Thursday, February 26, 2009

I AM the SEEING

Perceptions, sensations - experiences - appear. There is the underlying belief or assumption that there is an "I" present as a separate entity from those appearances, an "I" that SEES.

The "I" doesn't see - the "I" in this case is only a belief, only a thought, an unquestioned assumption. A thought cannot see. An assumption cannot find out "who am I." A belief doesn't have a life story.

These experiences cannot be separated, except in concept, from the SEEING - from the perceiving - there is simply an overlooked obviousness that is only overlooked because of that already-existing assumption - there is no reason to question it.

Yet if it is questioned, if the boundary between the seer and the seen is looked into, allowed to be what it is instead of what it's assumed to be, something may become clear.

The SEER, the DOER of the seeing, is KNOWN TO the seeing, known as another experience. That SEER is the "I" - the assumption - an unquestioned platform from which the rest of illusion manifests - a pulpit from which the story of "my life" is narrated. The "I" is a reference point which is the target for loss, pain and suffering.

This doesn't take analysis or effort to know - quite the opposite... a spontaneous release of effort, a release of beliefs and assumptions may happen - in that release or surrender of this pent-up ME that needs to see more clearly, it may dawn that the objects in appearances are NOT SEPARATE from the seeing of the objects.

The felt sense of Oneness is simply the absence of the assumed boundary between ME and the WORLD. So-called "spiritual bliss" is just the natural freedom shining through, no longer ignored due to a pile of overlapping assumptions. It is Consciousness, once again knowing itSelf.

I AM the SEEING. Nothing at all stands in the way of this realization. This is already obvious, even if it doesn't feel that way.

This is ALREADY our experience... already these "objects" are nothing but sensation and perception... already these "objects" have no substance or independent nature apart from Consciousness... already these "objects" cannot be known without the substance and presence of Consciousness.

Separation is an assumption overlaying the obviousness of Oneness. Oneness, seeing itself. Seeing-Oneness.

Once seen, the ME returns to it's rightful place, not as a separate and individual "person", but as Consciousness, aware of itSelf through an individual perspective, a relative reflection of itSelf... the ME then is nothing BUT the WORLD itself, Life living itSelf...

Your very own Self.

The ME is how God loves Himself.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Randall,

The last podcast "the subject I" was once again beautiful beyond words and with perfect timing.

It had become clear that everything was an appearance in the empty space of true being.
With this re-cognition so many things fell away. Stories could not be sustained due to the illusoriness of their arising and life became much simpler.
When thoughts would arise about the seeking or the faltering there would be an aha and the struggle would cease and more mundane thinking would appear. Time to wash dishes, make juice etc.
So there was definitely a field of peace from which I have been meeting my life.
And yet there was that screen of emptiness and then there was all that was happening appearing on that screen and in that there was separation and a kind of a flatness. Life had seemingly lost magic. In the appearance of course.
Some pointers that you pointed to were particularly illuminating:
"This pure witnessing is the world itself" (before I was witnessing the world).
"I am the subject seer of all that is seen".
"What I am is the world itself".

So the question I was going to ask you was how is it possible that one can re-cognize that one is not the body/mind and yet not be bliss itself upon that understanding?

But I do think that this podcast has answered that.
"I am the subject seer of all that is seen" then I must be the subject feeler of all that is felt.
Then I am the flatness, the joy, the hand, the mountain, the desire, the resistance, the cow, the friend, the first autumn leaf, Israel, George Bush, absolutely everything from feeling to matter is who I am. Nothing can be outside myself?
Thanking you who must be me from the depths of this heart.

Anonymous said...

Hello - its David.
I have been reading Adi Da Samraj and i would like your perspective on him if possible, because to me what he writes about sounds remarkable.
What he says is it is just two difficult for ordinary people to abide as the Self. Most people will not be able to do that. However he says there is a way to the Self. Now he does not say that you can seek the Self and find it because to seek it would already assume that you are not it. However he says there is a way to abide as that which is always already the case (which has its root in the right side of the Heart - the seat of cosnciousness in the human anatomy). He says through the location of that and then with the yeilding of all the principle pscho-phsycal faculties (attention, feeling, breath and body) you stand in the place of God but are progressively purified by radical self-understanding. Staying in the great space of consscious awarness and allowing the space to burn aware the presumptions of not Self.He says that ignoring all that arises, with the knowing of the conscious space the arisings are transcended. This is all very remarkable because the things he is talking about is exactly what i have been expereincing lately. He says in that great space of no seeking, simply abiding and ignoring - there is a profound self-forgetting and distraction by God, whcih becomes self-surrending which becomes 'searchless beholding' which becomes 'hearing' (where there are no gross turnings from God-communion) which becomes 'seeing' when you see all forms as the body of God - which becomes the 'perfect practice' when you are abiding as the Self.
He also says there are seven stages of life. He says the first three stages are to do with ordinary human life matters. He says the fourth stage of life is where you perceive God spiritualy as the Great 'other' - like Christian mystics. He says stage 5 is like the yogis of India - going to other worlds etc. he says stage 6 is abiding as the True Self and stage 7 is when the subtle difference between objects and consciousness is gone beyond. But he stresses that his way is not a path of return, a tour of the stages. But rather a seventh stages practice in the context of the stages. and a practice which burns the stages!
I am just reading and reading this man - it seems amazing how good his books are! Have you heard of him? He is American. what do you think of him?

Randall Friend said...

Susana,

All these things are not separate from what you are - the appearances of these REVEAL YOU - they are expressions or reflections, God shining only to Himself.


love
randall

Randall Friend said...

Hello again David,

If a path resonates, follow it. When the desire for Truth wells up, it matters not what path is followed, what experience comes... when that earnestness for direct Reality manifests, all paths will be irrelevant and pointless.

If a path of states and stages resonates without the intellectual or analytical bullshit, clear and direct looking with no outside expectations, any path will do.

Reality needs no stages to know. Reality IS. God IS Reality. The "one who is looking for God" IS God. Right now. What states or stages does God need to know Himself? What process does God need to go through to know Himself?

There is simply a false identification with objects, with sensations and perceptions. Looking directly without preconceived notions, we come to a poverty of knowledge, left with no discernible path - any path or "one who travels" is seen very clearly to be a layer of unnecessary concept. All that remains is the clear awareness of Self.

Yet if a path of states and stages resonates, so be it. God cannot lose Himself in seeking Himself, no matter what path is taken.

If these stages resonate with experience, they will be followed. When experience dries up, when the stages are lost due to inattention or misapprehension or misinterpretation, when the path of seeking becomes the focus and the focus of God becomes a distant destination, God remains veiled to Himself.

True communion is never broken and never achieved because there is no one who communes with God. God (sat), knowing Himself (chit), experiences constant communion (ananda).

In the dark night of isolation, when the beautiful expressions seem lost to time, when the vast separate Universe crowds our very existence with its weight and presence, when these states and stages have yet to produce results, we may call out to God for help, for protection, for Love.

We are only ever calling for the Self. Just THIS, just this immediacy and presence, prior to all paths.


love to you
randall