What is this?
Who am I?
"I have no beginning, middle or end. No past, future or present. I simply am as 'I-am'. I am completely free of conditioning, constructs and form. I have no causation therefore I am not born, made or created. I have no history or story to speak of and no other. I alone am. I am beyond and free of the concepts and ideas of time, form and space. And yet I am fully one with all things, projections and phenomena. All is experienced and known because of me alone. I am the unborn, ageless and deathless 'I-am'. The one true and ever-present identity and reality of all that is and all that will ever be. I alone am. All awakened embodied souls rejoice and find peace and fulfilment in me alone."
'I-am'. Life is.' Not 'I am' this or 'I am' that. Not 'life is' this or 'life is' that. Simply, 'I-am. Life is.' Nothing more than this. Only this. One Reality. One Truth.
I am Eternity seeing, recognizing, realizing and knowing Eternity.
continuing from the collected esoteric writings and works of article 12
THE NOT SELF OF SELF
Self-realization asks us to seek the origin and source of experience, reality and identity. This being the experience and knowing of 'I-am'. Life is'. Body and mind are simply constructs of experience rather than the one who is having them. Both body and mind are known with the knowing of self-awareness and mind-consciousness. Thoughts and feelings are known constructs of experience rather than the one who is having them. These too are known with the knowing of self-awareness and mind-consciousness. They are impersonal and sensory objects of our experience. It is said, that in sleep we neither know the body or the mind and yet we still awake from sleep, and once again have the experience of the physical body and the so-called thinking mind. The body and mind are temporary constructs and concepts; objects of experience. Thoughts and feelings are temporary constructs; objects of experience. And so too with emotions, images and moods. These are all impersonal, transitory and empty of permanence and individual ownership.
We also have the self-aware impression and feeling of something identifying with the mind and the body as being who we are. We have the notion and idea of self-hood who knows and has experience. This is all formed in relationship to the having of experience and the ever-changing objective world of phenomena. And yet what is it that forms and identifies with this relationship of subject and object? This relationship of inside and outside? This relationship of 'me' and 'other'? Even consciousness is something we can know as part of experience and experiencing - the knowing of knowing. The knowing of being awake and aware. Would it be correct to say that consciousness is the subject of knowing or that we are pure consciousness? I prefer the word 'presence' or 'Spirit'. For me, consciousness is recognized and known like all other objective phenomena, and has no independent arising apart from that of a dual and conceptual reality. It too is part of experience and the act of experiencing. For me, consciousness is a phenomena and a happening of having and knowing experience, of being self-aware, but it is not the true source of knowing.
The true source of knowing and experience is not conceptual in that is can be observed and known as an object or construct of experience and experiencing. It simply is. It is that in which all things are known but it remains free of all phenomena and is without form and attributes. It cannot not be known in a conceptual way, as an identified, conceptual and tangible object of knowing, even though we might describe it as such. It is the unchanging, unmoving and indestructible selfless and impersonal 'Presence, that always is despite the coming and going of all phenomena, forms, dramas, conditions and events. It simply is what it is. It is that out of which all things and phenomena appear and it is that into which all things and phenomena disappear. This coming and going of phenomena and experiences does not change, alter, lessen, hinder, improve or affect what it is. It always remains as it is. Simply 'I-am'.
It is the 'I-am' of I am.
THE ONE TRUE SOURCE OF 'I'
The Deathless Self is unburdened, unhindered and unlimited by all that conceptual and conditioned life is or is not. It places no self-importance or neediness on temporary appearances, forms, events, dramas and phenomena, and yet it is present within all things and all things are present within it. Existence or non-existence are of no self-importance and neediness to the Deathless Self. These do not define it, limit it, threaten, hinder, destroy, improve it or effect it. It does not need experience in order to exist. It is whether we have the cognitive and knowing experience of it or not. To the Deathless Self limitation, lack and bondage are illusions of the so-called mind. The same too with suffering and the end of suffering. Only ignorance keeps us imprisoned by the mind. Limitation, lack and bondage are not truths in an absolute sense. These are only relevant and believed in whilst we are wrongly identified with the mind/body experience and the conceptual and conditioned world of space, time and forms. Once ignorance of the truth of reality, experience and identity are overcome the self-importance placed on these things becomes obsolete. The Deathless Self is free of whatever worldly conditions and situations are experienced, played out or known. It does not identify with the things, dramas and phenomena of this world in a personal, permanent and attached way therefore they are not seen to be personal, needed or limiting to its existence.
The Deathless Self is only identified and attached with its own eternal and enduring existence, and not with the appearance, change and disappearance of space, time and forms. There is no self-importance or identity placed on what worldly conditions, dramas and situations are at any given time. These things are seen as temporary constructs and ever-changing occurrences and therefore empty of any real permanence to fully satisfy us. They are unreliable, unreal and flawed. Only the Deathless Self is reliable, permanent and certain as it is not subject to change, limitation, bondage, creation, destruction or lack. It is life eternal. It is complete, whole, plentiful, fulfilled, free, radiant and perfect as it is. In fact, it is all that is and yet it is always free of all things.
What is this?
Who am I?
REALITY AS IT IS
In this full recognition and knowing of Self-realization we are left to fully live embodied experience from the truth of the Original and undying source of all that is, and yet everything is existing as a temporary projection of its own indestructible essence. In truth, the Deathless Self, does not require or need us to be conscious of it, and yet being conscious of it is what frees the mind from the illusions and trappings of bondage, limitation, lack, creation and death. It extinguishes suffering and the end of suffering. It reveals that which is without beginning, middle and end and causation. So we could say that the Self that is already fully realized knowing the Self, relinquishes all concern and importance for what worldly conditions and situations are, and yet at the same time it rejoices in all that is as temporary and limited forms and constructs of its own divine essence, identity and reality.
As already stated, the Deathless Self is complete, whole, plentiful and fulfilled as it is regardless of worldly appearances, dramas, conditions and situations. Self-realization is a matter of being established in this truth and seeing everything else as temporary, flawed, limited and fleeting. From this knowing of the Deathless Self all is left as it is, as it is all of its own essence and therefore free of anything that is real. To emotionally invest and attach to what is fleeting, limited and transitory will always disappoint us in the end, even if they do satisfy us for a while. This simply is the way of things. It isn't anyone's fault. It is not because we did something bad or wrong. It is simply the way of things in this life.
I am the 'I-am' of I am.
This is the message of Atman-Yoga. The Deathless Self alone is.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment