Saturday, July 18, 2009

The mirage of ME-SEEING-WORLD

Right now, what is going on?

"I am reading a blog".

Is this absolutely true? This statement requires many layers of assumption. Are you truly looking at a computer screen? Is there a computer screen outside of you, somewhere "out there"? Is there someone doing the reading? Where did this entire paradigm or template come from?

How did it get lined up this way? That there is "someone" here and a screen "there" - and "I'm reading". Is that actual direct experience?

Take a close look - is it really lined up that way? Is there really someone seeing a screen? Without any spiritual experiences - just in direct immediate experience right here and now, is there actually a ME-SEEING-WORLD?

The assumption MUST pop up - if this immediacy is questioned - the assumption of ME-SEEING-WORLD MUST pop up - but HOW do you know? Are you ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that there is a ME-SEEING-WORLD?

It's absolutely only an assumption. This layout is only assumed. The totality of THIS, right here and now, isn't ME-SEEING anything, is it? This layout or template is purely an assumption. That "screen over there" is not really "over there" or "out there", is it?

Right now, before the spiritual search is all wrapped up nicely, all figured out, before that magical insight or special spiritual experience is revealed - THIS right here and now isn't ME-SEEING-WORLD.

Can you see the assumption? Can it ever be anything BUT an assumption? So what IS, right here and now, before the next spiritual insight?

What IS, is nondual reality. THIS is it. Whatever THIS might be assumed to be, whatever THIS might be conceptualized AS, whatever THIS might be in thought - THIS is Advaita - not-two. Not two "things" - not a ME SEEING a WORLD. There is no ME seeing anything. There is only THIS, and the ME-SEEING comes after - in thought - applied after - applied on top of the immediacy of THIS.

There is an enduring concept that once this is all grasped, that the world will change, that perception or experience will change. The point is that THIS is ALREADY Oneness or Advaita - the filter or template or assumptions or translations ON TOP OF it VEIL THIS.

Instead of seeking special spiritual experiences, which may come but will always pass - take a hard look at THIS, notice that this assumption of ME-SEEING-WORLD MUST come up every single time - it comes up automatically due to it being taken as absolutely true and beyond investigation.

ME-SEEING-WORLD is the platform from which the search is undertaken. When that platform is questioned, it falls away naturally, just like a mirage.

Then the entire spiritual search is known to be only a symptom - an attempt at finding something from within a false paradigm. Once the paradigm itself is seen to be obviously false, who remains to seek? Who will benefit from spirituality?

Reality is One Without A Second - right here and now. There MUST BE an assumption to the contrary going on. Instead of seeking some validating experience - recognize the assumption that THIS is NOT IT.

35 comments:

Anonymous said...

It has nothing to do with spirituality. It is not JUST an assumption. It is absolute undeniable experience.

The thoughts I experience, are not the thoughts YOU experience. They are separate and different.

Aren't they? You can't deny that can you?

You can't deny that your name is Randall and that you respond to that and that you experience living through that body? and that when that body dies there will be no more experience 'as' Randall. Can you? You can't deny that.

To waft around "all there is, is this and that is just awareness, and there is only non-dual oneness and what you experience is only an assumption" is just an assumption in itself. You don't know that your experience is valid and that my experience isn't. Life is lived as THIS body and mind as your life is lived as YOUR body and mind, even if that means that you assume a position of non-dual, oneness.

This 'one without a second' can similarly be 'an assumption', can't it? Just another position that holds no more verifiable validity, but only serves to patronise - to set apart those that 'assume' that they experience a world out there. When in fact it isn't an assumption, but you assume that it is! Clever that, innit?

Randall Friend said...

Anonymous,

Have it as you will, my friend. This is only an invitation to question the default assumptions. If it resonates, great. If it does not, great also.


love to you
randall

gregory said...

heh, got to love commenter number one ... spirituality is a disease ... and i say that with the greatest respect and love for all the saints in the tradition ...

enjoy

gregory lent

Anonymous said...

"recognize the assumption that THIS is NOT IT."

Much love Randall, thank you my friend.

No One In Particular said...

Hi Randall, loving the clear pointers, and Charlie Hayes is clearly besotted with them. No one, in apparent separation, wants to hear that everything they were ever looking for is what IS - there is no other. However, there is nothing wrong with apparent separation. It really seems to spice things up!

Randall Friend said...

Anonymous,

Love to you, my friend.

Randall Friend said...

Hello Suzanne,

Yes - nothing wrong at all with it. In fact the very seeing that THIS is it IS the embrace of separation, the recognition of the miracle of THIS, the immersion IN THIS - simply because THIS is all there is.

With the very recognition of the impermanence of everything, including Consciousness itself - THIS is no longer taken for granted, glossed over like some annoying detour on the way to a BETTER life.

THIS is quite literally ALL there ever is. And therefore whatever THIS is, whatever it appears to be, is a miracle - each blade of grass is THAT, each arising is perfect already - there is no need to place conditions on experience.

So the message is that, to take separation as reality is suffering. To recognize separation as false, then separation or the play of Consciousness can be truly lived as if it was the very last appearance, which, of course, it is.


love
randall

Anonymous said...

Hi Randall,

The thing I love about you and John Wheeler is your lazer-like focusl That in itself does wonders for the "ever wandering" one.

Thank you so much and love to you!

Doug said...

Dear Randall, is this true? Pure awareness is not it? what does this mean:

"There is no need to split your hair over it, you are right in your understanding. I guess in lieu of any good words these teachers may have used the words “Pure awareness” even Maharaj has done so at one point in ‘I am That’. But yes pure awareness is Presence – just presence – devoid of any content or the ‘I am’ in its purity which is where you have to abide as a first step as prescribed by Maharaj. As your ‘Sadhana’ (Practice) strengthens what would happen? When you touch your pure Presence you can feel this subtle Presence and there would be periods when you’d just roll over into an Absence only to return back to the Presence. This shuttling back and forth from Presence to Absence is the probably the last trace of duality that still lingers as the so called ‘knot’ between the body and the spirit is yet unbroken. Many practitioners even after coming to this stage believe the Absence to be the Absolute and fail to transcend the duality and here is where the genius of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj lies. His statements like the one you have given or his saying that you are not the being or non-being or you are beyond knowing and not-knowing all imply the Absolute. He also goes onto say something more acute like “When this concept ‘I am’ departs there will be no memory left that ‘I was’ and ‘I had’ those experiences, the very memory will be erased”

There is yet another way to look at it wherein lies the key to understanding what does it mean by the disappearance of the Presence or the ‘I am’. When you touch this Presence for a prolonged period you start perceiving it in ‘every object’ around you, whatever objects it maybe – living or non-living. In such a situation the ‘I am’ is bound to disappear as it is only the ‘I am’ everywhere, nothing else! Imagine a picture where all the pixels are identical you’d see nothing – just as you can see the plain background on which I am writing this text, you are drowned in a sea of ‘I am’ and it dissolves or disappears!

From the Absolute point of view why is it unaware of itself? Simply because it doesn’t require any self awareness, how can it have any requirements at all? Given its non-objective or formless nature this ‘whole being of the body and world’ was in any case an illusion that never came to be! Hence Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj calls it the unborn – which is what you actually are."

Josef said...

"With the very recognition of the impermanence of everything, including Consciousness itself - THIS is no longer taken for granted, glossed over like some annoying detour on the way to a BETTER life.

THIS is quite literally ALL there ever is. And therefore whatever THIS is, whatever it appears to be, is a miracle - each blade of grass is THAT, each arising is perfect already - there is no need to place conditions on experience.

So the message is that, to take separation as reality is suffering. To recognize separation as false, then separation or the play of Consciousness can be truly lived as if it was the very last appearance, which, of course, it is."

Wonderful, Randall! Thank you! Love to you!

Randall Friend said...

Doug,

You cannot feel Presence - you ARE Presence, as it's being used. That is pointing to that subjectivity or true "I" from which the "I"-thought or I AM-ness comes.

Yet the only capital by which this Presence is known is Consciousness. In so-called deep sleep there is no knowledge of I AM - yet what-you-are remains. Do you admit that you weren't present in deep sleep? Only the concept of "you" was absent. Consciousness was absent.

So Presence and Absence are still concepts - Presence is known in Consciousness and Absence is known in deep sleep, which is nothing BUT the absence of Consciousness conceptualized into "I slept."

THAT which KNOWS, THAT which IS - beyond even Consciousness, there beyond both Presence or Absence, is YOU. And YOU are not some personal and separate being. You ARE Being. You ARE Life.

And Life is just another word - it points to the actual reality FROM WHICH even Consciousness appears AS THAT. But that reality cannot be spoken of or thought of or conceptualized, simply because the very process of doing that (which is MIND) creates the appearance of duality. If we say Presence we must admit to Absence. If we speak of Being we must admit to non-Being. If we speak of I AM we must speak of "the world".

Therefore your true essence IS THAT yet it cannot be grasped by the mind's dualistic process. There is nowhere to go to BECOME the Absolute because you already ARE That. The only true directive or sadhana is to BE as you ARE.

Vedanta calls it Satchitananda. Sat is Being. Chit is Knowing or Awareness. Being IS Knowing.

This splitting hairs is irrelevant and ultimately meaningless. You ARE - there is no doubt about it. You are ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that you ARE. Simply find out why it is that you are so certain? How do you know you ARE?

You know that you ARE because you are always present (Being/Sat) and aware (Knowing/Chit). THAT is the certainty or knowledge of I AM. And that remains unmoved as Consciousness comes and goes. Recognize that Consciousness comes and goes against this ground of satchitananda.


love
randall

Randall Friend said...

Josef,

Hello again my friend. Love to you.


randall

Anonymous said...

Randall, can consciousness ever be known to have actually disappeared.
If consciousness disappears in deep sleep it is remembered as a thought in consciouness only but not known as actuality surely.
To say it appears and disappears is duality yes?.It would seem that there is only ever appearing and not its opposite disappearing.
Nothing may appear as everything so can nothing then disappear when its already NOTHING.

Randall Friend said...

Anonymous,

Ultimately even Consciousness, deep sleep, thought are all concepts. It is only mind which calls them as such and even mind is a concept.

To say Consciousness appears and disappears IS duality - yet that is pointing out direct experience - if that is recognized then we look to THAT which knows that Consciousness appears and disappears.

From there we may find that this appearance is not separate or other than THAT to which it comes and goes.


love
randall

Doug said...

Thank you Randal, maybe that so called guru who said that I can touch presence is out of touch himself! You cleared that up.

Randall Friend said...

Doug,

So you ARE that. And through neti-neti, that presence is known, although it doesn't appear. It is clear that it IS what you are, once all impermanent appearances are negated.

The body is known. It changes. Something is aware of the body. Thoughts are known. They change. They come and go. Something is aware of thoughts.

That "something" isn't itself appearing - not describable, not quantifiable, not a "thing" as such but the very source of experiencing. THAT is always going on and THAT is what you are, right here and now.


love
randall

bibi said...

A big fuss is made in non dual circus about the disappearance of the sense of me...talks,books are made about that,and how wonderful it is...but isn't that what drives the search?? I tell you,those dramatic events where the sense of me is no more are very very rare and in a sense are meaningless;for most of "us",the sense of me will still be there and it is ok if it is understood for what it is...but this ordinariness seems very boring for the seeker who wants goodies and fireworks!some write about the extraordinary ordinary,but that is still too much,it still gives hope...no awakening,no liberation,no energetic shift,no extraordinary,just an ordinary life with its ups and downs,but perhaps with less suffering and seeking...much ado about nothing!

Anonymous said...

Holy S8t.

Randall, I went to charlie hayes site from here and ended up watching some vids by mooji on his site. mooji said "sometimes when people say they have come this far or reached this advanced state, i ask them what sees this progress they made... and sometimes the identity combusts"... this just completely shook my foundations.

so the experiences of what i call 'ego death' that i had when talking to John Wheeler and you, i can say with certitude now that *I* (shiva) was not present, that there was something alive that was sensing and Be-ing but it was identity-less. I can attest to that with all the vigour i can muster. STILL - moojis point just shook everything up for me. There is still a continuity between the so called 'ego-less experience' I claim, and "shiva" - else "shiva" here and now would not be able to talk about it.

So basically, I cannot even approach who I AM, can i? Much less understand/grasp/know? Its impossible...completely and utterly impossible...? EVEN if the ego dies, that doesn't mean a darn trhing in terms of getting a closer grasp on who/what i am?


thank you
Shiva

Anonymous said...

my point - which i missed completely - is that my 'non-dual' or 'ego-less' experiences, which really scared the bejesus outta me, mean squat. Is that true?

thank you
Shiva

Anonymous said...

"This splitting hairs is irrelevant and ultimately meaningless. You ARE - there is no doubt about it. You are ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that you ARE. Simply find out why it is that you are so certain? How do you know you ARE?"

Randall what does this even mean!!! All i know is by analysis, by mind/thought. What does 'know" mean. What does 'cerain' mean. Who is certain? Certain of what? What does anything mean!!!

AM I? I am i suppose because there is space for the question to arise. Yes. I definitely Am else the question would not even arise. Other than that i dont know one molecule. Is that it?

S

what?
Shiva

Anonymous said...

hi again Randall,

sorry for babbling so much.... It is clear to me now that all speaking, pointing, knowing, seeing - is missing the point - pointers may help to see the fact that anything pointed/said/understood is missing the point but to point to something ELSE there is right away right there a duality - a pointer/pointing and a pointed to.

What I AM I cannot grasp - it its absolutely undeniably impossible. All that i call 'knowing' is experiential - how can i know (in the way i know just about everything) that which has no properties and is the very substrate of knowing itself?

people write all sorts of stuff - some guy wrote how, while giving ramana a bath, he had a thought "this is just a human being" and then he had a cataclysmic death experience and begged forgiveness for not realizing ramana's greatness. Its bollocks right? that kinda crap dings into your psyche and messes everything up...It seems that ....the programming, the illusion, subverts our ability to "get" those who truly point and say "you are just like me" and we make them into deified beings.

Some cultish guru in the past that i knew always used to say "you need a living guru, dead gurus don't slap you when needed". While his actions were questionable, there seems to be some poignant truth to those words - reading about Nisargatatta's stories from his henchmen or ramanas' stories told by those who live with him....its versions of someones interpretations of their own stories and ultimately, nothing more than EXPERIENCES. No wrods can ever ever ever describe what is property-less. All those books can be thrown in the trash.

Be still and know that I am God. simple. nothing more.

So I will still suffer, I will probably will come back in a week with more questions.... its fine. doesn't mean squat. everything will not turn into honey and roses. bills will be there to pay, physical pain will be there, emotional pain will definitely be there. And I will be Here so that all the other jingbang can all be there!

thank you
S

Randall Friend said...

Shiva,

The ego is the "I"-thought, the image. "I am thinking". "I am seeking". "I am suffering".

What is thinking, seeking or suffering? These are only stories attached to a concept about an "I" as a separately-existing "thing".

As you said - what sees the progress? Something remains, something IS while progress comes and goes, while thinking comes and goes, while suffering comes and goes.

And then the "I"-thought comes in to claim the doing, the thinking, the seeking, the suffering, the progress.

Simply SEE that this is what is happening. That is all. See the mechanism at work - SEE that the entirety of the ego or "I" is nothing but thought/story/image. Then nothing more is necessary. The image can go on, the stories can go on yet they aren't bought into, there is no belief that they reference some separately-existing "person", some entity within a bag of skin.


love
randall

Randall Friend said...

Shiva,

You cannot grasp yourself. You simply ARE. And WHAT you are is always the product of mind - a never-ending story built on names and forms. I am this body, I am this mind or thoughts or intellect, I am this seeker, I am this father, mother, son, daughter...

Do you know "I"? You've referenced it for a lifetime. What IS "I"?

"I" is taken to be the body. "I" is taken to be the thoughts. Yet these are only objective, only experiences, only content. These are describable. These have characteristics and attributes. Something knows the body and thoughts.

That "something" isn't really a "thing", is it? That "something" doesn't appear, does it? That "something" isn't objective, in the way the body, mind and world are. That "something" isn't describable, yet it's ever there. That "I" is ever-there, yet it does not appear. YOU do not appear to yourself.

That subjectivity is always there - THAT is what we really mean when we say "I" - when we seek to know ourselves. And that pure formless attribute-less "I" is self-evident. It requires no proof, no measurement, no quantification, no objective appearance. It is self-evident. What is more self-evident than the Self?

So you are absolutely certain that you ARE. This is the "I AM". You know "I AM". You are ALWAYS present - you are always here. You are ALWAYS aware - you are always aware-ness. "I" IS Awareness or knowing or whatever word you like.

So this ever-present, self-evident Self or "I" is always there and obvious, intimately known. But it's translated by the mind with the words "I AM". I AM. So "I AM" must, to the dualistic nature of mind, be some "thing". It must be a thing. So it becomes body-mind.

So then "I AM the body-mind" becomes the TRANSLATED reality. And from there that body-mind-I is referenced in EVERYTHING, in every activity - then "I am thinking", "I am suffering", "I am seeking enlightenment or freedom from suffering".

Yet all the while, "I" is nothing but that pure formless subjectivity - misidentified as some "thing". The "I" hasn't changed, it hasn't gone away and come again, it hasn't appeared anew due to proper seeking. "I" is always there as the very subjectivity NECESSARY for the experience called "body-mind" to appear or be known. "I" is always there for the appearance or experience called "world" to come and go.

And the totality of these appearances we call "Consciousness". So this pure formless "I" is always there and the very subjectivity or open space or capacity necessary for this very Consciousness to appear and go.

When Consciousness has subsided, the ability to KNOW THAT you are is gone, yet you still ARE, otherwise you wouldn't know that Consciousness came back. So you are absolutely certain that you exist prior to the appearance of the body, mind, world, and the entirety called Consciousness.

That BEING-ness or "I AM"-ness just IS. It cannot be described, it cannot be located, it cannot be talked about - because doing so is always in some context, from some reference point, using language which is inherently dualistic. To point out Being is to assume not-being. So that "beingness" just IS - it IS the essence of the appearance and absence of appearance.

It is like the chain and the ring. The chain thinks it's separate from the ring. Yet it's ever gold, just as the ring. The essence is gold, the appearance is chain and ring.

So "Shiva" seeking to know himself is like the chain seeking gold. In reality it is the gold which recognizes it is not-chain, not-ring.


love
randall

Anonymous said...

Randall,

thank you. I have no words - every line in your response was like a nail hammered in my head - u go looking for a pond and find an ocean and it leaves u speechless.

thank you with all my heart
Shiva

Anonymous said...

Even calling you 'randall" feels ridiculous to me at this time...its insane...

S

Randall Friend said...

Shiva,

You ARE. That's it. Anything added on to that is duality, some sort of image, a name and form, which can never be absolute. It's that simple.

Absolute reality is pure simplicity. IS-ness. The IS-ness of everything is THAT nondual reality. Everything is THAT.

If I hold up a flower, and say "what is it?" You say "flower". But what have you done? You've given me its name. You've identified it by it's form. You've made it into some "thing". I asked what IS it?

You say "plant". Once again you've given its name. What IS it?

A seed? An organism? All names - what IS IT?

You cannot say WHAT it is. Yet it IS. All "things" are just like this.

That IS-ness is unquantifiable yet undeniable. The separate existence of "things" is only illusion or mithya - only names and forms - the existence is pure Being - nondual reality. Just THIS, whatever THIS might be called.

So this is the inherent crack in the foundation of duality - we point out "things" only because of name and form, yet the name and form CANNOT be the true existence. And whatever that existence IS, you ARE.

What, then, is "shiva"?


love
randall

Anonymous said...

you hold up a 'flower' and ask what is it? I dont know! What is it? i really don't know. Is it possible to KNOW? What does KNOWING mean? I know the label that a societal group applies to it but how can i KNOW IT? I can only know by becoming One with it.

This is very curious... i just re-read what i wrote above....and i AM one with myself. So I DO KNOW myself then! But then the concept/value/meaning of KNOW itself becomes meaningless? What I AM to myself cannot be put it words, i dont even know what/how or IF it means anything...to say i KNOW myself...the whole 'knowing' model crumbles.

Yes everything is a label. I see it clearly when referenced to a flower. But what is 'Shiva'? Im still sitting with that...

Shiva

Randall Friend said...

Shiva,

You cannot BECOME One with it because you already ARE THAT.

We cannot say WHAT it is, we can only say THAT it is. WHAT it is isn't "flower". WHAT it is, is Sat - pure Being - existence - one substance - whatever label you like. The existence or IS-ness of that flower is the same IS-ness of the body or the earth or the universe.

You know THAT you are. WHAT you are can only ever be more concept - can only be mind splitting up reality into "things", of which "shiva" is some separate and temporary "thing".

And THAT is THIS - just THIS, right here and now.

You are never without Self-knowledge. You absolutely and intimately know "I" - yet that "I" is taken to be something it's not - body-mind.

We may say "I" is pure subjectivity which objectifies everything - yet ultimately there is no subject or object - this is just a way of thinking, a template overlaid upon reality.

Yes - what is "shiva"? Something knows the word "shiva". Something knows the idea "shiva". Shiva must appear somehow to know of it. Shiva must manifest somehow - a thought, a belief, an idea, a concept, a feeling, an image - shiva absolutely is appearance.

The pure subjectivity "I" is NOT "shiva". The appearance "shiva" comes and goes while "I" remains.


love
randall

Anonymous said...

Randall,
how do you know that exist a state of deep sleep,since you are not conscious of it?
Somebody could argue that one hour ago you was in deep sleep but you don't remember it because you was not conscious of it.

Randall Friend said...

Anonymous,

So-called "deep sleep" is a concept requiring a "sleeper" - someone who is conscious and then later is not.

What you're really saying is that Consciousness was absent - the very idea of "deep sleep" assumes the absence of Consciousness. Therefore there is no idea of deep sleep.

Yet that is false. You DO know of deep sleep, otherwise you couldn't have the concept. You DO know that so-called deep sleep happened. You know that Consciousness came this morning and that it will pass tonight.

It isn't a complete blank with no memory of the coming and going of Consciousness. It is absolutely true that something was there to witness the arrival of Consciousness.

In fact, even in the absence of Consciousness, if there is a knock on the door, Consciousness returns. Something remains aware in the absence of Consciousness.

Deep sleep is only a concept, as is the "dream state" and "waking state". These are passing states. What you are is THAT which knows these states.


love
randall

Anonymous said...

Randall i dont know what to say!

You said "we cannot say WHAT it is, we can only say THAT it is". I read this, it hit home and i laughed unstoppably. There is no WHAT - WHAT is just labels! Yes! There is only THAT it Is.

To be honest, I could not interpret the rest of your response to me. There is a blank here. It is Peaceful. I cannot describe it really. Is it an experience? maybe. I dont know. But its not worrisome either way. I have to cook now. :) i love u and thank you - still laughing! How could i miss this! There is no WHAT - there is no 'understanding" or 'knowing" outside of labels. There is only knowing THAT it is - that is the extent of any true knowing. Jeezus its so obvious.

What is shiva? I dont know, i'll deal with it later i suppose. There is an aversion to pondering at this time, I shall come back to your response.

thank you again!
Shiva

Anonymous said...

Absolutely crystalline clarity!

amazing! Thanks with all my heart Randall
Shiva

Anonymous said...

Know THAT Isness - being the only true knowing - inexorably points to the fact that Awareness is the Sum. The Sum of it all. It is mathematically pristine in its elegance and incontrovertible. it is beauty. It is Art.

S

Anonymous said...

Hi Randall,
I have the concept of deep sleep,only because sciense said it.
If I had never heard about it , I should not know about its existence.
Always seems that I am awake during a dream state and never during a deep sleep state.
In other words if I had not heard about deep sleep state I should know nothing about its existence,since I am not aware of it.

Randall Friend said...

Anonymous,

"I am awake" really means - Consciousness is present, yes?

So when Consciousness is not present, we call that sleep.

How do you know Consciousness was not there in sleep? How do you know Consciousness or wakefulness came this morning and will pass tonight?

It is this Consciousness coming which brings about the idea of a separate "I" who sleeps and is awake. The only reality is THAT which never comes and goes. THAT is aware of the passing of Consciousness and its content, including this separate-self.


love
randall