What is real never was born nor dies, never changes, does not come and go.
What is real can never be negated or denied.
What is unreal does not exist.
What changes, what was born and dies, what comes and goes, is unreal.
The world, the body, the thoughts - all these change, come and go, are born and die. All these can be negated, even the knowledge of them is subject to change.
What is the only thing that can never be negated? What is the only thing in a lifetime of experience that has never changed?
It is YOU. Your Self. You have never changed, you have never come and gone. You are the Reality while the world, body and thoughts come and go as appearance.
You are that to which appearance comes and goes. You are that reality which IS while the world, body and thoughts are only appearance.
Your relationship to the world, body and thoughts is that of awareness of them. They come and go because you are PRESENT and AWARE.
Therefore the world, body and mind are nothing BUT the EXPERIENCING of them. The experiencing of the world, body and mind IS what we "call" awareness. They are not separate things that you are aware OF. The very experience itself IS Awareness.
There is no experience vs. experiencing. These are one and the same reality, always.
Therefore the world, body and thoughts are apparent comings and goings OF your Self. Before you called it "world, body, and thoughts", it had no label of separate-ness. Before you called it "experience" it had no separate-ness.
It is only the habitual concept which seems to bind. Therefore the only liberation is seeing the concept as unreal, as learned, as not actual.
How do you come to see or realize this? Allow that, maybe for the first time, to be the subject of inquiry. Don't assume it's already true and then use it as a platform from which to inquiry. Inquire into the nature of the foundation itself.
What comes and goes is not real. You are the only thing that never comes and goes, throughout a lifetime of experience. Find out what it is that never changes.
6 comments:
Ha Randall,
My favourite verse of the Bhagavadgītā is:
nāsato vidyate bhāvo
nābhāvo vidyate sataḥ
ubhayor api dṛṣṭo'ntas tv
anayos tattvadarśibhiḥ (2.16)
translating as:
The unreal is not existent and the Real is not non-existent, the condition of these two has been seen by those who can see Reality.
I love it because it points to what's right in our face--from which the pointer itself emerges--while it remains invisible at the same time.
Reality is where the invisible and the visible merge. Reality is not in things, which come and go and therefore cannot be real by themselves. Yet Reality, because it is not a thing, cannot be seen or known. So where is it? Reality is that which is, the unreal is that which isn't. It is never born and never dies, or perhaps it is ever born and ever dies.
Reality is so real: how could one miss it? But again, just like Reality, I have never been able to find Space, although this things is bloody everywhere.
What an insanity we're been put through! :)
Benjamin,
Hello my friend. Good to hear from you.
Yes, very nicely put. "Reality is not in things, which come and go and therefore cannot be real by themselves."
It is this "real by themselves" which is the key - not standing alone, not independent, not separate - expressions OF, forms OF.
The world of things is not real absolutely - yet we take it as such. In fact that is our very definition OF reality - that appearance IS absolute.
As you said, how could we miss Reality? Only we take it as a world of things, and you are just one small limited thing-among-things.
The only solution is to realize that this has always been incorrect.
I have been looking non-stop for years and cannot find that which never changes. I think I find it, and then that changes, and then I think it's something else. I see that I am not the body or the thoughts. I see that the I is just a thought. I see that there is no chooser or thinker or I, but I keep looking. I have looked at myself/subjectivity/awareness/being/consciousness/the world/this/that in every way possible, inside, outside, within, without, beneath, on top, prior to, after... At this point, I honestly have no idea what I am, and it is very frustrating. I have no peace or joy. This search consumes my life. Can you help me?
Tim,
Can you, as a limited thing which changes, find that which never changes? How would you identify it? To identify it, it must have some sort of attribute, some shape, size, color, dimensions. Yet these attributes necessarily define some "Thing" which changes. Therefore what you are seeking has no attributes. If it has no attributes, it is not objective.
What has no attributes and is not objective?
YOU. You are the subject of all experiences. All the while in searching FOR it, it was YOU which you were searching for. You were here all along, only you are not something which changes therefore you are not findable, locatable. Yet you are the most intimate and obvious aspect of ALL experiences.
You are that quality present in any experience which never changes. You cannot FIND it, you can only BE THAT. And since you already ARE THAT there is nothing really to do except realize that you are that.
From the perspective of the world, you are no-thing - you are the formless witness of the world, body and mind.
Yet the world, body and mind are only forms - forms of one essence. That essence is intelligence itself - manifesting as the world, body and mind as long as Consciousness is the means of knowledge. You cannot be located within this manifestation - you ARE that intelligence itself, knowing itself through this prism called "Tim".
Life is aware of itself, right this very instant, before the next thought about it comes. Life is looking out the eyes, so to speak, looking at itself, at it's own manifestation. You are Life. The totality. The whole.
You are that right now. Therefore it is only a false idea you have about yourself. The solution is to correct that idea. Correction only ever comes from seeing it for yourself, seeing the falseness of the idea.
Help can be given but there must be openness. Otherwise it is effectively futile. You are welcome to email and arrange a skype call.
love
randall
Tim (if you allow me Randall),
You said: "At this point, I honestly have no idea what I am, and it is very frustrating."
You already have your answer in this sentence. There are two parts to this frustration: One the one side you cannot find a satisfying answer, and the other hand you have a need to find a satisfying answer. Out of this contention is born frustration.
Now you have looked carefully at what you are / are not. How about looking at this desire to find a fixed and durable identity? If you observe this desire: is it what you are? And if that too happens to be fleeting like everything you have seen so far: what urges you to answer this call?
Suppose this desire wasn't existent, could your mind be at peace with "not knowing"?
Take care,
B.
Haha, this isn't directly related to this post, but I had to say I enjoyed your jokes at the end of your second life meeting.
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