From a site visitor: So, based on what you wrote yesterday [see 03 January ‘07] you don’t think you’re the consciousness? I’ve read other entries where you said you were—or something to that effect, I think. Am I wrong about that or does that mean you were answering a question to somebody who was “wet charcoal”? Russ
F.: Hello, Russ. Thx for the question. First, do not think it necessary to distinguish the I AM from the I AM THAT. Focus on the "not two" instead. I can say accurately that I AM and I can say accurately that I AM THAT. But one is temporary and one is permanent, so ask, "What Is THAT Which I Am...ultimately and permanently?" See the comparison: "H2O" need not be distinguished from the "raindrop" except to know that the raindrop appears to be something other than what it is at its core while "H2O" is the term that points toward the real which cannot be observed. Note too that the raindrop is a temporary space or form, much like the manifested consciousness.
F.: Hello, Russ. Thx for the question. First, do not think it necessary to distinguish the I AM from the I AM THAT. Focus on the "not two" instead. I can say accurately that I AM and I can say accurately that I AM THAT. But one is temporary and one is permanent, so ask, "What Is THAT Which I Am...ultimately and permanently?" See the comparison: "H2O" need not be distinguished from the "raindrop" except to know that the raindrop appears to be something other than what it is at its core while "H2O" is the term that points toward the real which cannot be observed. Note too that the raindrop is a temporary space or form, much like the manifested consciousness.
As far as what is said to a person at any given step along the "path," understand that when someone speaks or writes, the re-purified consciousness can determine very quickly where that person is on the “path.” [If you read transcripts of talks with Maharaj, you’ll notice that he allowed questioners to speak freely for a few minutes, using that method in order to allow them to fix their “location” on the “path.” Then he would “tailor” a response based on (1) what the protégé was able to comprehend at that point or based on (2) what the visitor required in order to be able to move on to the next “step.”]
When persons write to the site, their words reveal in a matter of sentences that they haven’t begun the “journey” or that they are fixated at the third level, etc. It is not until the point when the Pure Witnessing (True Self) stage is reached that the understanding of what you have asked about is attained: at that point, the re-purified consciousness knows that it is not even the consciousness, ultimately. It understands the functioning of the totality. It knows that there is a form of energy with the potential to manifest, and that the energy has the potential “to be aware of” (if manifested in a space with a nervous system).
It also understands that the energy prior to manifestation—prior to consciousness—is an Absolutely pure, unadulterated form of energy; therefore, I understand that I AM THAT, not “this” energy with its current formatting. Ultimately, I am that Absolute state, that Absolute THAT-ness, not this temporary I-Amness. In THAT state, the I AM consciousness was absent prior to manifestation and will be absent post-manifestation. Abiding as the Absolute NOW, and not even as pure or re-purified consciousness, all of the attributes of the unmanifested energy can be known NOW. NOW is, in fact, the only instant in which that/THAT can be understood, known, or “enjoyed.” Why? Because there will be no body or “mind” or personality surviving the relative existence to be aware of THAT...or of anything else.
Understand, too, that the Absolute is not a region, a geographic place, a special part of “the heavens,” or any limited location. It is endless, infinite, and omnipresent. On this planet, the fount from which the Is-ness “springs” is in every vegetable and in every grain of wheat and in every leaf on every tree and in every piece of grass.
When someone pronounces someday that “floyd” is dead, there will be nothing different in that happening than when a bug strikes the windshield of a car traveling at a high rate of speed: consciousness will immediately be “released” from both spaces—be it “floyd” or be it a “bug.” In either case, manifested consciousness was merely using a nervous system that facilitated the continuation of manifestation up to—and ending at—that moment. That’s it: dust-to-dust, air-to-air, and energy-to-the-field-of-energy. It will be immediately “released” at some point—either in the case of a “dead floyd” or a “smashed bug”—into that pool of universal energy “at-rest” that is omnipresent. Emancipated thusly, the energy is absorbed instantaneously “therein” or “within” or “with,” not unlike what happens when a drop of rain falls into an ocean. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
