Saturday, November 19, 2011

Ananda

The only point to this spiritual search, really the point to any of these pointers, is that you are the reality.  You are the only thing that is self-evident, self-existent.  Everything else is only evident due to consciousness.  It becomes known to you through some means of knowledge, perception, inference, etc.  You do not become known due to any means of knowledge.  Nothing is required for you to become aware of yourself or to come to know yourself.  You are already self-evident.

Therefore our task is to find out what it is that is self-evident.  We can start by eliminating all that is known due to some means of knowledge - the world, the trees, the sky, the desk, the chair, the feet, the breath, the sensations, the thoughts, the idea of what you are, the various imaginations about what you are, your roles in life, etc.  Included in this are all feelings, thoughts, emotions, perceptions, sensations, ideas, etc.  Every bit of this is known TO you via some means of knowledge.

What is left?  What is always there but you don't need some means of knowledge to know that it's there?  What is present now but isn't known via perception, inference, logic, etc.?

Isn't it your Self?  Aren't you that which is the obvious presence, no matter what the situation is, no matter what the experience is, no matter what time or place, no matter what thoughts are going on or what the body is doing?  Aren't you that presence of presence, that subjectivity we call "I" which is only subjective - meaning it isn't objective at all - it isn't KNOWN via some means, therefore it doesn't have attributes to speak of - no way to describe it or experience it.

It is the experienc-ING, yes?  The presence of knowing - that immediacy which is there BEFORE any means of knowledge can be effective.

So right here and now, what you are is not anything perceivable, conceivable, knowable.  It is not anything which is in flux, not anything which is changing states, not anything which is coming and going.  It is the constant fact of Being/Knowing - not objective just present - not describable - not findable yet never missing - the very foundation of any experience, any state, any thought, any idea, any feeling.

Therefore any experience, any state, any thought, any idea, any feeling is ok as it is - you are the foundation, the reality behind it, the only part of it that is real, the only part of it that is self-evident and doesn't rely ON the experience, ON the state, ON the thought or idea or feeling to BE.  That means all experiences are ok as they are - they don't need to be changed - they don't require manipulation to be complete.

You are that completeness - that fullness.  Vedanta calls it Ananda.  You are that without even trying to be.

No comments: