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sculpture - Antony Gormley
You are the aware field in
which your experience of the body, the mind and the world appears.
The mind-body is continuously appearing and disappearing in this field but what about the field itself.
What is its nature that is, what is your nature. What is the nature of I. Of your being?
Our essential nature of inherently peaceful unconditionally fulfilled consciousness shines in each of our minds as the simple experience
of being aware, or the
knowledge ‘I AM’.
sculpture - Antony Gormley
Simply let go of your conditioning and recognise your true nature of absolute splendour, potentiality
and intelligence.
sculpture: Quantum cloud - Antony Gormley
Paramādvaya — a lived-realisation of our shared being where dualism and non-dualism coalesce as one coherent whole.
When you recognize the sacredness and beauty of a flower or a tree, you add something to the flower or the tree. Through your recognition and awareness, nature, too, comes to know itself. It comes to know its own beauty and sacredness through you.
NON-DUAL UNDERSTANDING - an inquiry into our true nature.
The incredible lightness of Being.
”The only useful purpose of the present birth is to turn within and realise the Self. It is the greatest service you can render the world" ― RAMANA MAHARSHI
Ourself is the most important element of our experience and therefor there can be no more important question than to know the nature of ourself - the One that we all refer to as I. What is the nature of this I. Who am I really?
Ask yourself the question, who or what is it that knows or is aware of my experience? All objective experience of the body/mind in thinking, feeling, sensing and perceiving comes and goes, therefor it is not essential to me. I am not made out of a thought, a sensation or a perception. I never appear or disappear. I am the one constant unchanging substance that's been present throughout my life. Who or what is that?
It is the knower or experiencer of this flow of all experiences. It is that being we all recognises as this constant unchanging aware presence, within which all experience takes place. It is its underlying reality and is commonly known as ‘I’ or consciousness. Perceptions, thoughts and sensations are all known by ‘I’, by myself, by this aware presence. So our true ‘I’ identity is this presence of awareness, which has no objective quality such as an age, a shape, a colour, a location or a duration. It is the pure 'I' before it becomes mixed with objective experiences.
The non-dual understanding is the essence of all the world's great religious, spiritual and philosophical traditions. It is the common ground of Advaita Vedanta (adapted philosophical concepts from Buddhism), Cha’an Zen Buddhism, Taoism and Sufism.
It is the experiential understanding that there is no separation between subject and object, a “me” and a world. It is the recognition that underlying the multiplicity and diversity of all experience there is a single, infinite and indivisible reality from which all objects and individual selves derive their apparent independent existence. But itself does not take on or become entangled with any of their qualities or characteristics.
It is that which ultimately cannot be named but is commonly referred to as consciousness, spirit or aware being.
We are that.
If we can take the analogy of a screen; - the person in the movie does not acquires its own existence, independent and separate from the screen. It's a temporary modulation, or the activity of that from which it stands out, the screen. Just as the content of the movie doesn’t affect the screen, likewise what we are aware of doesn’t affect our essential aware being. In this analogy, we now become attentive of the screen behind the drama of the movie.
We are not separate from each other, but we are each an expression of a collective field of consciousness, a unified intelligence. This simple but perspective-shifting self-enquiry leads to and ignites the realisation of our inner being and union with the sacred aware presence within. The one infinite and utterly intimate aware being which shines in each of us as I AM - that it is universal and shared by all. This recognition that our true being does not share the limits or destiny of the body and the mind, liberates us from the habitual mental/emotional conditioned identity with a separate self, and believe in a personal consciousness. We simply drop the story and the weight it carries.
This I AM self-aware being is the only experience we have that does not take place in subject/object relationship.
We discover this innately peaceful, unchanging ever-present awareness is always in the same pristine condition irrespective of the content of experience, of thoughts and feelings; - this silent, transparent, empty, luminous, still nature of our being. All we need to do is to be consciously aware of that pure I AM in the background so to speak, before it is coloured or characterised by the experiences of name and form. It is the same unchanging aware being we experience as a two month infant, as a two year child, at age twenty or sixty.
It does not gain or loose anything by the appearance or disappearance of any particular objective experience of thinking and perceiving. No experience can ever stain, hurt or modify it in any way. We recognise this intimate self-aware being or consciousness that we now know ourself to be is the reality of everyone and everything. There is no separation. It is the very substance in which all experience arises, out of which it is made and with which it is known. Hence as the witnessing background of all experience I am inherently free from all things. As the substance of all experience I am intimately one with all things. We now come to understand it is all a divine play of our universality. Meditation is to remain as awareness, whatever arises; - to remain as simply our aware being whatever the condition of our mind and body experiences.
We are spirit having a human experience. It is not I, the body/mind that knows the world. It is I, awareness that knows the body, mind and world. Each of our minds are precipitated within, informed by and made of the same infinite field of awareness or consciousness, a transpersonal mind so to speak - taking the shape from moment to moment in all forms of experience. All that is ever known is our conscious aware being, modulating itself in the form of thinking, sensing and perceiving through this body/mind. So we see they are one and the same thing. It is from this universal state of being that we're able to contribute most profoundly in the way we experience the world. Thus the human body/mind is a tool of celebration, a divine manifestation of source in motion. With this new understanding we can now embody a different way of being in the world.
From the human perspective the person or character is in relationship to the divine or the Absolute, just like the wave is to the ocean. It is where the infinite and the finite meets. And when we see everything is a divine play of manifestation, it changes our relationship with everyone and everything.
The process of manifestation in accordance with the consciousness-only model.
This one infinite whole or pure consciousness cannot perceive itself directly. In order for it to know something other than itself, other than its own formless infinite being, it must be perceived from a localised perspective; that is each of our minds. When infinite consciousness assumes the form of thought it localises itself as the finite mind through which it is able to realise a segment of its infinite potential and to know itself as the world.*
This subject/object mechanism is the means by which consciousness draws existence out of infinite being, - draws creation or manifestation out of the realm of infinite potential. So the infinite is the realm of potential where all things possible are contained in potential, but they cannot be realised or manifest except from the point of view of a finite mind.
Thus all objective experiences of the body, the mind and the world are the movement or activity of the one consciousness. In other words what we perceive as the world is the conjunction or interface between the infinite and the finite. Infinite consciousness is the reality of the universe. The finite mind gives the universe its appearance through thought and perception. Thus the world only appears as matter from the localised perspective of the finite mind, it is not its reality. What is in reality one, infinite formless and indivisible, now appears as numerous finite things and selves. But nothing real other than infinite consciousness is really created. Likewise when a movie plays there are no real objects with their own independent existence, it is just the screen taking the shape of a landscape. Ultimately, it is the screen as the movie - consciousness and experience are one.
Consciousness exists independently of the brain as a fundamental property of the universe, with the brain acting as a filter or modulator of this larger field. Like in a cubist painting, from a human body/mind perspective it is eight billion viewpoints of the one reality; that which is truly present, pure consciousness. In other words, each of our finite minds are temporary individual localisations or perspectives of the only mind there is, which is infinite consciousness.
Nāmarūpa – "name and form".
Thought and perception fragments reality. It's what William Wordsworth described so beautifully; - 'we half-create, half-perceive the world'. We create the world in the sense that we project the characteristics of our perceiving faculties (seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling) onto the world, onto reality. And then thought superimpose its own conceptual knowledge onto that experience. Hence the world appears to us in the form of sights, sounds, textures, tastes and smells in accordance with the limited faculties of the body/mind. We now understand that our sense-perception distorts the true nature of reality. Therefor what we see is not reality. It's a way of seeing.
We come to realise duality is created by superimposing a division onto the experience of perceiving, which is non-existent in the neutral quality of the perceiving experience itself, prior to the arising of name and form. We realise the boundary between ourselves and others, all animals and all things is a boundary made purely out of thought. It does not exist. There is no real separation in our direct experience. Duality is never an experiential experience. It is a construct of the mind.
That's why it is not possible to know reality by observing the world. The only way to know reality is to go to that single experience that is available to us that is not mediated through thought and perception. That is the knowledge 'I am,' or our pure aware presence, prior to the arising of experience.
Thus the is-ness of the object is the same as the am-ness of our self. Just is the recognition the am-ness in me and the am-ness in another is the same indivisible one consciousness. From a human perspective, what we call you is simply an experience arising within this vast interconnected field of awareness. It's a way to describe the process of evolution - the expanding of the finite mind until it looses its limitations and is recognised to be one with infinite consciousness, or in religious language with God's presence. Ultimately, the self of ourself is the self of infinite awareness. That's why it is said the knowledge I am, the awareness of being is absolute knowledge, is God's name. It's the only experience there is that is not subject to the limitations of a finite mind. If you want to know the nature of your reality, you have to go to your own being.
Identification with a separate self.
* When consciousness rises in the form of the finite mind it simultaneously creates the body. Nāmarūpa – "name and form". In doing so it seemingly forgets or overlooks its true nature, infinite being. This mixture of pure consciousness with the body creates a separate sense of self, a personal consciousness that we come to believe and feel is limited to, contained within and generated by the body/mind. It's on behalf of this imaginary self that most of us think, feel, act, perceive and relate. But it's merely a belief, a thought construct. It is not grounded in our experiential understanding of reality. And direct experience is our only criteria to discover the nature of reality. Most of our lives we have been serving a phantom self that is imagined and felt to live inside the body but when we look there we don’t find any such self; we just find a flow of sensations. Investigate it for yourself to truly come to this experiential understanding. In realising this, it is not necessary to let go of a separate self but rather to see that there is no separate self.
The recognition of our true self of awareness brings this imaginary inside self to an end, if not immediately, in due course. As a result, the mind and the body return to their natural state of ease, balance and harmony. Subsequently, the love, peace and happiness that are inherent in our true nature are shared, expressed and communicated according to the unique characteristics of each body and mind.
The integrated ego or self is the agency of creativity.
Ego comes from the latin word which means "I". In ignorance it is seen as an object, the human body/mind. In wisdom the true I or self, the true ego is the reality of that which we are, pure consciousness. We do not exist as cut-off agencies that inhabit a seemingly meaningless world, we ARE that world in a particular form or manifestation. As such the body/mind is the agency, not an entity; - there are no separate independent entities, objects or selves. The body/mind is simply the agency, the activity through which consciousness realises its infinite potential in form, appearing to itself as ten thousand things but itself is never divided or fragmented into the multiplicity and diversity of objects and selves. Thus our true identity is the I of infinite consciousness and the body/mind experiences is my activity. The body/mind agency gives consciousness a temporary name and form but nothing other than consciousness ever comes into existence.
This realisation is consistent with quantum physics; - that things appear to exist but when we explore what their existence consists of we only find the background of infinite potential or pure consciousness. It relates to the Bhagavad-gita which reads; - 'That what is, never ceases to be. That which is not, never comes into existence'.
This is an elemental concept of Advaita; in the words of sage Ramakrishna, 'God did not create the world. He became the world'.
Also expressed in the Hindu teachings;
the world is an illusion - only Brahman is real - Brahman is the world.
In the Buddhist tradition;
river are rivers mountains are mountains - then there's no longer rivers and no longer mountains - and then there's rivers and mountains again.
And in the Christian tradition;
the crucifixion, resurrection, transfiguration.
Nāmarūpa –– Sat-chit-ananda
Thus ultimately it is the perspective of paramādvaya or “supreme nondualism.” This is the view that simultaneously encompasses and subsumes both dualism and nondualism, the view that goes completely beyond the notion of 'levels of understanding'. It is the inexpressible experience of the totality of reality in which no perspective is excluded, for each is seen as fitting into the pattern of a greater whole.
Return to Self — being aware of our true nature, not our conditioning.
In the scholastic Vedantic tradition, to access the inherent peace of our true nature we first turn away from the objective contents of our experience that we became identified with and disentangle ourselves from it. We know ourselves as the knower of the known, the experiencer of the experienced, the witness of the witnessed; - the subject of all objective knowledge and experience. I know my thoughts but I'm not myself a thought. I'm aware of feelings and sensations but I'm not myself a feeling or a sensation. I perceive the world but I'm not myself a perception. We switch the movie off in order to see the screen. It is not I, the body/mind that is aware of all these experiences. It is I awareness that is aware of them through the faculties of the body/mind. I look through these eyes but I am not these eyes.
But then in the Tantric tradition of Kashmir Shaivism, we start with our objective experiences of thinking, feeling, sensing and perceiving and we ask, who is the one who knows them. We notice that the experience of being aware pervades all these experiences. So now we look through the movie without turning it off, and see its reality the screen, or the divine play of our being.
In both cases, we know ourselves as the presence of awareness. In the Vedantic approach you-awareness give attention to yourself alone and in the Tantric approach you-awareness turn your attention to the content of your experience and face it, allow it, embrace it.
This Self-realisation process ends in the experience of our natural state which is the absence of any illusion as to what we truly are in it's total freedom and autonomy. As boundaries between subject and object dissolve, the phenomenon of presence becomes amplified, this indivisible, unnameable intimacy of experience. A revelation of absolute splendour, of absolute love and intelligence.
This discovery signifies the ending of the story of separation and seeking that is the source of all human suffering, conflict and fragmentation and the beginning of a deepening recognition of our true nature. To release and free ourself of the habitual residue of the separate self which is no longer serving us. To stop all thoughts and actions born out of fear or control on behalf of that non-existent one. It is a necessary and ongoing process of realigning our lives in the way we think, feel, act, perceive and relate that is consistent with the implications of this new perspective. To allow for this body/mind to be an alchemical process through which the symphony of life shines.
The experience of our shared being, our shared oneness, that we are all made of the same reality is not only the source of lasting happiness within all people, it is the foundation of peace between individuals, communities and nations and it must be the basis for any sustainable relationships with the environment. To live an awakened(ing) life in a renewed relationship with our authentic self, rooted in true purpose and meaning.
“Wisdom tells me I am no-thing. Love tells me I am everything. And between the two my life flows.” ― NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ
CONTINUE Former perspectives
ARTIST Installation - Anish Kapoor
A Course in Consciousness or Self-awareness
A deconstructing intellectual exploration of the nature of reality - dissecting, questioning and analysing it systematically. It is not the intention to comprise a new belief system, either to be adopted or
rejected. Because reality cannot be described in words, the words are meant to be
used as pointers to reality rather than as descriptors of reality.
Hence this is a course in seeing, not in believing.
MEDITATIONS & DIALOGUE IN NON-DUALITYerna.blumer@gmail.com
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