[Several visitors, after understanding why “the mind” has become a liability, are getting free of additional concepts. For those who asked about samskaras and are now getting rid of another concept, see the posting for June 14, 2006]
From a site visitor: OK, so I read the posts from the last days, and you did admit that the I AM is a part of the I AM THAT I AM, so the question is, how is any of that talk about consciousness and witnessing have any relevance to the I AM I’m trying to navigate through? Tom
F.: To continue with the pointer offered at the end of yesterday’s post, today’s post will be directed to “Tom the Seeker,” though you aren’t aware of the degree to which you have assumed that role. Don’t despair since most are trapped in the same ego-state and most haven’t realized that either.
Like all persons, you are seeking many things. Beyond seeking "others" and "things" to make them happy, persons also seek (1) control and (2) power that will guarantee the ability to control. That becomes the trap that guarantees relative existence imprisonment for persons. Nothing outside Your Self can provide consistent happiness, and control and power are conceptual illusions. The closest you shall ever come to “having power” is to enter into the witness states. Were you to witness objectively, you would see that all of your thoughts are merely flickerings on the screen of consciousness.
You would see that there are no "your thoughts" but there are only the thoughts that arise as a result of your having been programmed and conditioned to develop a "mind," a repository of concepts and beliefs and dogma/spiritual knowledge (which is only learned ignorance). All content of the "mind" is false, and it is that “mind” that has left you in a position to "try to navigate" your relative existence rather than reporting that you have navigated it to its end and have transcended the relative completely.
Trapped in the desire for power and control, as all persons are, you want to know what can be expected and what plans can be made so that control is guaranteed. You have not seen your own pattern or that of other persons: that which is unexpected is what shall come, and that which is planned will never come exactly as planned. The way that a character in a John D. MacDonald novel puts it is:
Not one of us ever grows up to be what he intended to be. Not one of us fulfills his own expectations.
They who know that They already Are That Which They Have Always Been are free. They who have no expectations are free. Only a fool would say, “I became exactly what I wanted to become.” Only a bigger fool would reflect over the events of a lifetime and say, “Yeah, that went exactly as planned.” And only the biggest fool would believe, “Well, there’s a god in charge of everything, so it went exactly the way it was supposed to go…suffering and misery included.”
In order to be free of the disappointments of unmet expectations and the disappointment of not being what one wanted or planned to be, find That Which You already Are. I Am complete, fixed and stabilized; in your efforts at “trying to navigate” through this existence, you are incomplete, not fixed and fluctuating. Awareness is absolute; consciousness is relative. You are trapped in consciousness, specifically, in contaminated consciousness. Therefore you cannot be absolutely free. Since the relative is always in motion, always in a state of flux, your relative experiences will require that you always be in motion, in flux. Ego is about going and doing and zooming, so no persona has any tolerance at all for stillness. Therefore your sense of freedom, like your sense of happiness, will come and go, at best.
In “trying to navigate” through your relative existence, you reveal another role that you’re playing: “Tom the Captain,” the one in charge of where the ship goes and how the ship goes. (Again, there’s that desire for control.) Everything in the relative existence which involves “trying” is always wearisome and frustrating and tiresome. Who could possibly feel any sense of freedom or joy if the life they are trying to negotiate is wearisome and frustrating and tiresome? Were you to Realize, you could understand the complete compatibility of the I AM you mentioned and the I AM THAT. You would understand that passions can be felt, that dispassionate actions can happen, and that you need not become a forest dweller in order to “navigate” the I-Amness or to try to be free of having to try so hard as a result of your unmet desires and your perceived fears.
Knowing the Perfect Self, You would reach that state wherein nothing can be added and wherein nothing can be taken away. When it is known that nothing can be added, how could any nagging desire manifest? When it is known that nothing can be taken away, how could any nagging fear manifest? To know that You Are beyond being added to or stripped of, to know that You Are beyond the beingness and even the non-beingness, is freedom. Only then can you relax. Only then will the restless search end.
Yet you question the relevance of a discussion about witnessing? The relevance of the witnessing will truly come when you reach the witnessing stages, when you then turn the witness upon yourself, and when you see that there is neither seeker not witness. Then you will understand when it is said that I Am both subject and object, when it is said that I Am the Eternal Subject, when it is later said that I Am neither subject nor object, and when it is said even later that I Am beyond all of that, witnessing included. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
From a site visitor: OK, so I read the posts from the last days, and you did admit that the I AM is a part of the I AM THAT I AM, so the question is, how is any of that talk about consciousness and witnessing have any relevance to the I AM I’m trying to navigate through? Tom
F.: To continue with the pointer offered at the end of yesterday’s post, today’s post will be directed to “Tom the Seeker,” though you aren’t aware of the degree to which you have assumed that role. Don’t despair since most are trapped in the same ego-state and most haven’t realized that either.
Like all persons, you are seeking many things. Beyond seeking "others" and "things" to make them happy, persons also seek (1) control and (2) power that will guarantee the ability to control. That becomes the trap that guarantees relative existence imprisonment for persons. Nothing outside Your Self can provide consistent happiness, and control and power are conceptual illusions. The closest you shall ever come to “having power” is to enter into the witness states. Were you to witness objectively, you would see that all of your thoughts are merely flickerings on the screen of consciousness.
You would see that there are no "your thoughts" but there are only the thoughts that arise as a result of your having been programmed and conditioned to develop a "mind," a repository of concepts and beliefs and dogma/spiritual knowledge (which is only learned ignorance). All content of the "mind" is false, and it is that “mind” that has left you in a position to "try to navigate" your relative existence rather than reporting that you have navigated it to its end and have transcended the relative completely.
Trapped in the desire for power and control, as all persons are, you want to know what can be expected and what plans can be made so that control is guaranteed. You have not seen your own pattern or that of other persons: that which is unexpected is what shall come, and that which is planned will never come exactly as planned. The way that a character in a John D. MacDonald novel puts it is:
Not one of us ever grows up to be what he intended to be. Not one of us fulfills his own expectations.
They who know that They already Are That Which They Have Always Been are free. They who have no expectations are free. Only a fool would say, “I became exactly what I wanted to become.” Only a bigger fool would reflect over the events of a lifetime and say, “Yeah, that went exactly as planned.” And only the biggest fool would believe, “Well, there’s a god in charge of everything, so it went exactly the way it was supposed to go…suffering and misery included.”
In order to be free of the disappointments of unmet expectations and the disappointment of not being what one wanted or planned to be, find That Which You already Are. I Am complete, fixed and stabilized; in your efforts at “trying to navigate” through this existence, you are incomplete, not fixed and fluctuating. Awareness is absolute; consciousness is relative. You are trapped in consciousness, specifically, in contaminated consciousness. Therefore you cannot be absolutely free. Since the relative is always in motion, always in a state of flux, your relative experiences will require that you always be in motion, in flux. Ego is about going and doing and zooming, so no persona has any tolerance at all for stillness. Therefore your sense of freedom, like your sense of happiness, will come and go, at best.
In “trying to navigate” through your relative existence, you reveal another role that you’re playing: “Tom the Captain,” the one in charge of where the ship goes and how the ship goes. (Again, there’s that desire for control.) Everything in the relative existence which involves “trying” is always wearisome and frustrating and tiresome. Who could possibly feel any sense of freedom or joy if the life they are trying to negotiate is wearisome and frustrating and tiresome? Were you to Realize, you could understand the complete compatibility of the I AM you mentioned and the I AM THAT. You would understand that passions can be felt, that dispassionate actions can happen, and that you need not become a forest dweller in order to “navigate” the I-Amness or to try to be free of having to try so hard as a result of your unmet desires and your perceived fears.
Knowing the Perfect Self, You would reach that state wherein nothing can be added and wherein nothing can be taken away. When it is known that nothing can be added, how could any nagging desire manifest? When it is known that nothing can be taken away, how could any nagging fear manifest? To know that You Are beyond being added to or stripped of, to know that You Are beyond the beingness and even the non-beingness, is freedom. Only then can you relax. Only then will the restless search end.
Yet you question the relevance of a discussion about witnessing? The relevance of the witnessing will truly come when you reach the witnessing stages, when you then turn the witness upon yourself, and when you see that there is neither seeker not witness. Then you will understand when it is said that I Am both subject and object, when it is said that I Am the Eternal Subject, when it is later said that I Am neither subject nor object, and when it is said even later that I Am beyond all of that, witnessing included. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
