Walking down the road at night, I look up at the stars.
They seem so far away, yet somehow I know they are very close.
Like I reach out with my eyes and touch them.
The sky is a warm blanket for my Being.
A warm sensation abounds, Life itself buzzing inside me.
Radiating light and energy, activating thought and motion.
From the tip of the head to the tip of the toe.
Life lies within the bundle of blankets I call "body".
Thinking of myself, I can't help but notice.
I've taken "me" to be a wall.
Yet with the sky so warm and Life so full.
I realize that I am a doorway.
I am an opening, vast and deep.
I give no resistance, no friction.
These sensations and warm coverings,
flow through me free and clear.
I am an absence, a void.
I hold no sway, stand no ground.
The warm sky is my very Being.
The light of Life my very Soul.
Writings on Nonduality and Vedanta from Randall Friend
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
The Built-In Defect
The key insight into the spiritual search, the built-in defect in the conceptual logic which has created the body-mind I AM and it's opposite - "world", the crack in the foundation, which has the potential to bring the entire conceptual edifice crashing down - is that the WORD IS NOT THE THING.
No word can describe the actuality. No thought can capture reality. No concept can ever pin down what IS.
The conceptual framework's existence depends on the ignoring or overlooking of this most basic fact - a "chair" cannot describe that thing. As Bob says, can the word "water" quench your thirst? Can the word "fire" burn you?
No - it is the experience that we know, not the concept. And that experience is conceptualized INTO something - into something separately existing, something with independent reality.
And the root assumption which this conceptualization depends on is the subject/object equation. "I" am hearing a "bird".
There is no "I" - "hearing" - a "bird" in direct, actual experience. This is a conceptual creation of immediate experience.
Pure experiencing is the actual fact and function of this moment. Prior to any conceptualization, prior to taking the WORD as the THING, pure experiencing is the only reality. The "I"-subject and the "bird"-object are only conceptual.
Pure hearing is the only reality - and that hearing contains both the hearer and the object heard - one reality.
Beyond that, hearing is still conceptualization which requires a "hearer". Take away that label and what is left?
THIS. Just THIS... no way to describe it, and without describing it there is no way to find any separation.
Separation has to be assumed. The subject/object equation has to be applied. Then the world, body and mind can be.
Once this primary FACT is clearly seen, the house of cards cannot stand for long.
No word can describe the actuality. No thought can capture reality. No concept can ever pin down what IS.
The conceptual framework's existence depends on the ignoring or overlooking of this most basic fact - a "chair" cannot describe that thing. As Bob says, can the word "water" quench your thirst? Can the word "fire" burn you?
No - it is the experience that we know, not the concept. And that experience is conceptualized INTO something - into something separately existing, something with independent reality.
And the root assumption which this conceptualization depends on is the subject/object equation. "I" am hearing a "bird".
There is no "I" - "hearing" - a "bird" in direct, actual experience. This is a conceptual creation of immediate experience.
Pure experiencing is the actual fact and function of this moment. Prior to any conceptualization, prior to taking the WORD as the THING, pure experiencing is the only reality. The "I"-subject and the "bird"-object are only conceptual.
Pure hearing is the only reality - and that hearing contains both the hearer and the object heard - one reality.
Beyond that, hearing is still conceptualization which requires a "hearer". Take away that label and what is left?
THIS. Just THIS... no way to describe it, and without describing it there is no way to find any separation.
Separation has to be assumed. The subject/object equation has to be applied. Then the world, body and mind can be.
Once this primary FACT is clearly seen, the house of cards cannot stand for long.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Is space conflicted?
Right now, there is a space of wakefulness which is obvious, maybe overlooked, but clearly obvious and present.
This space of wakefulness is the opening in which everything appears. Just look!
Not "over there" - don't try to force-fit awareness into an "outside object" - question the very concept of "over there"?
Within this immediate space, right here and now, comes sensations - body, thoughts, emotions, pain, happiness - within this space comes perceptions - trees and birds and trains and houses and dogs and cats...
Is there anything outside of this space? Does this space extend to "out there"? Is there really an "out there"? Where is that perception registering? Is that "wall" registering "over there" or right HERE?
The eyes which are seemingly the "seer" of these sights are themselves appearances IN this space!
The ears which are seemingly the "hearer" of these sounds are themselves appearances IN this space!
The thoughts and the "thinker" both appear as sensations in this space.
Any movement detected moves within the space.
Does the space move?
Any conflict endured comes and goes within this space.
Is the space conflicted?
Something remains prior to, beyond, as the ground or condition for all appearances. That "something" isn't hidden, isn't achieved, isn't learned. It's already fully present - Presence - wakefulness.
The perceptions of room, walls, the objects in the room, these words, the hands on the keyboard, the appearance of the screen, the sensation of breathing and heartbeat, the sensation of butt in the chair, the thoughts of confusion or clarity or apathy - all is presently arising and passing within this space.
It simply cannot be missed. It can be overlooked, ignored - yet this Presence, this opening, ground of Reality is the most intimate aspect of experience.
It is Beingness. It is what we really mean by "I".
Mental analysis of advaita pointers is an exercise in futility - missing the point. Simply stop and realize that no experience can possibly arise without this Opening of Knowing.
Anything gained, learned, achieved - will all be passing content and irrelevant. The space remains unaffected, not conflicted - not in need of anything - not able to lose anything.
You ARE the opening, the stage on which the World itself does it's dance called Lila, the screen on which Life sees itself, the nothingness from which everything has freedom to appear.
This space of wakefulness is the opening in which everything appears. Just look!
Not "over there" - don't try to force-fit awareness into an "outside object" - question the very concept of "over there"?
Within this immediate space, right here and now, comes sensations - body, thoughts, emotions, pain, happiness - within this space comes perceptions - trees and birds and trains and houses and dogs and cats...
Is there anything outside of this space? Does this space extend to "out there"? Is there really an "out there"? Where is that perception registering? Is that "wall" registering "over there" or right HERE?
The eyes which are seemingly the "seer" of these sights are themselves appearances IN this space!
The ears which are seemingly the "hearer" of these sounds are themselves appearances IN this space!
The thoughts and the "thinker" both appear as sensations in this space.
Any movement detected moves within the space.
Does the space move?
Any conflict endured comes and goes within this space.
Is the space conflicted?
Something remains prior to, beyond, as the ground or condition for all appearances. That "something" isn't hidden, isn't achieved, isn't learned. It's already fully present - Presence - wakefulness.
The perceptions of room, walls, the objects in the room, these words, the hands on the keyboard, the appearance of the screen, the sensation of breathing and heartbeat, the sensation of butt in the chair, the thoughts of confusion or clarity or apathy - all is presently arising and passing within this space.
It simply cannot be missed. It can be overlooked, ignored - yet this Presence, this opening, ground of Reality is the most intimate aspect of experience.
It is Beingness. It is what we really mean by "I".
Mental analysis of advaita pointers is an exercise in futility - missing the point. Simply stop and realize that no experience can possibly arise without this Opening of Knowing.
Anything gained, learned, achieved - will all be passing content and irrelevant. The space remains unaffected, not conflicted - not in need of anything - not able to lose anything.
You ARE the opening, the stage on which the World itself does it's dance called Lila, the screen on which Life sees itself, the nothingness from which everything has freedom to appear.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
"Is this a dream?"
Have you ever had something happen, something shocking or so unbelievable that you had to question, just for a moment, "am I dreaming?"
In this case, Reality seemed so "unreal" that we didn't believe it - we had to question Reality itself as it unfolded before us. So the question came - "is this a dream?"
Maybe we asked someone to pinch us, because we wanted to see if we would wake up. Yet that wasn't really a remedy because the person pinching would also have to be in the dream. The pain would be "dream pain".
As the odd sensation passed, maybe we were still left wondering if we, at some point, might wake up. For a while, we didn't look at the world in the same way - we looked with eyes of disbelief - all belief was suspended temporarily as we suspiciously looked upon everything as potentially "only a dream."
We really were lost because there wasn't anything we could do to PROVE that it was a dream, nowhere to go, nothing to seek out - every single thing we could find, every answer we could get, would be just more dream stuff. The only thing we could do was wait it out and see if we woke up from the dream.
There is something very telling in this type of episode. The fact that we might question Reality during the "waking state" as possibly a dream shows that there is something aware of both the "waking state" and "dream state" - something that knows the illusion of the dream while it's happening, and therefore knows the illusion of the waking state also.
That "something" is Consciousness.
Consciousness is prior to both of these states - aware of the unreality of the dream, aware of the assumption of Reality of the waking state. It is Consciousness that recognizes the unreality inherent in the dream - that's how that "state of illusion" is recognized as a possibility during the "waking state". That familiarity of feeling "is this a dream" comes from Consciousness, the presence which is aware of both states.
Asking "is this a dream" shows that there is a familiarity with the fact that a dream is an illusion, knowingly, while it's happening. The same is true for the "waking state" - although Consciousness is aware it's an illusion while it's happening, it's "willingly" playing along, just as it does in the dream, willingly participating through identification with the body, all the while never unaware that Consciousness is the very essence or substance of both the dream and the "waking".
Therefore when that shocking situation is happening, it's so unreal that the usual groundwork of assumptions in place to keep the "waking state" as real are shaken. At this point the dream character, the person you take yourself to be, is directly challenged. If you say "is this a dream" you directly and purposely negate that very "individual" you've identified with. You have to. At that point you seriously doubt the reality of the individual self. Isn't that the case?
And if you can seriously question the reality of the individual self, how solid is it? How Real is it? If it can be directly challenged it must not be the unquestionable Reality you thought it was. Even though it seems to be operating as usual during the "waking state", that very presence of an individual, separate self is actually KNOWN to be a mechanism, a thought process, a belief structure only. The entire assumed Reality of the "waking state" depends on this belief of an individual ME.
But it isn't "you" questioning this - it's Consciousness questioning it's own display - Consciousness is the "dreamer" - the "you", the individual, the dream character, is ultimately known to be a passing "state".
And in the dream, we don't get up and walk around, being chased and winning the lottery and finding monsters and all other "dream stories" - we simply lie on our pillow and the dream unfolds, AS Reality, made up of nothing but Consciousness. The substance of the dream itself IS Consciousness. All objects in the dream are MADE OF that pure subjective Consciousness.
And if these "objects" are MADE OF Consciousness in the dream, if this "dream situation" is so much like the "waking state" that we may, at times, question if the "waking state" IS a dream, then there must be no difference between the actual experience in either "state". In the "waking state", so-called "objects" are MADE OF Consciousness also. The "objects" are nothing but that pure subjectivity itself - the knowing Consciousness which is, at all times, prior to both the "waking" and "dream" state.
If allowed to permeate, if the usual intellectual "blocks" don't immediately come up to apply knowledge, to directly contradict actual experience, it may become clear and obvious that the "objects" in the waking state are actually nothing BUT this "subjectivity" - nothing BUT this Consciousness, just like a dream.
What is the real difference, then, between the "waking" and "dream" states? At this point, the boundary betweeen "waking" and "dreaming" starts to become transparent. As the mental, conceptual difference between the two is seen to be merely an idea, a belief, Reality begins to shine without obstruction. Reality is apparent as the obviousness that - we don't know what the Hell EITHER state is - we don't know WHAT is dream and what is waking - we don't know - we just "make believe" - make belief - belief is the only difference between the two "states".
Belief is the only factor which separates "dreaming" and "waking". And who is the "believer" when the individual is only an appearance in both states? Belief is simply the mechanism in play as Consciousness veils itself FROM itself. It's sometimes called "lila."
So the statement "you are dreaming" isn't speaking to the individual "you" - this "you" isn't dreaming, this "you" is an appearance in the dream. The "YOU" being referred to is Consciousness. Consciousness is dreaming a "you".
So right now are "you" reading a blog? Or are you dreaming? With honesty, how certain can you ever be?
In this case, Reality seemed so "unreal" that we didn't believe it - we had to question Reality itself as it unfolded before us. So the question came - "is this a dream?"
Maybe we asked someone to pinch us, because we wanted to see if we would wake up. Yet that wasn't really a remedy because the person pinching would also have to be in the dream. The pain would be "dream pain".
As the odd sensation passed, maybe we were still left wondering if we, at some point, might wake up. For a while, we didn't look at the world in the same way - we looked with eyes of disbelief - all belief was suspended temporarily as we suspiciously looked upon everything as potentially "only a dream."
We really were lost because there wasn't anything we could do to PROVE that it was a dream, nowhere to go, nothing to seek out - every single thing we could find, every answer we could get, would be just more dream stuff. The only thing we could do was wait it out and see if we woke up from the dream.
There is something very telling in this type of episode. The fact that we might question Reality during the "waking state" as possibly a dream shows that there is something aware of both the "waking state" and "dream state" - something that knows the illusion of the dream while it's happening, and therefore knows the illusion of the waking state also.
That "something" is Consciousness.
Consciousness is prior to both of these states - aware of the unreality of the dream, aware of the assumption of Reality of the waking state. It is Consciousness that recognizes the unreality inherent in the dream - that's how that "state of illusion" is recognized as a possibility during the "waking state". That familiarity of feeling "is this a dream" comes from Consciousness, the presence which is aware of both states.
Asking "is this a dream" shows that there is a familiarity with the fact that a dream is an illusion, knowingly, while it's happening. The same is true for the "waking state" - although Consciousness is aware it's an illusion while it's happening, it's "willingly" playing along, just as it does in the dream, willingly participating through identification with the body, all the while never unaware that Consciousness is the very essence or substance of both the dream and the "waking".
Therefore when that shocking situation is happening, it's so unreal that the usual groundwork of assumptions in place to keep the "waking state" as real are shaken. At this point the dream character, the person you take yourself to be, is directly challenged. If you say "is this a dream" you directly and purposely negate that very "individual" you've identified with. You have to. At that point you seriously doubt the reality of the individual self. Isn't that the case?
And if you can seriously question the reality of the individual self, how solid is it? How Real is it? If it can be directly challenged it must not be the unquestionable Reality you thought it was. Even though it seems to be operating as usual during the "waking state", that very presence of an individual, separate self is actually KNOWN to be a mechanism, a thought process, a belief structure only. The entire assumed Reality of the "waking state" depends on this belief of an individual ME.
But it isn't "you" questioning this - it's Consciousness questioning it's own display - Consciousness is the "dreamer" - the "you", the individual, the dream character, is ultimately known to be a passing "state".
And in the dream, we don't get up and walk around, being chased and winning the lottery and finding monsters and all other "dream stories" - we simply lie on our pillow and the dream unfolds, AS Reality, made up of nothing but Consciousness. The substance of the dream itself IS Consciousness. All objects in the dream are MADE OF that pure subjective Consciousness.
And if these "objects" are MADE OF Consciousness in the dream, if this "dream situation" is so much like the "waking state" that we may, at times, question if the "waking state" IS a dream, then there must be no difference between the actual experience in either "state". In the "waking state", so-called "objects" are MADE OF Consciousness also. The "objects" are nothing but that pure subjectivity itself - the knowing Consciousness which is, at all times, prior to both the "waking" and "dream" state.
If allowed to permeate, if the usual intellectual "blocks" don't immediately come up to apply knowledge, to directly contradict actual experience, it may become clear and obvious that the "objects" in the waking state are actually nothing BUT this "subjectivity" - nothing BUT this Consciousness, just like a dream.
What is the real difference, then, between the "waking" and "dream" states? At this point, the boundary betweeen "waking" and "dreaming" starts to become transparent. As the mental, conceptual difference between the two is seen to be merely an idea, a belief, Reality begins to shine without obstruction. Reality is apparent as the obviousness that - we don't know what the Hell EITHER state is - we don't know WHAT is dream and what is waking - we don't know - we just "make believe" - make belief - belief is the only difference between the two "states".
Belief is the only factor which separates "dreaming" and "waking". And who is the "believer" when the individual is only an appearance in both states? Belief is simply the mechanism in play as Consciousness veils itself FROM itself. It's sometimes called "lila."
So the statement "you are dreaming" isn't speaking to the individual "you" - this "you" isn't dreaming, this "you" is an appearance in the dream. The "YOU" being referred to is Consciousness. Consciousness is dreaming a "you".
So right now are "you" reading a blog? Or are you dreaming? With honesty, how certain can you ever be?
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Head-on Collision with Mystery
If we don't use concepts, assumptions, beliefs, associations, abstractions, labels... if we simply look without any overlay at what IS, right now, what is here?
How can you say? The moment we speak of it, think of it - we're already quantifying and qualifying it in some way. And inherently these quantifications/qualifications ASSUME their opposite, something "other".
The first assumption is "I AM". From this pure perspective of naked awareness, the first assumption to come in is "I AM" - I am looking. I am sitting here looking out and trying not to quantify or qualify. I am doing this or that. I Am.
From that very first assumption, the world is assumed. Because if there is a ME "in here" there must be a WORLD - "out there".
Yet we may see this initial spark of mind is on top of or added on to the already-present pure naked awareness - it happens "within" awareness - it comes and goes within this consciousness which never passes and never changes.
And from there the spark ignites the rest of the concepts we have about ourselves - I am in a body. I am thinking. I am in the world, separate and alone. I am seeking to know the Truth.
None of these are true.
This mental fireworks show is learned. It's conditioned. It's a way to make sense out of the inherently unknowable. Direct Reality is pure Mystery. Knowledge is illusion.
There is literally nothing that is known for certain, except the certainty of presence. Something is present - that "presence" is One - only separated into "things" by this process of conceptualization, starting with the first spark of "I AM".
It's a head-on collision with Mystery. And what remains of the wreckage? Pure Nondual and Timeless Being, untouched, unshakable Peace.
If you were born right this very moment, what could affect that Peace?
How can you say? The moment we speak of it, think of it - we're already quantifying and qualifying it in some way. And inherently these quantifications/qualifications ASSUME their opposite, something "other".
The first assumption is "I AM". From this pure perspective of naked awareness, the first assumption to come in is "I AM" - I am looking. I am sitting here looking out and trying not to quantify or qualify. I am doing this or that. I Am.
From that very first assumption, the world is assumed. Because if there is a ME "in here" there must be a WORLD - "out there".
Yet we may see this initial spark of mind is on top of or added on to the already-present pure naked awareness - it happens "within" awareness - it comes and goes within this consciousness which never passes and never changes.
And from there the spark ignites the rest of the concepts we have about ourselves - I am in a body. I am thinking. I am in the world, separate and alone. I am seeking to know the Truth.
None of these are true.
This mental fireworks show is learned. It's conditioned. It's a way to make sense out of the inherently unknowable. Direct Reality is pure Mystery. Knowledge is illusion.
There is literally nothing that is known for certain, except the certainty of presence. Something is present - that "presence" is One - only separated into "things" by this process of conceptualization, starting with the first spark of "I AM".
It's a head-on collision with Mystery. And what remains of the wreckage? Pure Nondual and Timeless Being, untouched, unshakable Peace.
If you were born right this very moment, what could affect that Peace?
Friday, March 6, 2009
Truth dissolves YOU
Q: Hello again. I am at the end of my rope here. I just want to find the truth. I have been seeking for years and have found great resonance in your writings, but I just can't seem to get the answer. It always seems to evade me. It seems that the answer is right on the tip of my tongue or mind but there is some kind of cloud or block to reaching it. I am hoping you might say a few things to push me over the edge.
A: When the mirage in the road fails to be water, when the fear in the rope fails to be a snake, what is changed? The illusion falls away naturally. What really happened? Nothing. The falseness is seen and reality shines - it isn't created out of effort - it shines because the cloud of falseness vanished in understanding the illusion.
The illusion of a separate individual seeker prevents the shining of Reality - it is like trying to get out of a chinese finger lock by pulling harder. The harder you pull, the tighter it gets. The only solution is to stop trying.
Yet the seeker can never stop trying - that desire for Truth will come as a possession, a drive, an earnestness.... I MUST to know the Truth... so the lock tightens and tightens, ever resulting in frustration...
As the constant dead ends are encountered, as the mouse-mind bangs it's head in the corner over and over and over, eventually the search is exhausted... there is literally nowhere else to look, nothing else to read, nothing more to analyze... the very fact of trying assumes the one who wants to know, the one who wants to succeed in the search.
The very search itself perpetuates the illusion that there is a seeker, a separate individual seeking. Yet we just can't STOP! If we stop, what then? Will I NEVER find the answers?
We will never find the answers because no "seeker" can find an answer. The answer is the end of the seeker.
You can never find Truth. Truth dissolves YOU.
A: When the mirage in the road fails to be water, when the fear in the rope fails to be a snake, what is changed? The illusion falls away naturally. What really happened? Nothing. The falseness is seen and reality shines - it isn't created out of effort - it shines because the cloud of falseness vanished in understanding the illusion.
The illusion of a separate individual seeker prevents the shining of Reality - it is like trying to get out of a chinese finger lock by pulling harder. The harder you pull, the tighter it gets. The only solution is to stop trying.
Yet the seeker can never stop trying - that desire for Truth will come as a possession, a drive, an earnestness.... I MUST to know the Truth... so the lock tightens and tightens, ever resulting in frustration...
As the constant dead ends are encountered, as the mouse-mind bangs it's head in the corner over and over and over, eventually the search is exhausted... there is literally nowhere else to look, nothing else to read, nothing more to analyze... the very fact of trying assumes the one who wants to know, the one who wants to succeed in the search.
The very search itself perpetuates the illusion that there is a seeker, a separate individual seeking. Yet we just can't STOP! If we stop, what then? Will I NEVER find the answers?
We will never find the answers because no "seeker" can find an answer. The answer is the end of the seeker.
You can never find Truth. Truth dissolves YOU.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
The World Is You
How can the ME come about without something prior? The person you have taken yourself to be must have come due to something else. To what can we attribute this appearance?
What mechanism is functioning?
Is the sense of being a person an innate function? Is the knowledge "I AM" an intuitive sense or is it learned?
Isn't the idea of being a person separated from the world by a skin boundary and functioning through the intellect - isn't this a learned idea?
Isn't the true intuitive sense simply a knowledge of existence which precedes this "I AM-ness"?
Isn't this intuitive knowledge of existence later translated in thought as "I AM"?
Then see that this root "I AM-ness" is added on to - abstracted in concept as I AM a person, I AM good, I AM bad, I AM seeking, I AM suffering...
If we act from the assumption that I AM seeking, we are already moving from the first platform of illusion, already assuming that there is someone to seek. Then that seeker must find the answers. All spiritual seeking is done this way.
We are still standing on the first platform of illusion - someone seeking, someone needing Enlightenment.
The first platform is I AM - find out what this most basic premise is.
It is simply a misplaced identification with sensations and perceptions, which is ALL we ever know about anything. We don't really know anything at all - we only think we do.
Sensations and perceptions are flowing constantly - we call it vision, touch, taste, smell, hearing. Even the presence of senses are an abstraction - we don't have any direct experience of senses - this is only knowledge which has come to us to explain the input.
Sensations and perceptions come but we really don't know what they are. We later conceptualize them and then can communicate - yet we don't pause long enough to look at the very fact that everything we know comes this way, as raw perceptions, sensations.
The body you know so well is nothing but a bundle of sensations. How else can you know it? How else can the mind eventually conceptualize it as "my body"?
See that this conceptualization process is where the very idea of a body is created. Thoughts are also nothing but a sensation.
Every single BIT of knowledge is nothing but a conceptualization of something which we have NO IDEA what it is. We are truly and already stuck in abject poverty of knowledge. Already. Yet we seek comfort through concepts, through constructed knowledge of these "things", these sensations and perceptions.
Simply take a look - do you really know anything except passing, flowing sensations, perceptions? Can you see that these are then conceptualized into something different, something separate, something owned, something good or bad, something here and not there?
The "first" point to see is that the entire world and the "person" you have taken yourself to be, is an entirely conceptual story - a creation of mind - even mind or thoughts are known in this way - even thoughts are only sensations conceptualized as "thoughts", then as "MY thoughts", then "that thought was good, this thought is bad."
Once this is seen clearly, allowed to shine, we come to a point of realization - EVERYTHING known is primarily nothing but raw experience, raw data, raw sensations and perceptions - the entire bank of knowledge, the world as we know it, is a dream of mind.
The "next" point that comes spontaneously is that these "sensations and perceptions" don't have duration or distance - they appear RIGHT HERE - RIGHT NOW - right ON this screen of awareness - the "mountain" and the "thought" appear in exactly the same "place" - register ON this mirror...
And if that is clear, then it's extremely obvious that the very awareness on which they register cannot be different from the sensations and perceptions - the objects IN the mirror are MADE OF mirror. The appearances are MADE OF that Consciousness in which they appear.
That Consciousness or Knowingness or Intelligence or God has simply taken the shape of the world through the conceptualizing power of mind. The play of Lila.
No "out there" and "in here" - no "over there" - no separate "things" - no ME separate of the WORLD.
The WORLD - IS YOU.
What mechanism is functioning?
Is the sense of being a person an innate function? Is the knowledge "I AM" an intuitive sense or is it learned?
Isn't the idea of being a person separated from the world by a skin boundary and functioning through the intellect - isn't this a learned idea?
Isn't the true intuitive sense simply a knowledge of existence which precedes this "I AM-ness"?
Isn't this intuitive knowledge of existence later translated in thought as "I AM"?
Then see that this root "I AM-ness" is added on to - abstracted in concept as I AM a person, I AM good, I AM bad, I AM seeking, I AM suffering...
If we act from the assumption that I AM seeking, we are already moving from the first platform of illusion, already assuming that there is someone to seek. Then that seeker must find the answers. All spiritual seeking is done this way.
We are still standing on the first platform of illusion - someone seeking, someone needing Enlightenment.
The first platform is I AM - find out what this most basic premise is.
It is simply a misplaced identification with sensations and perceptions, which is ALL we ever know about anything. We don't really know anything at all - we only think we do.
Sensations and perceptions are flowing constantly - we call it vision, touch, taste, smell, hearing. Even the presence of senses are an abstraction - we don't have any direct experience of senses - this is only knowledge which has come to us to explain the input.
Sensations and perceptions come but we really don't know what they are. We later conceptualize them and then can communicate - yet we don't pause long enough to look at the very fact that everything we know comes this way, as raw perceptions, sensations.
The body you know so well is nothing but a bundle of sensations. How else can you know it? How else can the mind eventually conceptualize it as "my body"?
See that this conceptualization process is where the very idea of a body is created. Thoughts are also nothing but a sensation.
Every single BIT of knowledge is nothing but a conceptualization of something which we have NO IDEA what it is. We are truly and already stuck in abject poverty of knowledge. Already. Yet we seek comfort through concepts, through constructed knowledge of these "things", these sensations and perceptions.
Simply take a look - do you really know anything except passing, flowing sensations, perceptions? Can you see that these are then conceptualized into something different, something separate, something owned, something good or bad, something here and not there?
The "first" point to see is that the entire world and the "person" you have taken yourself to be, is an entirely conceptual story - a creation of mind - even mind or thoughts are known in this way - even thoughts are only sensations conceptualized as "thoughts", then as "MY thoughts", then "that thought was good, this thought is bad."
Once this is seen clearly, allowed to shine, we come to a point of realization - EVERYTHING known is primarily nothing but raw experience, raw data, raw sensations and perceptions - the entire bank of knowledge, the world as we know it, is a dream of mind.
The "next" point that comes spontaneously is that these "sensations and perceptions" don't have duration or distance - they appear RIGHT HERE - RIGHT NOW - right ON this screen of awareness - the "mountain" and the "thought" appear in exactly the same "place" - register ON this mirror...
And if that is clear, then it's extremely obvious that the very awareness on which they register cannot be different from the sensations and perceptions - the objects IN the mirror are MADE OF mirror. The appearances are MADE OF that Consciousness in which they appear.
That Consciousness or Knowingness or Intelligence or God has simply taken the shape of the world through the conceptualizing power of mind. The play of Lila.
No "out there" and "in here" - no "over there" - no separate "things" - no ME separate of the WORLD.
The WORLD - IS YOU.
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