Did you begin? Are you a new and independent existence?
Can existence really begin anew? Is existence something that comes in individual servings?
These are questions that we must look into. So often we overlook this and seek to make our experiences different or better or more spiritual. This is missing the point, over and over and over...
Ring is Gold. No matter what ring is doing, it is only Gold doing it. Why? Because ring is a name or concept for Gold itself. We've given an expression of Gold a name- then we give that expression independence - really we give it independence of existence. We think that ring is a NEW existence apart from Gold.
But isn't Ring really just Gold? Isn't Ring really Gold-in-expression? If Ring has a bad day, didn't Gold really have a bad day? Can Ring do anything? Or isn't it Gold itself which has a good or bad day?
Can Ring realize that it is Gold? No. Gold realizes it was never just Ring. THAT which exists, realizes it was never something which never existed. Ring can't realize anything. If that ring is melted down, Gold remains. Gold can't end - but Ring can.
In the exact same way, YOU cannot end. That "ME" ends but WHAT the ME really IS cannot end. Spirituality is really diving into this idea of existence and finding out what that really means. If we truly do this, we will always come to the same conclusion or REALIZATION - I AM.
Ring cannot say I AM. Only Gold can say that.
Right now - is it Ring reading this, or is it Gold? Isn't it Gold, taking itself to be Ring? Isn't Realization really Gold seeing through that identity with Ring - finally remembering that Ring always is only Gold.
If you walk outside and look up at the sky, the clouds, the trees, hear the birds singing... is it ME that is there? Or is it Life that is really there? Present and aware? Isn't it Life that exists - experiencing itself through that experience we call "ME"?
3 comments:
Thank you and Happy Holydaze to you and yours, Dear Friend~ :-)
It is true beyond any doubt that it is life that exists and that is experiencing itself through "me". And while the "me" will pass, as all "things" do, and life/existence (what I am) will remain, that is not proof that life itself will at some point come to an end.
Believe me when I say I am screaming out for help.
Preston
Hi Preston,
I do understand where you are at. It reaches a point where it consumes you. I had the exact same concerns as you, and could not rest until I resolved them to my own satisfaction.
We have to determine what we're talking about when we use the term "Life". By that term we mean existence - that SOURCE FROM WHICH all comes and goes.
So I looked into any "thing" - a rock, a cloud, a sparrow fart... what ultimately IS THAT? What is the EXISTENCE or essence of that "Thing"?
I looked into quantum physics because I could not resolve it. In quantum physics I found that any form is really just an expression of energy - they say that nothing is ever created or destroyed - that its just a change of state. That was very powerful and really had nothing to do with "spirituality". But it seemed to validate what I was finding in spirituality.
If we look at any "thing" - what is the SOURCE of that "thing"? Obviously what it appears to be, to us, is relative to our ability to perceive it. There are many things we cannot perceive due to our limited senses. And what we perceive is also limited due to that particular sense - in other words I cannot hear sounds in a particular range although they are really there.
So this leads to a doubting of reality AS I PERCEIVE IT - it leads me to look deeper - to question my perceptions or my conscious experience as ABSOLUTE REALITY. Isn't this really what we do?
Then I questioned if those "Things" had individual sources or existences. When I looked - no matter what that "thing" was, it always led me back to one "thing" - one source - one essence. That essence is not another "Thing" of itself - that essence is really just a pure potentiality - an intelligence - a capacity - formless in itself and as such indescribable. Yet whatever THAT IS - it is inescapable because it is THAT FROM WHICH ALL COMES.
I was exactly like you, in that I wasn't able to take spirituality as gospel - I had to find out for myself. It is a particularly difficult path and can lead to sleepless nights! However I was able to come to an unassailable conclusion that there is really only one essence - that one essence is expressing as every "thing" - there really is no independence of existence but that independence is only in appearance - in experience.
This is called MithYA.
I later found that Vedanta was always pointing this out - in Vedanta I found validation of what I discovered independent of that traditional method.
Randall really is a name for the experience that Life is having - Life being THAT which IS - that SOURCE or essence which all "things" come from, that SOURCE INTO WHICH all "Things" return.
I hope this helps. You're welcome to write with any questions you might have.
love to you, my friend
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