The Only Bondage

What sort of answer are you waiting for?  The only confirmation you will receive is your own confidence and honesty.  In Vedanta it is called "Aham Brahmasmi" - I am Brahman.  What is Brahman - that is understood - and the identity with that is there.  That is - the identity with the whole itself.

Sailor Bob says it another way - One essence, expressing as everything.  

You are that.  Right now, you are that.  Not later, once this is understood, once some flash of wisdom comes, once some bright spiritual lights happen.  Now.  You are that.  The whole.  

If we continue our search from there, we are not far off.  If we believe we have to merge with the absolute, or become something other than what we are now, if we believe our experience needs to change, then we're a million light years from the answer.

The raindrop does not need to become water.  The chain does not need to find Gold.  The problem is that the pattern of drop or chain have taken precedence, preference - the focus is on that pattern.  The idea is wrong - the idea that existence comes wrapped up in individual servings - that when a new pattern emerges, a new existence or being emerges.  When we truly look into it, that simply isn't true.

Existence or Being never begins - only a new shape arises, a new expression.  One essence expresses AS that pattern or shape or drop or chain or body or thought or tree or rock.  Life.  Intelligence.  The Absolute. Whatever you want to call it - that which is by default formless - that FROM WHICH the form comes.  

Buddhism says - formlessness IS form.  It doesn't say it BECOMES form.  It IS form.  They are identical.  That tree IS Life, in expression, in experience, at play.  That thought, whether good or bad, is that Intelligence at work, acting as it's nature is, of curiosity, of expression, of creation and destruction.  

The gold chain tries so hard to find Gold, it's essence.  In the end it will always fail, as it cannot find what it is, it cannot become what it already is.  Chain has no existence of it's own - it is Gold which is the seeker and Gold which is the finder.  Chain cannot find anything - Gold finds that chain was only ever just a concept.

You are that one essence, that Brahman, that formlessness which IS form.  You are that now, without reading the next page of that spirituality book,without watching the next video or listening to the next talk.  Yet ironically until the idea of individual existence is eradicated, you remain trapped by your own ideas.  

This is the only bondage.  Maybe that's why Buddha was laughing.

Coming Home

We can only experience through Consciousness.

Consciousness IS experience.   As long as Consciousness continues to arise, experience will continue.  Once Consciousness ceases experience will cease.

However existence is not dependent upon experience.  Existence IS THAT which IS -that which IS, right this very moment, that which IS no matter what experience may hold.  

Enjoy experience as it comes - but if Consciousness never again arises, you are what you are.  You are not dependent on the arising of any experience - this is the essence of spiritual inquiry and realization.

Come to find out what is your true nature - when you realize an experience cannot capture your essence, that your essence remains while transient patterns come and go - then the spiritual search is over.

If experience never again returns, you are not affected.  You are THAT which IS.  That which IS, is not divided, not separate, not independent, not coming and going.

That which IS, appears through experience, manifests, plays, appears, patterns as what we call the world, experience... this mechanism called Consciousness is the capacity to know that pattern.

Don't be caught by the experience -understand the essence - that which IS - you are that essence - you cannot be anything transient, anything temporary - existence cannot start and stop.

Find your true nature as THAT which IS - that which EXISTS - existence cannot start anew, as something independent, as something with a separate substance or reality.

Dive into these ideas you have about your nature-  dive into the ideas you have and see if you can find any doubt about them - don't rely on anything but your own honesty, intelligence and inquiry.

You are the whole itself - that is all there is.  Patterns come and go yet you remain -you are that which IS - if you look deeply into this you will not find another existence beyond yourself.

Spirituality is simply coming home - returning to the certainty and ease of knowing that although the world may turn in transience - what-you-are is that FROM WHICH the world appears and THAT which remains when the world no longer takes shape.

When Consciousness no longer presents a world of goods and bads, when the experiences no longer arise and dissolve, what-you-are remains as the essence of all, the existence and intelligence which inquires of itself, inquires of it's true nature.  Realizing what-you-are, there is no longer a need to look any further - the world comes and goes while you remain as the essence, the wholeness, the essence itself - the source and foundation which cannot be a transient aspect, cannot come and go.

You are that which IS- that Brahman, that God, that Supreme Absolute - you are this already, you are this right now, as you struggle to find out what you are.  This is the natural intelligence at work - whittling away the identities at work and ending up with a realization that as the patterns come and go- what-you-are cannot cease to exist.  The ending of Consciousness is simply a closing of the show, a curtain call where the patterns make their last stand and fade away. 

What IS remains as it IS - you are THAT IS-ness, that existence - that wholeness or undivided nature which has unlimited potential to be anything yet is always already this very moment.