I AM THAT I AM', has experienced the Ground of Being, has known God face-to-face, will not find satisfaction in the usual/ordinary dualistic teaching and understanding of God (that God is a 'person' separate from the 'seeker') in most churches. They will find satisfaction in Christian mysticism, Islamic Sufism, Judaist Kabbalah, and other mystical/contemplative side of the religion.

There are further/deeper levels insights than what I have mentioned above.

What Jacob's ladder covered is only Stage 1 to 3 of Thusness/PasserBy's Seven Stages of Enlightenment

Stage 5 onwards is considered enlightenment in Buddhism.

An Eternal Now SG

Concepts are useful for skillfully navigating the relative world, to a limited extent.

But when it comes to the Absolute, concepts and thoughts are the wrong tool. It can become a distraction, an obscuration, if clung to.

At most they serve as a pointer to the moon, but they must not be mistaken with the moon itself.

The moon (your true nature) is forever untouched by the finger (the concepts, words, etc).

It shines gloriously revealing its wordless luminous essence to everyone who look.

Note: Thusness commented to me that it is important to cycle through concepts, views and non-conceptual experience. They are interdependent and that is the essence of middle path. If one neglects the view and conceptual clarity, our non-dual and non-conceptual experience will not be stable and mature. Telling someone to drop all concepts and views is not to tell him/her how irrelevant these rafts are but to intensify one's direct experience of luminous presence. Without the right view, our progress will be hindered. Both must be put in the right place, right perspective for the maturing of one's insight.

An Eternal Now SG

All problems, sufferings and doubts arise from the mis-identification of yourself with some limited self-entity. All sufferings and problems concerns an imaginary self entity that upon investigation cannot be located. Such thoughts are completely illusory and if they arise, inquire into the nature of the 'self' and see that the limited self entity cannot actually be found. Then all thoughts are seen to arise and fall away on its own in the vast sea of luminous space, belonging to no one.

Underneath the mind-created crap and nonsense, is the ever-present natural peace and life.

An Eternal Now SG

Let go of everything.

What's left?

Life.

Heart beating.

Awaring.

Hearing, seeing, tasting.

All happening on its own...

The natural state.

The Natural State—Not What You Think!

THE NATURAL STATE is not the state of a self-realized, God-realized man. It is not a thing to be achieved or attained. It is not a thing to be willed into existence; it is there—it is the living state. This state is the functional activity of life. By 'life' I do not mean something abstract; it is the life of the senses, functioning naturally without the interference of thought. Thought is an interloper, which thrusts itself into the affairs of the senses. It has a profit motive: thought directs the activity of the senses to get something out of them, and uses them to give continuity to itself.

Your natural state has no relationship whatsoever with the religious states of bliss, beatitude and ecstasy; they lie within the field of experience. Those who have led man on his search for religiousness throughout the centuries have perhaps experienced those religious states. So can you. They are thought-induced states of being, and as they come, so do they go. Krishna Consciousness, Buddha Consciousness, Christ Consciousness, or what have you, are all trips in the wrong direction: they are all within the field of time. The timeless can never be experienced, can never be grasped, contained, much less given expression to, by any man. That beaten track will lead you nowhere. There is no oasis situated yonder; you are stuck with the mirage.

You can never understand the tremendous peace that is always there within you, that is your natural state. Your trying to create a peaceful state of mind is in fact creating disturbance within you. You can only talk of peace, create a state of mind and say to yourself that you are very peaceful—but that is not peace; that is violence. So there is no use in practicing peace, there is no reason to practice silence.

Real silence is explosive; it is not the dead state of mind that spiritual seekers think. "Oh, I am at peace with myself! There is silence, a tremendous silence! I experience silence!" That doesn't mean anything at all. This is volcanic in its nature: it's bubbling all the time—the energy, the life—that is its quality. You may ask how I know. I don't know. Life is aware of itself, if we can put it that way—it is conscious of itself.

●

Writing from The Mystique of Enlightenment by U.G. Krishnamurti
Art by: David A. Hardy

AtlasWept SG

Hi AtlasWept,

I'm curious how you interprete the following by Guru Padmasambhava who said the 'intrinsic awareness' is self-originated and causeless:

What is it if not part of the whole, which is the Path of Total Perfection, and of the Great Perfection and of self-liberation leading to the discovery of one’s ultimate nature, and the essence of the Great Vehicle and the self-perfected state? What is it if not part of the whole, which is the Dzogchen, the teachings of Prahevajr, Vajrasattva, or the historical kerygma’s of Manjushrimitra and, in turn, Shrisimha and, in turn, Vairochana, Padmasambhava, Vimalamitra and, in turn Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, and the others?

What is intrinsic awareness if not the lamp flame that illuminates itself absent every cause and condition, yet illuminates all the same? What is it, if not the very quintessential essence of Buddha-nature?

One speaks of the ‘three-bodies’ of Buddha, the transcendence; the ‘absolute body’, the ‘subtle body’ and the ‘manifest body’, all of which are mere aspects of the Buddha-nature present in every sentient thing. It is the Buddha-nature, the true nature, the intrinsic nature, the absolute nature that is free from all concepts, desire, attachment, hatred, pride, jealousy, lack of discernment, and all states of mind that are designated as ‘negative’ or ‘obscuring’ plunging the consciousness into a state of confusion, which in turn arise from a notion of self.

Attachment to the self is a fact, but the self that is the object of that attachment has no existence; it exists nowhere and in no way as an autonomous and permanent entity. It exists neither in the different physical and mental parts that constitute an individual, nor somewhere outside them, nor in their combination. If one objects that the self corresponds to the meeting of those parts, the objection amounts to conceding that it’s just a simple label that the intellect imposes on the temporary meeting of various independent elements. The self doesn’t exist in any of those elements, for when those elements separate the very notion of self disappears. Not to unmask the imposter of the self is ignorance, the momentary inability to recognize the Buddha-nature, the true nature, the intrinsic nature, the absolute nature, unveiled, unencumbered from all concepts.

Therefore, it is that ignorance that is the ultimate cause of suffering. Once ridden of our erroneous understanding of the self and our belief in the true and solid existence of phenomena, once we recognize this “I” does not exist, we awaken to the ultimate state of complete clarity, of spiritual realization. All the negative emotions, all the obscurations that render the underlying wisdom invisible, have dissolved having never been, and there is awareness, a clear state of consciousness free of representation or concept. It is the cessation of discursive thought, of association of ideas, subject-and-object. It is direct knowledge, the flux of native consciousness, the unencumbered, and the ultimate and independent reality. It is the awareness, present and perfected intrinsically within the Buddha-nature of every sentient thing; you, me, and the cricket I hear just now.

An Eternal Now SG

Thank you for the clear explanation...

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