Sunday, July 5, 2009

Who doesn't know "I"?

The spiritual search is a search for "what AM I?" - it's a search for truth, for reality - it's a search for the end of suffering - liberation from the bondage of separation.

So wrapped up this way - spirituality is a chore - it's a seeming lifelong process - it's apparently extremely difficult and it's rare that anyone ever discovers the goal laid out in terms of "enlightenment".

Bullshit. This is pure and simple bullshit. As long as these ideas are still there, what IS will continue to be overlooked in preference for some idea of enlightenment, some "state", some special experience.

Do you presently know "I"? Yes. Absolutely. Do you know your Self? Yes. Absolutely. There is absolutely no doubt that you know yourself. You are intimately familiar with your Self, because you have BEEN THERE for a lifetime of experiences.

WHAT you are is what is in doubt. Presently this "I" is taken to be the body, the thoughts, the intellect, the emotions... this "I" is believed to be a temporary "thing", a separate entity trapped in a body, a fragile shell separating "I" from the world "out there".

So THAT you are is never in doubt. "I" is obvious - fully known - but WHAT "I" IS is the question.

Therefore stay with this feeling of "I" - see WHERE the "I"-ness is mistakenly applied to the body-mind and idea of "person" or "ME-as-a-separate-thing". Watch as this "I" is identified or mixed-up or tied-in with the OBJECTIVE content - body/feelings/thoughts...

"I" isn't trapped - "I" isn't in need of liberation - "I" is the knowing, the awareness, the space or capacity IN WHICH the initial idea of "I AM" comes - this "I AM" BECOMES a "thing" in concept - this "I" is ASSUMED to be a "thing" and then it MUST BE the body-mind. And AS a "thing" it MUST have an opposite - something that is NOT-"I" - the opposite of "I AM" as a THING is "world".

"I" is not a thing - "I" is the very opening or capacity which is glaringly, blindingly obvious, right now. It is the space in which these words are appearing. It is the space in which the hands appear on the mouse/keyboard. It is the space in which thoughts come. Yet that space doesn't change and doesn't move. That space of "I" is always there.

If you know this "I", then you fully and completely know yourself. Find out WHAT IS "I".

14 comments:

Scarfox said...

So I am the space or space? Ordinary everyday space, or is this some invisible space I don't see? That would be really easy to just be the space that you can see around objects, but no one has ever pointed that way so I am guessing you are talking about inner space, and maybe outer space too but not just outer..

Anonymous said...

Everything you see, hear and feel around you is that space, that form/awareness. Where does everything appear in? Can you find a border between that and the content? You as the Knowing do not appear, you are NOW-HERE and everywhere.

Unknown said...

I prefer to call it spaciousness scarface. Can you differentiate between inner and outer space? Where is the boundary? If you really 'look', there is no separation. All arises in the spaciousness. You are 'That' in which all arises. There is no inner or outer.

Randall Friend said...

Scarfox,

The mind can only objectify - classify... looking FOR yourself as some "thing" is looking in the wrong direction.

Right here and now - without the first thought or movement - you are looking FROM your true nature, your natural and changeless state.

Seeking some "thing" is missing the point - from where are you seeing? Doesn't the body, the thoughts, the world itself, appear IN this seeing?

Can you separate the world FROM the seeing?


love
randall

Scarfox said...

No I can't separate the world from the seeing :(

No One In Particular said...

Blindingly, glaringly obvious. Just love that. Not that it matters, but "when" this seemed to happen - seeing without some perceiver laid onto existence, or however you want to put it - I wandered around the kitchen, snorting with laughter, saying aloud (there was no one home in more ways than one, thank goodness) "Oh my god. It is so obvious. It is just so obvious!" Yet that's just the apparent content of a story of "awakening". It matters not a whit. No one can "awaken". There is no one to awaken. There is this funny little thing we hang onto being, called "me", and if that drops away, there is, as you like to put it, "I am". Or maybe just "being". Really enjoy the words here, Randall, nice and clear.

Anonymous said...

Well, as ever, NOIP, a conversation stopper! Fascinating to hear about 'your' 'when' that happened without 'you' being there. Soooooo fascinating to hear that there was 'no-one' home. and that there was 'no-one' to awaken. So who is writing about that which didn't happen to no-one????

And 'who' really enjoys the words?

And who is hanging a funny little thing on to 'being'?

And if it is so obvious, why mention it?

although of course, there is no-one mentioning it.... natch?

Randall Friend said...

Scarfox,

Advaita means not-two - it's not some "state" to reach, not some special experience which will then come, not some "event" called enlightenment or liberation.

Liberation is simply your natural state, already. It's just THIS - right here and now. Trying to make THIS into something better is what the spiritual search is all about. It's treading down the wrong path until the futility of treading at all is seen.

Therefore we're left in a complete standstill - we're left in a poverty of knowledge. Not one single thing we know can be reality - reality can never be grasped in concepts or words - simply because we're always trying to objectify that experience, trying to objectify what we are.

So Advaita points to THIS, right here and now. THIS, whatever THIS might be translated as, whatever THIS might be conceptualized as, is IT. Just this. Right now. Before the next thought, before the next seeking activity - you are ALREADY that. Already what you seek.

So just look closely at this "I"-thought. It has a beginning and an end. It has come from somewhere. It's an idea. It's a concept. It comes out of silence and returns to silence. This stillness or silence precedes the "I"-thought, that stillness or "space-like" awareness or knowing is always there - it's unchanging - as this body has seemingly changed that pure knowing has always remained the same.

So the "I"-thought is necessarily talking about some "thing" - a body-mind, a person - someone who is seeking liberation FROM bondage. This bondage is purely conceptual - it's false. It's false knowledge. It's due to taking yourself to be a limited and separate being.

You are the limitless being-ness - the one Self - the pure "I" of which there is only ONE. And YOU are THAT.


love
randall

Scarfox said...

Thank you. So the world is seeing, I am right to say I can't separate the world from seeing yeah? I don't know why I put an unhappy face.

No One In Particular said...

Anonymous, words are written, a story appears to unfold. The paradox is not something that the mind can resolve. Whatever it is that seems to be happening, is just happening, to no one. An apparent character seems to do this and that, what appears as duality is oneness. There is no reason to mention it. It is mentioned. Whatever it is that seems to happen, however paradoxical, is oneness, which has the advantage of being everything. The words chosen are not, apparently, the words that resonate with "you". Or maybe they are. Those words conveying an apparent memory of wandering around the kitchen - just thoughts, happening in timelessness. There is only this. Whatever it seems to be.

Anonymous said...

Hi Randall,

it is said that 'turiya' - the fourth state - is not really a state but the necessary condition for the three states (waking, dream, deep sleep) to appear. However in my exp, waking/dream are the same, just different dreams. All i can find, in my first hand experience, is awareness of manifest creation and non-awareness of manifestations (which includes lack of awareness of awareness itself). So Turiya = deep sleep as far as i can see. I cannot find any 'state' qualities of deep sleep so why is that considered a state? Is that the same as turiya?

Also, ramana said something like 'in deep sleep you are not aware of being aware but the jnani is always aware of awarness" - something like that.

This implies that as a 'jnani' I will be something or become something i currently am not. i realize this is pretty much a guaranteed misinterpretation on my part - would appreciate anything you have to say.

thank you
Shiva

Randall Friend said...

Shiva,

There is no jnani - only from the perspective of the ajnani is there a jnani - to admit of the jnani or ajnani one must admit to separation, which is false.

The Self or God or Awareness is all there is. Speaking of states and jnanis/ajnanis is false.

Right now, you fully know your Self. That Self is the real "I" - the pure center of knowing, the "space-like" awareness at the center of all experience.

And these so-called "states" are dependent on the Self - they have never once appeared without YOU.

Calling them "states" is translation - this is an assumption that they are somehow separate and independent from the Self.

Without this translation, what you are is pure being/awareness - you know yourSelf through the appearance of these "states". The world appears, in "waking" or "dream" - this is Consciousness or Mind. And Consciousness is not separate from YOU.

The world is YOU, appearing to yourSelf - Life, knowing itSelf.


love
randall

Anonymous said...

"The Self or God or Awareness is all there is. Speaking of states and jnanis/ajnanis is false. "

Thank you Randall.
love to you.

Shiva

Charlie Hayes said...

Racers would say "when the green flag drops the bullshit stops." This old c might say when the bullshit stops the me drops.
here's to dropping out of something back into nothing! When? Now.