Saturday, May 15, 2010

The person is a product of imagination

What do you actually know? 

There is present Oneness - undivided Reality.  That's already the case.  Reality is nondual.  It doesn't need to be reached.  It doesn't need to be MADE nondual.

That present Oneness is conceptually divided beginning with the knowledge of existence - I AM - as soon as that recognition that you exist comes - it's a conceptual division.  I AM cannot be grasped by the mind as Oneness or Wholeness - therefore all that is NOT ME comes in as imagination.  That imagining is the root of limitation, lack, because to assert something other is to limit what you are.

Then there must be a quantification of reality - we must know what it is.  We must define it, label it.  So present reality is divided conceptually - we call it sensation/perception.  Experience.  And an experience must have an experienc-er.  Therefore reality is given an equation to make sense of it - subject/object.

That is an object and "I" am the subject. 

That "I" then must be defined.  What is it?  Imagination must be used to say.  That "I" is a person, a soul or spirit, an entity which came as part and parcel of this body-mind. 

But wait - what is the body or mind?  We haven't yet defined them.  This nondual reality must be sliced and diced even further to make some intellectual sense of it.  There are present sensations - experiences - a bundle of feelings - THAT must be the body.  There are various patterns - language - those are "thoughts".  We've now given a label, a name, a way of making it more comfortable because now we believe we know what it is.  It's no longer a mystery.  It makes intellectual sense.

So here we are, persons living in this body-mind, living in a world of things.  Now we're comfortable - we have it all figured out.  But along with these definitions, these quantifications, these translations of reality, there is by default a sense of limitation.  To define yourself this way naturally creates a division or limitation - you limit yourself by all that you are not.

So the spiritual search comes - now we want to find out what we are - we've long-since forgotten it was all conceptual, all imagination in order to make sense of it, to wrap borders around everything to obscure the inherent mystery and stillness.  We want to BECOME whole, because AS a thing, a defined entity, we are not whole. 

But we cannot BECOME it.  It was always only imagination.  It was always only conceptual, a translation, an interpretation of nondual reality. 

Reality is already nondual.  There is no making it so.  In applying any definition or concept there is a concurrent limitation imposed.  Simply recognize this inclination to describe reality.

Seeking nonduality is absurd.  What form or practice can change the inherent nature of reality?  What experience can reveal Oneness when an experience is by definition the opposite of Oneness?

What you are seeking is already the case.  Can there ever be a point when the individual person finds Oneness?  It's an impossibility.  The person is a product of imagination.

5 comments:

Ahto said...

Is Awareness aware of both, the known and the absence of it? I mean, is Awareness That which is beyond forgetfulness?

benjamin said...

This is a nice question Ahto! It makes me feel that sometimes there is the need to cling on some idea about awareness because deep inside one does not want to forget it (and "start all over again").
So yeah, great question! Thanks.

Randall Friend said...

Ahto,

Hello my friend.

We must look at what is it we call "awareness". Look at how the mind translates, creates it's platform of reality.

To talk about awareness, we're likely talking about some contained awareness, a function of the body-mind, a limited aspect of the individual.

In doing so, we necessarily limit. Then there is my awareness and objects I am aware of. The story of individuality is part and parcel of this perspective.

When we really look with honesty and openness at what it is we call awareness, we may recognize the oneness of reality - when there is no translation going on - when the meanings have fallen off and we're merely noticing without any attempt at qualification.

You are present and how do you know this? You know this because awareness is present. Knowing is happening. That's always been the case yet there has always been a parallel story of who.

Step outside the story for a moment - remain in global seeing or knowing - without the need to call it anything, to interpret reality in any way.

Notice that there is this primary experiencing - always there and never changing - along with this there seems to be experiences known - feelings, sensations, perceptions.

Then see if there is any difference at all between what we call awareness and experiencing, and the experience itself. Is it not, in fact, the same reality?

love
randall

Ahto said...

Thanks your your comments. I reckon that it's not a matter of intellectual understanding. Yet, i feel that if one hasn't really got it out in their minds, it's kinda hard to let things be. My question is that does the Absolute Reality manifest in a person as the void or space between two thoughts. Or as Sri Siddharameshwar put it, the Paramatman is when forgetfulness itself is forgotten (when one doesn't try to silence the mind). I guess it's the same thing as Nisargadatta said, that That is beyond being and non-being.
I see that awareness isn't just 'in the person', because then it would be limited. I guess it's like awareness is the living void between thoughts in the mind, as well as the space between outer objects and the perceiver. It's the same thing, since there is no inside and outside. The space is the same in the cup (or the 'person') and outside of it.
One last question is that, what would be the manifest form of Knowledge/Consciousness/Awareness? Can it be considered as the energy stream we're in all the time (i mean the sound waves, light waves, particles of smell, taste etc). I mean are the elements the Pure Knowledge, or is Consciousness beyond the elements (as Ramesh Balsekar put it, im not quoting)? Is the 'I Am' the same (sum total of everything you perceive, the so-called outside objects and also objects of the mind)? I guess that thought by themselves are nothing but nerve signals without any meaning, but Awareness gives them the meaning.

Randall Friend said...

Ahto,

"Does the Absolute Reality manifest in a person as the void or space between two thoughts?"

The so-called "person" is a manifestation OF the Absolute Reality.

"what would be the manifest form of Knowledge/Consciousness/Awareness?"

What ISN'T?

love
randall