The Many Faces of the One: article 16 - the unpublished esoteric writings of an aging yogi.
'I-am 'Spirit' affirmation
"I am always centered in the wisdom, love, peace, beauty, well-being, plenitude and truth of pure 'Spirit'. The wisdom, love, beauty, well-being, plenitude and truth of pure 'Spirit' is firmly establishing harmony, peace and fulfilment in my world. I have complete trust and faith in the wisdom, love, beauty, well-being, plenitude and truth of pure 'Spirit'. The wisdom, love, beauty, well-being, plenitude and truth of pure 'Spirit' is always clear to me in the right time and in the right way. I always remain completely firm in my faith and trust that pure 'Spirit' is the answer and fulfilment of every need and challenge in all areas and facets of my life. I fully radiate pure 'Spirit' at all times, in all places and in all my actions. I am deeply connected and one with pure 'Spirit'. OM, shanti, shanti, shanti. 'I-am', peace, peace peace.
THE ONENESS OF PURE BEING
Some would say that the true essence of all spiritual endeavors and practice is to attain an inner experience, an individual and unbroken relationship with the Divine. To be fully conscious of our Absolute and Eternal transcendental nature, 'Spirit'. This is the on-going cosmic dance of creation and dissolution. With observing one-self objectively as a silent witness to all that we assume to be real. Overcoming the mistaken and false identity with the mind/body experience as the real self (I-am-the-body identity and the I-am-the-doer identity). Again the question and Self-inquiry of 'who am I'? What is the real essence, identity and nature of reality. It is to seek and live in the pure consciousness and knowledge of the source of all creation and phenomena.
The Unmade Self is that out of which the false and mistaken sense of a personal and separate 'I' arises and into which it will also disappear. The 'I' existence is temporary and therefore we can call it unreal. The 'I' is not something that exceeds the mind/body experience. It is a temporary phenomena that occurs due to the mind/body experience. It is suggested in Self-inquiry that thoughts and feelings are impersonal. Obviously with some clarity of mind, thoughts and feelings can be witnessed as impermanent, impersonal and insubstantial. If you were to ask me to give you one of my own thoughts to observe I could only present it as a written or spoken word. I could not give you the thought as it is in the moment of thinking. I can not give you the thought as the thought itself. I can only give you a representation of it. I can only give you something that represents that thought. And the same is true with feelings. I can't give you the feeling itself as the feeling but I can show it as a form of emotion. In the same way a memory is simply a memory and not the actual event. So it is considered due to this observation that thoughts are not real. Thoughts are a temporary and impersonal construct. It is said that the 'I' thought is the first thought to appear and the last to disappear. It could be suggested that thoughts in and of themselves are the thinker, that they are the one who thinks. The 'I' thought occurs due to the appearance and disappearance of the thought. Therefore the 'I' is really not real in the sense it has not real intrinsic and separate reality from the thought. If this is so it would be ridiculous to say 'I am my thought'. This would be as ridiculous as saying 'I am my feelings'. Feelings are what give the false impression of an intrinsic and separate individuality. But like thoughts, feelings are impermanent and impersonal too. They have a beginning and an end. So given this observation we can ask of ourselves, 'what is the real I that I am? What is the truth of identity? Who am I? What is this?
What is there that lies beyond the mind/body identity and their mental and physical faculties? Is there an unchanging and undying Self, 'Spirit', which transcends the mind/body experience? What lies behind and beyond all sensory experience and experiencing? How is it that we invest emotionally in that which is unreliable, temporary and unreal? Certainly we have to acknowledge that this mind/body experience is temporary and no world view will undo what is a natural occurrence and phenomena of a conditioned and ever-changing reality. What appears in this dualistic world of ever-changing phenomena will change and disappear. This is truth of impermanence.
EXPOSING THE SELF
What the spiritual quest asks of us is to use Self-inquiry to negate all that is changing and unreal by silently and closely observing and examining all that arises and disappears in our experience of awareness and by doing seeking that which is unchanging, inexhaustible and permanent, should such a thing exist as this. The one who seeks, is the very seeker itself, and what it seeks is that which is seeking, and yet what is its real nature, identity and essence?
What do we find ourselves to be when we put aside all that is unreal and transitory? Atman-Yoga would state that it is the Unmade Self, that which is formless, unborn, deathless, ageless, impersonal and eternal. It is that which is present in all things and yet is not affected or altered by their existence or non-existence. This transcends and is beyond the mind-body experience and yet is one with all things. It is beyond space, time and form and yet space, time and form are one with it, like waves and the ocean. Oneness is the true nature, identity and essence of all things although we experience mental projection and impression of separateness, constructs and individuality. All worldly things appear as phenomena within mind-consciousness and yet they can not be known to exist independent of mind-consciousness. Reality transcends the worldly trappings and conditions of the mind/body experience and the intellect of knowing and knowledge, so too with mind-consciousness. It transcends knowing, knowledge and the experience of knowing. Atman-Yoga is realizing and knowing our true identity with the Impersonal Self, 'Spirit'. It is true authentic and pure esoteric yoga - the perfect union with God as the true undying essence and boundless reality and identity of all things. Not the God that is used to satisfy peoples own desires and needs to have power, authority, superiority and control over others, but the God that alone is all things, and is one with all things and remains free of all things, and yet loves all things as its own essence. It is complete in and of itself, and therefore it is content in its own self-knowing. It does not seek power, authority or control over anyone or anything, for it is already one with all things so what need is there to do anything? It sees the Self in all, and all in and as the Self, so it knows its own completeness, perfection, boundlessness and wholeness.
For the one who is genuinely and authentically awake there is only the perfected Self. The Self alone is all things and all things are the perfected Self. It takes joy in its own Self-realization and feels love for all things in the knowledge of its own Self. It demands nothing and seeks nothing, and yet it can take pleasure and delight in all things. It is not affected or hindered by the appearance and disappearances of things, like the dreamer who awakes from their dream to only realize that the dream was all of its own making and nothing dreamed was real. This is the conclusion of perfect union with the Absolute that 'Only God is real'. It is the letting go of the I-am-the-body identity and the I-am-the-doer illusion. It is the true and absolute identity with that which is Pure Being underlying all that is, and all that will ever be. It is true Oneness of Being, that is perfect union, yoga, with all that is. This is Atman-Yoga.
It is truth recognized and known with unshakable certainty and faith. Not blind faith, but the faith of true transcendental knowing and awakening. The Dreamer is known beyond the duality of subject and object. It is not awareness of anything or anyone. It transcends beyond the limitations and conditionings of the mind/body experience and yet is fully compatible with the full use of all the physical and mental faculties of our limited humanity. In the Spiritual-Awakening and Self-realization of 'Spirit', the truth of reality and identity is constant and uninterrupted, and yet without impeding the normal perceptions and temporary activities of our day-to-day humanity. It is beyond the notion and framework of self and other. It is the recognition and knowing of our true identity with the Absolute.
This is the essential and core 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."
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.
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