From a site visitor: Hello. I’m pretty new to Advaita Vedanta but it seems to have some answers to some things I could not find anywhere else. But I’m confused over two different messages. I’m been reading some talks and the advice was to “stay with the I AM” or “focus only on the I AM.” Then I listened to a tape and the man said something like, “It is the I AM THAT which knows the peace and it is the I AM that knows the discomfort.” I don’t get it. Can you explain?
F.: No explanation can be given for anything said that was “something like.” The exact words would have to be provided, but this can be offered: either you’re misquoting the man on the tape or a point is being taken out of context or the speaker is mistaken. Why? The I AM THAT knows nothing. THAT, the pool of energy from which consciousness can cycle into manifestation, contains no Self or Selves by way of which anything can be known. Contrary to the message offered by those trapped in the learned ignorance of Level Three religion or spirituality, there is no "knower" in that Absolute. If the energy remains in that pool of energy from which energy has the potential to manifest (but has not yet manifested) then no Self exists that can know anything via consciousness. It is only the purified consciousness during the period of I-AMness that can understand THAT…the Absolute. Secondly, it is suspected that you’re misquoting the man because the I AM does not "know discomfort." Abidance in the I AM eliminates discomfort, and that is the logic behind suggesting to beginners that they “stay with the I AM” or “focus only on the I AM.”
Discomfort happens whenever the words “I am” are followed by a label: “I am…an employee”; “I am…a spouse”; “I am…a homeowner.” Discomfort comes in those cases because the false identity in each case generates desires and fears. “Employee” cannot exist without employment, so the job is desired in order to perpetuate that assumed ego-state. Yet even the unaware know that everything in this relative existence is transitory, so fear also manifests as the “employee” knows that a job can end at any time. “Spouse” must have “spouse” to survive and “homeowner” must keep the home in order to survive, but statistics show that a spouse is more likely to leave than stay and that homes never last forever. Awareness of those facts can generate more desires and more fears. Also, the hope that assumed personas can be guaranteed continuity will also lead to unmet desires and to perceived fears. Such is the dis-ease of living in the illusion of "I am this" or "I am that." Discomfort does not happen to one abiding in the “I AM.” Abiding in the I AM is about merely being, not about "being this" or "being that." To merely be during the manifestation of the consciousness is perfectly comfortable.
In the Void or Nothingness of mere beingness, an all-pervasive sense of well-being happens. To “stay with the I AM” is to stay in that state of beingness and is to avoid adding any object after that phrase that would lead to the assumption of a false identity (which, in turn, would lead to the desires and fears that always accompany the assumption of a false identity). Staying with the I AM leads to an elimination of belief in the false “I” (Latin, “ego”); therefore, staying in the I AM leads to relaxing into a state of "innocence" (such as the state of Child Ignorance where no learned spiritual or religious ignorance is driving personas) as opposed to a relative existence marred by ego-aggression.
F.: No explanation can be given for anything said that was “something like.” The exact words would have to be provided, but this can be offered: either you’re misquoting the man on the tape or a point is being taken out of context or the speaker is mistaken. Why? The I AM THAT knows nothing. THAT, the pool of energy from which consciousness can cycle into manifestation, contains no Self or Selves by way of which anything can be known. Contrary to the message offered by those trapped in the learned ignorance of Level Three religion or spirituality, there is no "knower" in that Absolute. If the energy remains in that pool of energy from which energy has the potential to manifest (but has not yet manifested) then no Self exists that can know anything via consciousness. It is only the purified consciousness during the period of I-AMness that can understand THAT…the Absolute. Secondly, it is suspected that you’re misquoting the man because the I AM does not "know discomfort." Abidance in the I AM eliminates discomfort, and that is the logic behind suggesting to beginners that they “stay with the I AM” or “focus only on the I AM.”
Discomfort happens whenever the words “I am” are followed by a label: “I am…an employee”; “I am…a spouse”; “I am…a homeowner.” Discomfort comes in those cases because the false identity in each case generates desires and fears. “Employee” cannot exist without employment, so the job is desired in order to perpetuate that assumed ego-state. Yet even the unaware know that everything in this relative existence is transitory, so fear also manifests as the “employee” knows that a job can end at any time. “Spouse” must have “spouse” to survive and “homeowner” must keep the home in order to survive, but statistics show that a spouse is more likely to leave than stay and that homes never last forever. Awareness of those facts can generate more desires and more fears. Also, the hope that assumed personas can be guaranteed continuity will also lead to unmet desires and to perceived fears. Such is the dis-ease of living in the illusion of "I am this" or "I am that." Discomfort does not happen to one abiding in the “I AM.” Abiding in the I AM is about merely being, not about "being this" or "being that." To merely be during the manifestation of the consciousness is perfectly comfortable.
In the Void or Nothingness of mere beingness, an all-pervasive sense of well-being happens. To “stay with the I AM” is to stay in that state of beingness and is to avoid adding any object after that phrase that would lead to the assumption of a false identity (which, in turn, would lead to the desires and fears that always accompany the assumption of a false identity). Staying with the I AM leads to an elimination of belief in the false “I” (Latin, “ego”); therefore, staying in the I AM leads to relaxing into a state of "innocence" (such as the state of Child Ignorance where no learned spiritual or religious ignorance is driving personas) as opposed to a relative existence marred by ego-aggression.
I AM suggests no identity. It is merely what happens when the re-purified consciousness knows that it IS during the period of manifestation. The notion that “I am this role” or “I am that role” triggers the belief in dualities, but the re-purified consciousness—by contrast—understands that there is no duality implied in the “I AM THAT; I AM” expression. The duality of believing in (1) an “I” and in (2) its assumed roles and false identities leads to a sense of discontinuity, to a nagging sense of being torn away from Self, and to feeling ripped to pieces. Trapped by falsely identifying with multiple roles that are engaged in the “ego activity” of trying to preserve them “selves,” personas will suffer that sensation of “being in pieces” rather than knowing the peace and the sense of wholeness that comes with an understanding of the unicity.
The non-Realized can proclaim, “I am experiencing a disconnection with myself” without even understanding the actual implication of the statement. What is really being expressed is the point that the "I" (specifically, "the false self that I take to be me") is totally unaware of that True Self that I AM. As a result of that lack of awareness, persons will inevitably experience trauma, more false-self development, more concern with the inevitable non-existence of body-mind-personality, and will thereby be more and more concerned with what persons take to be the “primal catastrophe.” Trapped in their limited identification with the physical body, the fictitious “mind” and their phony personalities, persons believe that it is a "catastrophe" when the elements return to the universal pool of elements, when the breath rejoins the pool of universal air, and when the conscious-energy is released from the space and reenters the pool of universal energy. As a result, the non-Realized never escape their fear of death and their desire for continuity. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be concluded tomorrow]
