It's all a dream

It seems that we've been caught in a dream - wandering through "our lives" searching for deeper meaning, believing in things we learned from those we trusted without question, ignoring reality as it stared us in the face, resisting things we didn't like, didn't accept, assuming we were "in control", had control...

We are presented with a concept called "ME" - as a "person" which is somehow a separate entity... We don't question or think about the fact that this body is an organism with a nervous system, capable of complex electromagnetic processes which create an illusion of being in a body, in a world of time and space.

This "person" is some mysterious "soul" or a "spirit" contained within the vessel of a flesh and bone form. The fact is that the brain processes and interprets signals and outputs data to itself. Where is the person? What part of the brain is the person? Or maybe the person lives in the chest? The knee? Where is it? Can you find it?

You can't find it, and the reason you can't is that it doesn't exist. It's a fiction. It's something that you were told and unquestionably accepted without investigating or just ignored. Even scientists who have studied the brain and have intimate knowledge of the workings of the apparent mind don't seem to be able to discard this basic false assumption.

For many people, religion is the source of the illusion. Just think about a male figure, who is omniscient (he knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you're awake... he knows when you've been bad or good so be good for goodness sake).. this figure lives somewhere you can't go, travels the world in one night (omnipresent?), and delivers gifts for only those who have been good. This figure is so "real" and believed in that it takes years for some to realize he is just a fiction, doesn't exist. Just think about when you found out there was no Santa Claus? Are you continuing to feed this illusion through your own children? Why? Some are adamant about not revealing that Santa Claus is not real for fear of disappointing or somehow harming their children.

So what about God? Isn't he a male figure who is apparently omniscient and omnipresent, rewards those who are good but punishes those who are bad? Isn't God learned from those who fight to maintain this illusion? What if you found out that God wasn't real, was no more real than Santa Claus? So you still believe that Santa isn't real but God is?

There is obviously an intelligence at work - trees know to turn their leaves toward the sun, planets orbit the Sun at the exact coordinates, cells double and re-double to form organisms... who is doing this? It is a mystery. This intelligence energy is at work from your skin down to your cells. Even the cells can be broken down into molecules, atoms, protons, electrons... and what "moves" these? Isn't it energy? Isn't energy the basic "substance" of the universe itself? Don't you already know this?

Knowing this, aren't all things connected? Aren't all things basically the same thing, even this body? The brain (energy) creates a sense of "being in here" and "looking out there", Consciousness. But aren't your senses composed of sense organs (eyes, ears..)? Aren't these organs made up of the same "substance"? So what is the difference between the eye that sees, the object seen, and the space in between? Where is the boundary? Isn't this "skin" boundary just a by-product of the brain? Isn't the brain itself part of this illusion?

The only thing you can be sure of is that you exist, awareness is happening, whether it's awareness of an apparently illusory world or awareness of darkness or awareness of nothing... That is what you are, that knowingness... On the level of Consciousness, you are just that witnessing awareness, seemingly looking out these eyes, hearing through these ears... But in knowing that Consciousness itself is just that entire apparent solid block of energy manifesting as form (bodies, buildings, etc.), what you are is everything. You cannot be anything other than that which is the basic essence of all. So you are this apparent body, but you are also all other apparent bodies... you are that tree, that bird, that pond.... you are THAT...

Continuing to believe this this "person" without question, you believe you are controlling your thoughts, controlling your body... in fact you believe you are those thought and that body... But these are just objects floating in the awareness that you are. There is no "person" to control anything. The thoughts are arising without any control, the body is moving, acting, within the context of the world, not by some separate controlling entity, somehow hiding in the brain.

Giving up the illusion of the "person" who controls, surrendering control of all, accepting all that arises as perfect manifestation of this intelligence energy, the sense of peace and joy arises. There is truly no one here, no one home in this body, no separate person who can either suffer or rejoice. All is happening to no one. Thoughts arise, the body moves, situations arise (apparently), but there is no one who controls, causes, affects or is affected. The awareness that you are just witnesses all that arises without bias, without labeling, without judging... That awareness is never touched, never moves, never changes, never leaves... it has been there always. It is not difficult to see but impossible to avoid.