[Continued from yesterday] Question #2. What is the essence of the semicolon in "I Am That; I Am?"
F.: The Original Understanding had no names or concepts attached, but enculturation began to warp the pure conscious-energy and teachers, in response, began to try to convey the Understanding in order to re-purify the consciousness. At that point, certain concepts began to be used, one of which was “I AM THAT; I AM.” (All concepts, even Advaitan concepts, are like thorns used to eliminate thorns. Use the concepts to remove all concepts, and then toss them all.) Thus, the non-duality teachings came to be summarized in the expression “I AM THAT; I AM” in order to allow programmed and conditioned persons to understand the main premise: THAT which is unmanifested and THAT which is manifested may appear to be two but are really “not two.” To know that, to know What You Are, is to be free all false identities (which are the source of all misery.)
The Original Understanding was lost as a result of controlling men coming up with concepts to control persons—to control their bodies and “minds” and behavior. With that emphasis, persons became convinced that they were their bodies and minds and personalities…that they were all the roles and personas assumed and being played. Then as cults and pagan religions evolved into modern religions and spiritual movements, persons became convinced that they were their bodies and minds and personas not only in “this life” but in another life…forever. Insanity—being out of touch with Reality—became the new “norm.” As persons sensed at some level that THAT which They Are cannot be destroyed, that sensation mistakenly gave credibility to the misunderstandings and false teachings. They did not understand that it is energy which cannot be created nor destroyed. Next, persons were told that not only would they “last forever” but that they had been “created,” so they developed more and more a sense of duality: “I am these things now” (all the roles being played) and “later I will be all of those things: an angel, a soul, a god, a worshipper, a cow, a whatever,” ad infinitum.
To restore the Original Understanding and eliminate the lies of duality being assumed to be truth, the early teachers in what would be called “Asia” and “India” used the term “I AM THAT; I AM” thousands of years ago to show that there is no duality. The semicolon made clear that, though teachers and protégés could discuss two “aspects” of one thing, persons should understand that those are “not two.” There is the potential energy THAT. Then there is THAT which—when moved from “storage” and then manifested—can be conscious of itself and know I AM. Yet the energy is the same energy whether “stored” or “in motion.” The perceived “difference” results only from the “condition” of the conscious-energy: pure when unmanifested and when first manifested; corrupted after a period of manifestation. But even that variance is not a true, permanent change in THAT which is. The corrupted consciousness can be re-purified now or will be purified once reabsorbed into the universal pool.
When was the semicolon lost, along with the understanding that conscious-energy (which appears to persons to be many different things) is “not two”? When Moses began plagiarizing stories from pagan cults (as well as concepts from the Far East) to write his fiction called the Torah—his books in what some call the "Old Testament." [Fiction? Yes, complete fiction. There is no historical evidence of an exodus from Egypt. There was during his day a 500-year old pagan story of an underground god with a magic staff who led people from captivity, through a desert, and to a bountiful land before returning to his underground home. In the original pagan tale, that god tapped rocks with his rod along the journey to provide water; he also waved the rod upward to make food fall from the sky. Moses simply rewrote the original story with himself in the god role.] Via the trade routes between the East and the West, Middle East persons were exposed to the Advaita tool of I AM THAT; I AM, orally. Never having seen it written, Moses plagiarized it, put it into the mouth of a burning bush, and misquoted it as “I AM THAT I AM,” setting off millennia of bogus interpretations of the phrase because he left out the semi-colon. His error produced a phrase that distorted the meaning into, “I’m that ‘I AM’” or “That I-Amness is what I am.” His bastardization of the phrase, therefore, resulted in the belief that there is a god that is "the Am-ness"--the Being or beingness--and thereby also attached to that god a trait of "eternal beingness." From that aberration, the members of the three religions of Abraham (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) began to believe that there is a Supreme Being who has been forever. Additionally, the meaning of the phrase that was distorted by Moses took the teaching tool away from persons who were to use it to identify Who/What They Really Are and limited it to the use by a god to identify himself. He missed the whole point of the phrase and from that point forward, so would all Judaeo-Christians. Now, Jews and Christians alike identity their god with various interpretations of the phrase I AM THAT I AM while Christians haven't a clue what was meant when a man named Jesus said "Before Abraham was, I AM" and "When you speak of me, speak of me as I AM."
The original pointer meant, manifested I Am and I know I Am, but that which is manifested and knows it is…is actually THAT. Kinetic energy and potential energy are just energy. If kinetic energy could talk, it could not say accurately that “I am potential energy.” Yet the kinetic energy—prior to moving—was in a state of potentiality. And from a state of potentiality, the energy moved and “became” kinetic. But in truth, it’s all energy, moving or potential, manifested or not.
Now, back to the H2O in yesterday’s post. From the vast pool of H2O that some call “an ocean,” some H2O can be drawn from the ocean and can manifest in a form that some call “a cloud.” However, is the H2O not manifested in a cloud—but “waiting” in “storage” in the ocean—any different once it is drawn from the ocean and manifested in the “form” or “shape” of a cloud? No. It appears to be different to persons, but it’s all the same H2O. Manifested thusly as “a cloud,” is the H2O suddenly no longer “ocean” but suddenly “cloud”? Obviously, it is only what it always was, is, and always shall be: H2O. The same applies to energy. Persons can look at a cloud and not know that it was once in that vast pool called an “ocean.” They can see the cloud moving and think it is different from the calm sea. They do not understand that it did not “come” from the ocean but is the same as the ocean and only appears to be something different. Similarly, the Advaita pointer is that What You Really Are did not "come from" the Absolute but is the Absolute; hence, "I, the Absolute, am beyond the beingness and the non-beingness."
The misunderstanding continues among persons who perceive in error while thinking they perceive “rightly.” As the energy moves and manifests in what appears to be different “forms” or “shapes,” the wise know that all those are illusions made to seem real by persons who have a penchant for naming and labeling and separating and dreaming up the illusion of “different things.” In fact, all those clouds, oceans, etc., are but one thing, mistaken for something else (exactly like the case of the snake and the rope) when appearance is taken for reality. The H2O, if it could talk, would say “I AM THAT which I Am, but I AM seemingly taking the temporary form or shape of something else. What you think I AM right now is not what I really am at all, but even as you mistake me for a cloud, an ocean, etc., I actually AM merely what I AM. And if What I Am should attach to a particle of dust in the cloud, I will take on the shape of a rain drop and fall back into the ocean, completing another cycle. I began a cycle from a vast pool, appeared to take on different forms, and then returned to the pool from which the cycle began. It was true that in the space of a cloud I AM. Too, the hydrogen and oxygen atoms that I AM have always existed. Even though you perceive me as a raindrop or ocean or clouds, I AM what I always was, am, and shall be. I AM THAT—two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom—that spontaneously happened to manifest and then became misidentified by persons who really believe that lakes and streams and snow and snowballs and snow cones are all different things." The masses of persons take appearance to be real; only the Realized know that the perceptions of the masses are in error. The masses of persons take multiplicity to be real; only the Realized know the unicity. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
F.: The Original Understanding had no names or concepts attached, but enculturation began to warp the pure conscious-energy and teachers, in response, began to try to convey the Understanding in order to re-purify the consciousness. At that point, certain concepts began to be used, one of which was “I AM THAT; I AM.” (All concepts, even Advaitan concepts, are like thorns used to eliminate thorns. Use the concepts to remove all concepts, and then toss them all.) Thus, the non-duality teachings came to be summarized in the expression “I AM THAT; I AM” in order to allow programmed and conditioned persons to understand the main premise: THAT which is unmanifested and THAT which is manifested may appear to be two but are really “not two.” To know that, to know What You Are, is to be free all false identities (which are the source of all misery.)
The Original Understanding was lost as a result of controlling men coming up with concepts to control persons—to control their bodies and “minds” and behavior. With that emphasis, persons became convinced that they were their bodies and minds and personalities…that they were all the roles and personas assumed and being played. Then as cults and pagan religions evolved into modern religions and spiritual movements, persons became convinced that they were their bodies and minds and personas not only in “this life” but in another life…forever. Insanity—being out of touch with Reality—became the new “norm.” As persons sensed at some level that THAT which They Are cannot be destroyed, that sensation mistakenly gave credibility to the misunderstandings and false teachings. They did not understand that it is energy which cannot be created nor destroyed. Next, persons were told that not only would they “last forever” but that they had been “created,” so they developed more and more a sense of duality: “I am these things now” (all the roles being played) and “later I will be all of those things: an angel, a soul, a god, a worshipper, a cow, a whatever,” ad infinitum.
To restore the Original Understanding and eliminate the lies of duality being assumed to be truth, the early teachers in what would be called “Asia” and “India” used the term “I AM THAT; I AM” thousands of years ago to show that there is no duality. The semicolon made clear that, though teachers and protégés could discuss two “aspects” of one thing, persons should understand that those are “not two.” There is the potential energy THAT. Then there is THAT which—when moved from “storage” and then manifested—can be conscious of itself and know I AM. Yet the energy is the same energy whether “stored” or “in motion.” The perceived “difference” results only from the “condition” of the conscious-energy: pure when unmanifested and when first manifested; corrupted after a period of manifestation. But even that variance is not a true, permanent change in THAT which is. The corrupted consciousness can be re-purified now or will be purified once reabsorbed into the universal pool.
When was the semicolon lost, along with the understanding that conscious-energy (which appears to persons to be many different things) is “not two”? When Moses began plagiarizing stories from pagan cults (as well as concepts from the Far East) to write his fiction called the Torah—his books in what some call the "Old Testament." [Fiction? Yes, complete fiction. There is no historical evidence of an exodus from Egypt. There was during his day a 500-year old pagan story of an underground god with a magic staff who led people from captivity, through a desert, and to a bountiful land before returning to his underground home. In the original pagan tale, that god tapped rocks with his rod along the journey to provide water; he also waved the rod upward to make food fall from the sky. Moses simply rewrote the original story with himself in the god role.] Via the trade routes between the East and the West, Middle East persons were exposed to the Advaita tool of I AM THAT; I AM, orally. Never having seen it written, Moses plagiarized it, put it into the mouth of a burning bush, and misquoted it as “I AM THAT I AM,” setting off millennia of bogus interpretations of the phrase because he left out the semi-colon. His error produced a phrase that distorted the meaning into, “I’m that ‘I AM’” or “That I-Amness is what I am.” His bastardization of the phrase, therefore, resulted in the belief that there is a god that is "the Am-ness"--the Being or beingness--and thereby also attached to that god a trait of "eternal beingness." From that aberration, the members of the three religions of Abraham (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) began to believe that there is a Supreme Being who has been forever. Additionally, the meaning of the phrase that was distorted by Moses took the teaching tool away from persons who were to use it to identify Who/What They Really Are and limited it to the use by a god to identify himself. He missed the whole point of the phrase and from that point forward, so would all Judaeo-Christians. Now, Jews and Christians alike identity their god with various interpretations of the phrase I AM THAT I AM while Christians haven't a clue what was meant when a man named Jesus said "Before Abraham was, I AM" and "When you speak of me, speak of me as I AM."
The original pointer meant, manifested I Am and I know I Am, but that which is manifested and knows it is…is actually THAT. Kinetic energy and potential energy are just energy. If kinetic energy could talk, it could not say accurately that “I am potential energy.” Yet the kinetic energy—prior to moving—was in a state of potentiality. And from a state of potentiality, the energy moved and “became” kinetic. But in truth, it’s all energy, moving or potential, manifested or not.
Now, back to the H2O in yesterday’s post. From the vast pool of H2O that some call “an ocean,” some H2O can be drawn from the ocean and can manifest in a form that some call “a cloud.” However, is the H2O not manifested in a cloud—but “waiting” in “storage” in the ocean—any different once it is drawn from the ocean and manifested in the “form” or “shape” of a cloud? No. It appears to be different to persons, but it’s all the same H2O. Manifested thusly as “a cloud,” is the H2O suddenly no longer “ocean” but suddenly “cloud”? Obviously, it is only what it always was, is, and always shall be: H2O. The same applies to energy. Persons can look at a cloud and not know that it was once in that vast pool called an “ocean.” They can see the cloud moving and think it is different from the calm sea. They do not understand that it did not “come” from the ocean but is the same as the ocean and only appears to be something different. Similarly, the Advaita pointer is that What You Really Are did not "come from" the Absolute but is the Absolute; hence, "I, the Absolute, am beyond the beingness and the non-beingness."
The misunderstanding continues among persons who perceive in error while thinking they perceive “rightly.” As the energy moves and manifests in what appears to be different “forms” or “shapes,” the wise know that all those are illusions made to seem real by persons who have a penchant for naming and labeling and separating and dreaming up the illusion of “different things.” In fact, all those clouds, oceans, etc., are but one thing, mistaken for something else (exactly like the case of the snake and the rope) when appearance is taken for reality. The H2O, if it could talk, would say “I AM THAT which I Am, but I AM seemingly taking the temporary form or shape of something else. What you think I AM right now is not what I really am at all, but even as you mistake me for a cloud, an ocean, etc., I actually AM merely what I AM. And if What I Am should attach to a particle of dust in the cloud, I will take on the shape of a rain drop and fall back into the ocean, completing another cycle. I began a cycle from a vast pool, appeared to take on different forms, and then returned to the pool from which the cycle began. It was true that in the space of a cloud I AM. Too, the hydrogen and oxygen atoms that I AM have always existed. Even though you perceive me as a raindrop or ocean or clouds, I AM what I always was, am, and shall be. I AM THAT—two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom—that spontaneously happened to manifest and then became misidentified by persons who really believe that lakes and streams and snow and snowballs and snow cones are all different things." The masses of persons take appearance to be real; only the Realized know that the perceptions of the masses are in error. The masses of persons take multiplicity to be real; only the Realized know the unicity. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
