Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The Pure Space of Knowing

Q: In reading Advaita, there is an obstacle. This obstacle is as following. When we say that all arise and ends in awareness and awareness is seeing the letters right now and the space between them.

I can say that is the brain doing this. And the brain creates the feeling of awareness. Can you explain a little bit about that? I see a tree, why is not enough to say that the brain sees it? Why shall I go to awareness? Why must be one intelligence energy beating my heart and growing my nails and not the brain itself?

Like a car once start goes on for ever. We continue to fill it with gasoline and goes on forever. And what happens with people that die for one hour and they brought them to life again. What happened? Awareness left and then came back?

Any help from your side will be appreciated.



A: Where is the idea of awareness happening? Where is the idea of an obstacle happening?

These happen in that pure space of knowing. In that space, there is no word "awareness" or "brain" or "death". In that space of pure SEEing, pure experiencing - THIS HERE NOW - even the idea of a "Dimitris" is only part of the totality of present appearance.

When we break it down with labels, words and concepts, then we have the obstacles, the problems, the suffering. Just SEE that these are only ever in thought, only ever present with concepts.

Pure SEEing, pure experiencing does not provide a subject (Dimitris) and an object. Pure SEEing does not provide awareness - awareness is only a word, a pointer, to THAT which you already ARE, to THAT which already IS.

Forget the words - the answer will never be found in the mind. Simply SEE what is happening NOW - SEE that words never separate or divide reality, only ever THIS HERE NOW.

Q: Thank you for answering.

The problem with me is that I am unfamiliar with Advaita vocabulary. Space to me means the space I can see.

When you say "knowing" do you mean the knowing that is not from accumulated knowledge but the knowing that happens Now? You also say that words do not separate reality.I thought that words ARE separating reality.



A: Can you see space? No.

But it is there, undeniable, open for all that appears.

What you are is not an object, not something to see, but that in which all things appear. And in that knowing space, the world happens.

Knowing is not knowledge - knowledge is accumulated, words, concepts. Knowing is immediate, an activity happening now, knowing these words, knowing the glare from the computer screen, knowing the sound of the birds singing.

This immediate knowing is present, undeniable. But it is not an object - it is knowing objects now. And the body and thoughts/mind are OBJECTS in this immediate knowing, witnessed in this knowing.

So the totality of present appearance happens NOW in immediate knowing. Even words and thoughts are happening now in immediate knowing. But if we take the words to be real, to actually DESCRIBE reality, then the world appears solid and persisting, appears as separate objects. The ME is created in this illusory world, created to greet the world, the subject arising to meet the object.

This is the essence of duality and the root of suffering.

Simply SEE that the word is never the "thing". Simply SEE that words never describe reality, never separate reality. Words happen in this immediate knowing space - THIS HERE NOW.

So if there is confusion, that's IT too. If there is suffering, that's IT too. If there is happiness, that's IT too. No matter what appears, it appears NOW. And NOW is never broken into parts, never separated by thoughts.

Suffering never happened, because the ME who could suffer and the situation causing suffering were only ever defined in mind, created in thought, imagined in the story.

What you are is the simple knowing space which contains it all - so much so that there is no longer a "space" and "contents" - what you are is ALL of it - THIS HERE NOW.

love
randall

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

If there is something before awareness and objects in awareness it must be beyond experience and of no possible interest or use to anyone - so does any of this matter in the slightest?

Randall Friend said...

Awareness and the objects in awareness is still duality.

Simply notice that these concepts happen ON this pure naked non-conceptual presence that is undeniable and INCLUDES the idea of awareness and objects.

Not-two... not even one...


love
randall

Anonymous said...

Thanks for responding Randall.

'Simply notice' - surely that is putting attention (conscious awareness) on an idea of what it is to be present - still the unavoidable duality of existence?

'Being present' remains unknowable except by 'logic' and inference?

Tried this for thirty years...

Randall Friend said...

The analytical mind is strong - all the concepts of "this" being before "that", putting attention "here" or "there", parsing words...

WHO does any of this? The very "WHO" is another thought, an idea happening NOW, in THIS HERE NOW...

Thought never separates reality - it comes NOW, ONE solid block of reality. Only the mind seems to separate.

It's like the finger pointing to the moon - see the moon, forget the finger!

So continue parsing words and getting stuck in the concepts for another 30 years. It doesn't matter, because you already ARE that, you never LEFT that. No amount of seeking, even 30 years worth, can give you what you ARE. You can only re-cognize what you already KNOW.

Only the analytical mind can disagree. Only the ME can live in a WORLD. Only a "seeker" can suffer. And YOU only exist in thought.


love
randall

Anonymous said...

Presence is not the thought of being present. Awareness is not the concept about awareness. All these conceptualized notions 'appear' in or on awareness - Awareness - Knowing - Presence is Non Dual. This FACT is not appreciated by the mind - it cannot appreciate it - it immediately divides everything -No conclusions ever remain stationary or solid.
What you ARE is reality - THAT is thoughtless silent being. - Gilbert.