An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, dwelling as your natural state, and the teachings of Maharaj.
FROM A SITE VISITOR: Enjoyed the last series and your comments about “self.” So if you “abide as the absolute” as you say but do not deny the I Am, how do you (or You) see yourself (or your “self”). I mean, you may put “floyd” in quote marks but isn’t there some recognition of something there even if it's relative? Please explain. Thank you for the site, robert (or “robert” or Robert)
F.: Hello, Robert. Ridley Pearson said it as well as it can be stated, at least at the “dry charcoal” level that your question comes from. In one of his novels he wrote:
He saw himself as a camera would, and often thought of himself in the third person, as if an omniscient eye were looking down on him and his activities.
After a deer stopped in front of “floyd’s” motorcycle—which was doing 70 M.P.H. on a trip from Louisiana to Texas—the motorcycle (according to the report filed by a state trooper) traveled 900 feet down the center of the road as floyd angled head first toward the side of the highway for a distance of 450 feet.
This has not been shared before, but there was that moment when physical consciousness returned and Floyd watched “floyd” being tended to by paramedics. (Such happenings are seldom discussed on this site since comments and questions regarding the “subtle body” vs. the physical body are not being sought. That is not the subject matter of this site.)
Yet that witnessing was not unlike the Pure Witnessing that happens when abidance as the Absolute is occurring. That which some call “robert” (if that term is used to point to a physical body that is moving about in an AS IF fashion) can be witnessed by Robert (if that term is used to point to the unblocked manifested consciousness).
As such, Robert could be said to function as a camera functions (to use a simile based in the Pearson quote), witnessing as if from a “third person” perspective, not from any first person perspective.
From that platform, Robert would not speak of an “I” except in reference to the consciousness, but Robert could observe “robert” as if Robert were nothing more than an independent third eye, floating above all of the relative nonsense and merely observing with non-attachment.
[For those who have ordered the CD available through this site or who have read the free copy of the vision content that is available at www.floydhenderson.com take this to be the equivalent of the “eagle” step in the seven-step “journey” from the “I” to Realization.]
Such is the reply for one at the “dry charcoal stage.” For those further along “the path,” it is understood that dwelling as Your natural state generates a shift even beyond the two witnessing stages: beyond (1) the subject-object witnessing stage and beyond (2) the Pure Witnessing stage. Abiding as the Absolute is abiding as the Absolute, meaning that there is really not even witnessing. Why?
Consciousness can be aware of consciousness, but awareness is not even aware of awareness. Further, there is no “seeing the void” or the “nothingness”; there is being the void or the nothingness.
Abiding as the Absolute, there is awareness that is even unaware of awareness. Having first seen that it is all much ado about nothing, it is later realized that it is…nothing. From that platform, the Am-ness can remain manifested but with non-attachment to anything associated with the Am-ness.
I AM? Yes, temporarily…for now. I AM THAT. Yes, and abide as such. Thanks for the question and for visiting the site. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON TODAY’S POST:
Click WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?
and
Click SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY
and
Click IT’S ALL BULLSHIT
and
Click THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS
and
Click FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
and
Click CONSCIOUSNESS / AWARENESS
TWO OTHER OFFERINGS ARE AVAILABLE:
More and more seekers are requesting an understanding of how a personality formed in childhood is still determining and controlling everything that is thought or said or done in adulthood. Others have inquired about an opportunity to speak one-on-one about the seven-step “path” to Realization.
Thus, two opportunities are being offered from now until Dec 15th at 50% off:
PERSONALITY TYPING:
Here’s what is included in the package that is available for the next two months (the service available to international visitors but these price being only for the Continental U.S.):
A copy of the personality test (B) Priority mailing of the test (C) Analysis of the test results (D) a one-hour telephone session to discuss the results (E) the cost of the telephone conference. Cost is US$95.
ONE-ON-ONE SATSANG VIA TELE-CONFERENCE
For the next two months, a tele-conference to discuss any aspects of the Advaita teachings one-on-one will be offered. [Rich from the U.K. completed this package recently and was able to make a low-rate international call from his home in the U.K. to the office here in the U.S. for his conference.] The cost covers the income that cannot be earned as a result of being unavailable for regular retainer contract income during your conference time.] Cost is US$75.
To arrange either package, >Click ARRANGE PACKAGES provide all of the information requested, and in the message box at the bottom, indicate that you want to make arrangements for the PERSONALITY TYPING or for the ONE-ON-ONE ADVAITA SESSION or both.
He saw himself as a camera would, and often thought of himself in the third person, as if an omniscient eye were looking down on him and his activities.
After a deer stopped in front of “floyd’s” motorcycle—which was doing 70 M.P.H. on a trip from Louisiana to Texas—the motorcycle (according to the report filed by a state trooper) traveled 900 feet down the center of the road as floyd angled head first toward the side of the highway for a distance of 450 feet.
This has not been shared before, but there was that moment when physical consciousness returned and Floyd watched “floyd” being tended to by paramedics. (Such happenings are seldom discussed on this site since comments and questions regarding the “subtle body” vs. the physical body are not being sought. That is not the subject matter of this site.)
Yet that witnessing was not unlike the Pure Witnessing that happens when abidance as the Absolute is occurring. That which some call “robert” (if that term is used to point to a physical body that is moving about in an AS IF fashion) can be witnessed by Robert (if that term is used to point to the unblocked manifested consciousness).
As such, Robert could be said to function as a camera functions (to use a simile based in the Pearson quote), witnessing as if from a “third person” perspective, not from any first person perspective.
From that platform, Robert would not speak of an “I” except in reference to the consciousness, but Robert could observe “robert” as if Robert were nothing more than an independent third eye, floating above all of the relative nonsense and merely observing with non-attachment.
[For those who have ordered the CD available through this site or who have read the free copy of the vision content that is available at www.floydhenderson.com take this to be the equivalent of the “eagle” step in the seven-step “journey” from the “I” to Realization.]
Such is the reply for one at the “dry charcoal stage.” For those further along “the path,” it is understood that dwelling as Your natural state generates a shift even beyond the two witnessing stages: beyond (1) the subject-object witnessing stage and beyond (2) the Pure Witnessing stage. Abiding as the Absolute is abiding as the Absolute, meaning that there is really not even witnessing. Why?
Consciousness can be aware of consciousness, but awareness is not even aware of awareness. Further, there is no “seeing the void” or the “nothingness”; there is being the void or the nothingness.
Abiding as the Absolute, there is awareness that is even unaware of awareness. Having first seen that it is all much ado about nothing, it is later realized that it is…nothing. From that platform, the Am-ness can remain manifested but with non-attachment to anything associated with the Am-ness.
I AM? Yes, temporarily…for now. I AM THAT. Yes, and abide as such. Thanks for the question and for visiting the site. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON TODAY’S POST:
and
and
and
and
and
TWO OTHER OFFERINGS ARE AVAILABLE:
More and more seekers are requesting an understanding of how a personality formed in childhood is still determining and controlling everything that is thought or said or done in adulthood. Others have inquired about an opportunity to speak one-on-one about the seven-step “path” to Realization.
Thus, two opportunities are being offered from now until Dec 15th at 50% off:
PERSONALITY TYPING:
Here’s what is included in the package that is available for the next two months (the service available to international visitors but these price being only for the Continental U.S.):
A copy of the personality test (B) Priority mailing of the test (C) Analysis of the test results (D) a one-hour telephone session to discuss the results (E) the cost of the telephone conference. Cost is US$95.
ONE-ON-ONE SATSANG VIA TELE-CONFERENCE
For the next two months, a tele-conference to discuss any aspects of the Advaita teachings one-on-one will be offered. [Rich from the U.K. completed this package recently and was able to make a low-rate international call from his home in the U.K. to the office here in the U.S. for his conference.] The cost covers the income that cannot be earned as a result of being unavailable for regular retainer contract income during your conference time.] Cost is US$75.
To arrange either package, >Click ARRANGE PACKAGES provide all of the information requested, and in the message box at the bottom, indicate that you want to make arrangements for the PERSONALITY TYPING or for the ONE-ON-ONE ADVAITA SESSION or both.
