Question #3. Does I AM THAT; I AM mean- I Am the unmanifested; I Am?
F.: The answer to this question #3, after yesterday’s post, should be clearer, but to reinforce, THAT is THAT whether manifested or not. The only “seeming difference” is that when THAT is not manifested, it does not know it exists…does not know that it IS; manifested, it can know it is.
Realized, the consciousness can know that it is temporarily manifested—being fully aware of the temporary nature of “Is-ness” while also aware of the eternal, immutable, and infinite nature of THAT. It can understand the full import of “not two.” It can understand that energy “in motion” and energy in “storage” is still energy only. It can understand that kinetic energy with the potential to be conscious of is the same energy that, if stored, cannot be conscious of but has the potential to be conscious of if by chance that energy should manifest into some space.
Conscious-energy is conscious-energy. In motion and manifested, it can know It IS (can know I AM); in motion and manifested, it can also know THAT (that which it is when not manifested and not in motion); and it can know while manifested that, in “storage,” in its state of potentiality or as potential energy, it cannot know anything. Non-realized conscious-energy that is in motion and manifested is corrupted with concepts and then believes, in error, that it is many different things and is separate and different from “others.” As ego-states develop, egotism follows and the corrupted consciousness will believe that it is not only “separate and different from” but is also “unique” and “better” and “better than.” [Note how, when ego-states are assumed, egotism follows: the moment a person assumes a role such as “Boss,” egotism immediately elevates the self-concept to “Super Boss.”] A person will also believe that he/she is “better than” as a result of having been taught dualistic concepts like “good vs. bad” which become a basis of judgment and prejudice and further sense of separation. Knowing the Oneness (or attaining the realization of the “at-one-ment”) cannot happen when the consciousness becomes fixed in belief systems. Thus, all ideas and beliefs and attitudes must be cast aside for the “journey” to Realization to continue.
Question # 4. So Before Abraham was, I AM means- I Am the unmanifested, and the unmanifested is always present?
F.: No. I AM can only be stated by the energy that is conscious of itSelf, and that can only happen during manifestation. Does that which is the Absolute exist now, even if not manifested? Yes. Does it also exist when manifested? Yes. To understand the pointer completely, view the quote above with the understanding that the statement was not made by “Christ.” Neither Christ, nor any other Advaitan teacher, has ever said anything.
Only consciousness speaks. Christ did not say that "he"—as a human plant-food body—had been around thousands of years earlier when Abraham was combining all the pagan gods into his concept of one male god. The consciousness called “Christ” was actually saying, “Whenever you speak of me or any space on this planet, speak only of the I AM because that is all that can be accurately stated during the relative existence. Do not follow I AM with anything else. Do not speak of anyone as 'father,' 'mother,' 'sister,' or 'brother.' Do not speak of me or anyone as a role. Do not speak of me as 'Jesus' or as 'Christ, or as 'the son of god.' Speak of me only as the I AM, as the manifested, re-purified consciousness that is Realized and thus knows itSelf. Do not speak of anyone with any labels or names or titles. Speak of them as the consciousness that is manifested and that knows the Am-ness...that knows it exists...that knows itSelf.” His quote does not suggest whether the energy was manifested or not at the time of Abraham. Either way, the energy was and is and shall be. Only the Absolute while manifested and consciousness of itSelf can say, “Even back then, I AM.” The Absolute IS, whether manifested and experiencing the “I-Amness”…or not. And to correct some misconceptions held by some persons, he did not mean that he—a plant-food body—had existed before and recycled. Nor did he mean that he had “been in heaven” at the time. He would say, in fact, that "no one shall ever see heaven because it is within" and that "heaven and earth shall fade away" (when the corrupted consciousness fades away that has been programmed to believe in those two as “geographic places”).
The consciousness was speaking of itSelf; Christ was not speaking of his “self” or “selves” or any plant-food body. Of the three components (the elements, the air and the energy) involved in the space called “Jesus,” all three remained post-crucifixion…but the body-mind-personality did not. The elements recycled to the pool of universal elements, the air joined the universal air, and the conscious-energy was re-absorbed into the universal pool of energy. No “Jesus” remained (or remains) because there was no “Jesus.” There was consciousness which manifested in a space after a human man impregnated a human female. That consciousness was corrupted by being programmed to believe that it was the son of "a god and a virginal mother" and by exposure to the dogma of organized religion (Judaism, in this case). For a time, that consciousness believed what it was told and quoted from Judaism’s “holy” text. That ended after the consciousness was re-purified during “the desert years” where it was exposed to the Advaita Teachings that it would later repeat. So what did that “Christ” model after Realization? If you’re introduced to organized religion for a time, okay, but eventually leave organized religion, get money out of the equation, abandon “holy” buildings and holy texts, understand the Advaita Teachings, don't assume roles or labels or titles, understand that there is no geographic heaven or hell, and when you speak of anyone, speak of them only as I AM, for that is the most that can be accurately claimed regarding the relative existence.
Question #5. From entry 175: "We are That; thus, we Are and always have been, One. Only That is Real, whether manifest or unmanifest. Are You understanding You?" So to sum it up I guess, what is the That which creates the oneness, manifested or unmanifested? How does this link to the understanding as stated above?
F.: First, THAT does not “create” anything, including any oneness. What is…is, and it always has been. [Most people forget what is taught in third grade science, namely that neither energy nor matter can be created nor destroyed.] So no oneness is created. In fact, nothing is created, and nothing has ever been created. That which is the one real thing is energy, energy has always existed, and it is the one thing that is real but that is taken by persons to be many different things. [Religious and spiritual persons imagine their selves—their body-mind-personality—lasting for infinity, but they never consider that infinity before manifestation is as real as infinity afterwards. The closest some come to understanding infinity in “both directions” is when they are told that a god has been in existence forever. They do not want to consider that what has existed for infinity is not a god but is energy instead, and they do not want to believe that their bodies, their “minds,” and their personas will not last for infinity.] What personas have been trained to believe notwithstanding, THAT is THAT, period, so nothing has ever been created; therefore, no creator or creators exist. By way of comparison, return to the H2O example to illustrate.
H2O does not “create” clouds. H2O moves from one place to another and appears to persons to become what it really is not. Both the concept of “creation” and the concept of “destruction” are merely imaginary ideas dreamed up by men. When a mirage “appears” in the desert and is supposedly "seen" by a person, was anything created? No. An illusion appeared to a person who mistook nothing for something, gave it a name, and became convinced that the illusion was real. That’s no different than when a person mistakes himself/herself to be some certain role, accepts a name or label or title as a true identity, and becomes convinced that the illusion is real. And when the sun sets and the mirage “disappears,” was anything destroyed? No. An illusion was perceived by one of the five senses of a person and taken to be real, was taken by an ignorant person to be something that it was not, and then by nightfall was no longer perceived by the person.
So back to your statement: no oneness is created. All is One thing only: energy, either in motion or in “waiting” or “in storage.” All forms of energy display various “properties.” One “property” of the energy that Advaitans discuss is its ability to be aware of if manifested in a given space. A plant can be aware of the sun and can be conscious of its movement and can know where the sun will rise each morning. A bird or an animal can know the Am-ness (can know it is or that it exists) and will flee to preserve its Am-ness if it feels threatened. In contrast, a person can come to know What It Is but can also be programmed and conditioned to think it is something that it is not. The Realized know what cycles and what does not cycle.
Via the Original Understanding, the cycles were understood. Later, Aryans dreamed up linear timelines and the concepts of “beginning, middle, and end.” The “line” replaced the “circle” in the “minds” of persons who were taught that there was a creation of the world/universe and that there will be a destruction of the world/universe. Religious and spiritual leaders began to speak of persons being (a) “created,” (b) “living,” (c) “dying,” (d) “being judged,” and then (e) “spending eternity in either a geographic heaven or a geographic hell” as a body-mind-personality that will be rewarded or punished forever. Self-appointed “authorities” claimed to be God-appointed agents who were to tell others how to live and think and behave. Nonsense became the “rule” rather than the exception among the masses. Spiritual knowledge (“learned ignorance”) became the tool of choice for fooling, and thereby controlling, the masses. Believing they are the “I” they have been programmed to think they are, persons have been fooled and no longer know Who/What They Really Are. Persons behave as actors who identify with their roles and thus lose sight of Who They Truly Are. They can develop the image of being “good,” come to believe they are “good,” and convince others that they are “good.” In the process, they can separate from “others” that they label as “bad.” Such duality is the mainstay of the ego-states that fools reside in and that fools take to be their true nature.
Questions 1-5 having been addressed, the following should now be understood with complete clarity: “Those alone who understand that I, the Absolute, am beyond the states of being and non-being realize my true nature, and all others are fools.” Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
F.: The answer to this question #3, after yesterday’s post, should be clearer, but to reinforce, THAT is THAT whether manifested or not. The only “seeming difference” is that when THAT is not manifested, it does not know it exists…does not know that it IS; manifested, it can know it is.
Realized, the consciousness can know that it is temporarily manifested—being fully aware of the temporary nature of “Is-ness” while also aware of the eternal, immutable, and infinite nature of THAT. It can understand the full import of “not two.” It can understand that energy “in motion” and energy in “storage” is still energy only. It can understand that kinetic energy with the potential to be conscious of is the same energy that, if stored, cannot be conscious of but has the potential to be conscious of if by chance that energy should manifest into some space.
Conscious-energy is conscious-energy. In motion and manifested, it can know It IS (can know I AM); in motion and manifested, it can also know THAT (that which it is when not manifested and not in motion); and it can know while manifested that, in “storage,” in its state of potentiality or as potential energy, it cannot know anything. Non-realized conscious-energy that is in motion and manifested is corrupted with concepts and then believes, in error, that it is many different things and is separate and different from “others.” As ego-states develop, egotism follows and the corrupted consciousness will believe that it is not only “separate and different from” but is also “unique” and “better” and “better than.” [Note how, when ego-states are assumed, egotism follows: the moment a person assumes a role such as “Boss,” egotism immediately elevates the self-concept to “Super Boss.”] A person will also believe that he/she is “better than” as a result of having been taught dualistic concepts like “good vs. bad” which become a basis of judgment and prejudice and further sense of separation. Knowing the Oneness (or attaining the realization of the “at-one-ment”) cannot happen when the consciousness becomes fixed in belief systems. Thus, all ideas and beliefs and attitudes must be cast aside for the “journey” to Realization to continue.
Question # 4. So Before Abraham was, I AM means- I Am the unmanifested, and the unmanifested is always present?
F.: No. I AM can only be stated by the energy that is conscious of itSelf, and that can only happen during manifestation. Does that which is the Absolute exist now, even if not manifested? Yes. Does it also exist when manifested? Yes. To understand the pointer completely, view the quote above with the understanding that the statement was not made by “Christ.” Neither Christ, nor any other Advaitan teacher, has ever said anything.
Only consciousness speaks. Christ did not say that "he"—as a human plant-food body—had been around thousands of years earlier when Abraham was combining all the pagan gods into his concept of one male god. The consciousness called “Christ” was actually saying, “Whenever you speak of me or any space on this planet, speak only of the I AM because that is all that can be accurately stated during the relative existence. Do not follow I AM with anything else. Do not speak of anyone as 'father,' 'mother,' 'sister,' or 'brother.' Do not speak of me or anyone as a role. Do not speak of me as 'Jesus' or as 'Christ, or as 'the son of god.' Speak of me only as the I AM, as the manifested, re-purified consciousness that is Realized and thus knows itSelf. Do not speak of anyone with any labels or names or titles. Speak of them as the consciousness that is manifested and that knows the Am-ness...that knows it exists...that knows itSelf.” His quote does not suggest whether the energy was manifested or not at the time of Abraham. Either way, the energy was and is and shall be. Only the Absolute while manifested and consciousness of itSelf can say, “Even back then, I AM.” The Absolute IS, whether manifested and experiencing the “I-Amness”…or not. And to correct some misconceptions held by some persons, he did not mean that he—a plant-food body—had existed before and recycled. Nor did he mean that he had “been in heaven” at the time. He would say, in fact, that "no one shall ever see heaven because it is within" and that "heaven and earth shall fade away" (when the corrupted consciousness fades away that has been programmed to believe in those two as “geographic places”).
The consciousness was speaking of itSelf; Christ was not speaking of his “self” or “selves” or any plant-food body. Of the three components (the elements, the air and the energy) involved in the space called “Jesus,” all three remained post-crucifixion…but the body-mind-personality did not. The elements recycled to the pool of universal elements, the air joined the universal air, and the conscious-energy was re-absorbed into the universal pool of energy. No “Jesus” remained (or remains) because there was no “Jesus.” There was consciousness which manifested in a space after a human man impregnated a human female. That consciousness was corrupted by being programmed to believe that it was the son of "a god and a virginal mother" and by exposure to the dogma of organized religion (Judaism, in this case). For a time, that consciousness believed what it was told and quoted from Judaism’s “holy” text. That ended after the consciousness was re-purified during “the desert years” where it was exposed to the Advaita Teachings that it would later repeat. So what did that “Christ” model after Realization? If you’re introduced to organized religion for a time, okay, but eventually leave organized religion, get money out of the equation, abandon “holy” buildings and holy texts, understand the Advaita Teachings, don't assume roles or labels or titles, understand that there is no geographic heaven or hell, and when you speak of anyone, speak of them only as I AM, for that is the most that can be accurately claimed regarding the relative existence.
Question #5. From entry 175: "We are That; thus, we Are and always have been, One. Only That is Real, whether manifest or unmanifest. Are You understanding You?" So to sum it up I guess, what is the That which creates the oneness, manifested or unmanifested? How does this link to the understanding as stated above?
F.: First, THAT does not “create” anything, including any oneness. What is…is, and it always has been. [Most people forget what is taught in third grade science, namely that neither energy nor matter can be created nor destroyed.] So no oneness is created. In fact, nothing is created, and nothing has ever been created. That which is the one real thing is energy, energy has always existed, and it is the one thing that is real but that is taken by persons to be many different things. [Religious and spiritual persons imagine their selves—their body-mind-personality—lasting for infinity, but they never consider that infinity before manifestation is as real as infinity afterwards. The closest some come to understanding infinity in “both directions” is when they are told that a god has been in existence forever. They do not want to consider that what has existed for infinity is not a god but is energy instead, and they do not want to believe that their bodies, their “minds,” and their personas will not last for infinity.] What personas have been trained to believe notwithstanding, THAT is THAT, period, so nothing has ever been created; therefore, no creator or creators exist. By way of comparison, return to the H2O example to illustrate.
H2O does not “create” clouds. H2O moves from one place to another and appears to persons to become what it really is not. Both the concept of “creation” and the concept of “destruction” are merely imaginary ideas dreamed up by men. When a mirage “appears” in the desert and is supposedly "seen" by a person, was anything created? No. An illusion appeared to a person who mistook nothing for something, gave it a name, and became convinced that the illusion was real. That’s no different than when a person mistakes himself/herself to be some certain role, accepts a name or label or title as a true identity, and becomes convinced that the illusion is real. And when the sun sets and the mirage “disappears,” was anything destroyed? No. An illusion was perceived by one of the five senses of a person and taken to be real, was taken by an ignorant person to be something that it was not, and then by nightfall was no longer perceived by the person.
So back to your statement: no oneness is created. All is One thing only: energy, either in motion or in “waiting” or “in storage.” All forms of energy display various “properties.” One “property” of the energy that Advaitans discuss is its ability to be aware of if manifested in a given space. A plant can be aware of the sun and can be conscious of its movement and can know where the sun will rise each morning. A bird or an animal can know the Am-ness (can know it is or that it exists) and will flee to preserve its Am-ness if it feels threatened. In contrast, a person can come to know What It Is but can also be programmed and conditioned to think it is something that it is not. The Realized know what cycles and what does not cycle.
Via the Original Understanding, the cycles were understood. Later, Aryans dreamed up linear timelines and the concepts of “beginning, middle, and end.” The “line” replaced the “circle” in the “minds” of persons who were taught that there was a creation of the world/universe and that there will be a destruction of the world/universe. Religious and spiritual leaders began to speak of persons being (a) “created,” (b) “living,” (c) “dying,” (d) “being judged,” and then (e) “spending eternity in either a geographic heaven or a geographic hell” as a body-mind-personality that will be rewarded or punished forever. Self-appointed “authorities” claimed to be God-appointed agents who were to tell others how to live and think and behave. Nonsense became the “rule” rather than the exception among the masses. Spiritual knowledge (“learned ignorance”) became the tool of choice for fooling, and thereby controlling, the masses. Believing they are the “I” they have been programmed to think they are, persons have been fooled and no longer know Who/What They Really Are. Persons behave as actors who identify with their roles and thus lose sight of Who They Truly Are. They can develop the image of being “good,” come to believe they are “good,” and convince others that they are “good.” In the process, they can separate from “others” that they label as “bad.” Such duality is the mainstay of the ego-states that fools reside in and that fools take to be their true nature.
Questions 1-5 having been addressed, the following should now be understood with complete clarity: “Those alone who understand that I, the Absolute, am beyond the states of being and non-being realize my true nature, and all others are fools.” Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
