The Many Faces of the One

What is this?

Who am I?

The Many Faces of the One: article 10 - the unpublished esoteric writings of an aging yogi.

'All that we really are is untouched, unthreatened, unhindered, unlimited and unaltered by all that is. Nothing can really threaten, penetrate, touch, damage, improve or destroy it. It is completely without form and therefore unlimited, unconditioned, boundless, formless, indestructible and always liberated. It is totally free of birth, old age, disease, sickness, decay, sorrow, pain, lack, delusion and death. It is without beginning and therefore it is without end. It is eternal, formless and ever-present. What Reality really is, is eternal in essence and nature and this transcendental Reality is the one true universal essence, origin, substance and source of all that is experienced in the experiencing and knowing of experience. This is the ever-present and enduring 'I-am' that I speak of. 'I-am' is the true nature and essence of reality, experience and identity. It is our true enduring and immaculate identity.'

"One Intelligence. One Reality. One mind. One immaculate Self. All one."

I am the 'I-am' of I am.

 

      continuing from the collected unpublished esoteric writings and works of article 9

 

ONE BOUNDLESS UNIVERSAL INTELLIGENCE

So, we, as an impersonal and selfless individualized embodied construct and consequence of our temporary and conditioned humanity, have the mental tendency and mindset to get continually entangled, identified and caught up with all that life is or is not. These are the impersonal and selfless demands, needs, urges and conditions of acquiring and having a physical and material earthly body and existence. We, the individualized so-called embodied self, as a mind/body experience mistakenly identify with all that shows up in our experience and assume that it somehow confirms who we are and what our life actually is. When really who and what we are is not really affected, changed, threatened, touched, hindered, improved or altered by all that life is and is not. What can be seen to be affected, changed, touched, threatened, hindered, improved, limited and altered is the mind and the body, but these are not who or what we really are. They too are impersonal, empty and selfless temporary and conditioned phenomena and constructs that are temporarily acquired, held to, exercised and eventually discarded, including mind-consciousness.

The conditioned and transient mind/body experience is flawed and unreliable in that it is an imperfect and vulnerable physical and mental conditioned and self-made selfless phenomena governed by change, conditionality and co-dependency. The sensory realms of experience and experiencing are continuously vulnerable, opened to and imposed on by sensory objects and the ever-changing worldly situations, dramas, conditions and events that can easily upset its equilibrium, existence and status. Our mind-made and socially conditioned and held to preferences to only be in the close and direct company of what pleases us and satisfies us, and to remain separate and distant from anything that upsets or threatens us, is a continuous mental and physical battle and an ever-changing conditioning and impact of the worldly and bodily senses and sense objects. 

Unfortunately the harsh truth is that by their very nature and conditioning it is almost impossible to not experience things or situations that upset or threaten the existence of the mind/body experience, and its desire, preference and attachment to only have experiences that completely satisfy and agree with it. It is very challenging to permanently keep the mind and body separate and distant from any experience or condition that might threaten or end their on-going pursuit and need for continuous satisfaction, pleasure, attention, certainty, assurance, security and reward. This is especially true when strongly attached and identified with the idea and concept of an individualized embodied self.

ONLY THE TRUTH WILL SET US FREE

The Truth presented here reveals to us all that there is no permanence to be found, acquired, made and attained in that which is impermanent and transitory. The ever-changing sensory realms of experience are continuously exposed to the attraction and repulsion of sensory impressions and objects, be they desirable, neutral or undesirable to us. Much of this ever-changing worldly dance of the senses happens on an unconscious level. Most of us are completely unaware that much of our so-called lives are being simply influenced, conditioned, changed and shaped by that which we are attracted to or repulsed by with the addition of personal needs, demands, preferences and conditionings. We rarely stop to think what is it that actually drives us and makes us do the things that we do. 

The individualized mind says, "I don't want this experience or thing so I will do all I can to not have it in my life, or I want this experience or thing so I will do all I can to have it in my life". "I don't want this particular feeling so I will do all I can not to have it in my life". "I want this particular feeling so I will do all I can to have and keep it in my life." Obviously there are innate cravings, urges and desires that purely happen as a result of having a body and mind. These impersonal and selfless bodily impulses and urges fulfil the physical need and requirement for food, warmth, safety, intimacy, survival and shelter. This is a subject and object relationship of sense gratification, impulse and reward, played out with the forces of attraction and repulsion; expansion and contraction. Either we are mostly moving towards something or moving away from something. It is the continuous internal playing out and battle that we have with ourselves, the world and our temporary humanity to have our life the way we would like it and to permanently keep it that way without any event, drama or situation upsetting or changing it or even ending it. Like I have already stated, this is not about us getting down on life, it is simply an invitation to examine and investigate experience, identity and reality for what it is so as to intimately recognize and know that which is already free, complete, plentiful, fulfilled and whole. This being the truth of 'I-am'. Fully recognizing and knowing the 'emptiness' of all reality and identity frees us from the painful grip of things, dramas and appearances. On-going changes and challenges continue but we are not bound, limited or hindered by them.

What is this?

Who am I?

THE HIGHEST KNOWING 

For me, our true impersonal and transcendental essence, source and nature has no real concern for these mental and physical demands, urges and needs of the conceptual and phenomenal world. These worldly things and needs do not alter, change, threaten, touch, hinder. limit or affect the real undying and immaculate essence, nature and source of all experience, reality and phenomena. They are totally secondary to its ever-present existence, Truth and identity. They are impersonal, selfless and fleeting temporary expressions of its pure essence and nature. Reality's true nature and essence is complete, whole, free, perfect, plentiful and fulfilled in and of its own Self. Worldly demands, expectations, needs and desires happen to us as a result of having an individualized mind/body experience. Whether things and phenomena exist or not exist makes no real difference to our true nature, source and essence, even though we might think it does. This is why in the esoteric pursuit of Self-realization and Spiritual-awakening we closely and directly investigate and examine the one who is chasing, having and desiring experience. We inwardly and directly investigate and examine the one who is having and attaching to experience, and the one who is repulsed, worried and threatened by experience. We quietly examine and investigate the mind/body experience and the real source and cause of any and all suffering. Not by looking to control and change what is external to us but by looking deeply within ourselves to the root and core of our own unhappiness, confusion, fear, worry and lack of peace, love and fulfilment.

Of course the individualized mind and body can be affected, altered, touched, threatened and changed by the appearance, change and disappearance of worldly situations, conditions, dramas and events, but in the recognition, knowing and knowledge of Self-realization we, the so-called individualized mind, awaken to abide in the absolute Truth and knowing of the unchanging, untouched and unmoving pure 'Spirit'. Even whilst appearing to remain physically and mentally active, engaged and present in the worldly conditioned and conceptual demands, changes and needs of the worldly mind/body experience. It is not that a separate 'I' abides as the unchanging and unmoving Self. It is simply as it is. If anything, all is awake and abides as the unchanging, unthreatened, untouched, boundless and unmoving Self. All is recognized and known to be the Self that we all are. Of course, there is still the appearance and playing out of the ever-changing and on-going phenomenal and conditioned world and all its myriad and diversity of things, forms, dramas and phenomena, but it is all recognize and seen as pure 'Spirit' - One Intelligence. One Reality. One Mind. One Truth. All is 'I-am'.

I am the 'I-am' of I am.

THE WHOLE WORLD AS 'I-AM'

We can still appear to act and be in a universe where two opposing and inseparable forces contribute to what conceptual and conditioned reality is. Each opposing and inseparable force defining, establishing, and complimenting the other. We simply as individualized self-aware embodied constructs recognize and know things by their opposite. In a way space and form are inseparable. Where there is form there is also space. Where there is space there is also form. Where there is the experience and experiencing of an object there is a subject who has to experience it. Otherwise how would the object even be known to exist? Each recognized and known opposite defines the other and confirms their worldly existence. There is no 'inside' without 'outside'. And no 'outside' without 'inside'. There is no pleasure without pain, and there is no birth without death. They are inseparable and co-dependent. This is the very nature and conditioning of a dual, conditioned and conceptual phenomenal world. This is why we are continually invited and asked to seek and know intimately and directly that which is unborn, unmade and formless. No birth. No death. No becoming or being. 

How could we really know and experience the existence of an universe without a subject to experience it? Would the universe even exists if there was no subject to know it? In a way the experience of the universe and the knowing of it are inseparable otherwise how would it even be known to exist? Who would really know if the universe really existed if there was no one or self to know it? In a way the universe exists because there is a subject that knows it. The object and the subject are inseparable for the universe to be known experientially to exist. Through subject and object we experience the ever-changing phenomenal world of things, forms, constructs and phenomena. Even the phenomenal world can be seen as an object of experience. Yet who is the one seeing? Who is the one knowing?

What is this?

Who am I?

We generally view the phenomenal world as being separate and distinct from ourselves. We see the phenomenal world as something that we are relating to and taking apart in. Our embodied lives are continuously governed, changed, impacted and altered by the universal conditional forces of attraction and repulsion; expansion and contraction. And these same worldly forces are present in the mind/body experience. In fact these worldly forces are essential to their existence. Without these opposing and yet balancing forces nothing would exist in the phenomenal world of experience and experiencing. For me, these very opposing and yet balancing universal forces are the ever-changing sacred selfless dance and playing out of the inexhaustible essence of pure 'Spirit'. For me, as I intimately experience and know it, all is pure 'Spirit'. Plain and simple. The true ever-present Self is untouched and unaltered by the ever-changing vicissitudes of conditioned and conceptual embodied and sensory reality.

I can assure you all I am not here with the agenda to convince you or anyone of anything. I do not assume for you or anyone to blindly believe or adhere to what I am presenting and communicating to you here. I would not be this foolish, demanding or needy. If anything I am simply calling to and playing with my essence of Self. For it is all myself, and it doesn't really need my personalized help. It all is as it is and this too is. It is the Self always serving, celebrating and honouring the Self. Nothing more than this. Self evident and radiant.

If life should require you to wake up to your true self, then you will and it might be that this esoteric blog played a small part in that self evident Self-realization. As this is how you designed it to be so you could wake up from the mode of ignorance. Sometimes it is only after a particular life-changing event that these things become very clear to us, and then all we can really do is silently 'smile' and prostrate at how perfect and simple it all is and was. The so-called ego fully and finally surrenders and embraces life is all its complexity, diversity, dramas, differences and disappointments, and all the time the true Self has remained unaffected, unchanged, ever-present, immaculate and radiant.

One Intelligence. One Reality. One Mind. One Truth.

                 This is the message of Atman-Yoga. The Deathless Self alone is. All is this as 'I-am'.

Atman-Yoga Daily Mantra: "I am. Life is. I am one with all life and all life is one with me. Oneness in body. Oneness in mind. Oneness in all things."

Atman-Yoga Daily Meditation: 'Only God is Real' as the eternal 'I-am'. All is this.

Song of the Deathless Yogi:

                                        I am 'emptiness'. All is 'emptiness'. 'Emptiness' is all. 

                                    Form is 'emptiness'. Only 'emptiness'. 'Emptiness' is form'.

This esoteric blog is dedicated to my earthly mother 'Rita' who transitioned on the 12th December 2021. A truly selfless, kind, beautiful and loving embodied soul, friend and mother. 

Post-article note: Freedom is our true enduring nature. It is not something created, acquired, attained or found. It is as we truly are and have always been. Nothing can limit, remove or destroy it. It is free of all constructs, forms, beliefs, ideas, views, dramas and experiences. It is Reality as it always is. Bondage is the illusion of ignorance. Ignorance and liberation are of the mind. They do not limit, hinder, improve or impact on this enduring freedom. This freedom is our one true and ever-present Reality.

All is this!