MEDITATION GUIDE II, #82

“But back to the common element that is All. Modern physicists at first called that smallest building block ‘strings’ until some decided that an even more basic element exists which they call a ‘sparticle.’ Names notwithstanding, there is only one single ingredient to what we call ‘everything’ or ‘the diversity’ or ‘the entire universe.’ I call it ‘That,’ That which is the one and only whatever that is Real, typically Unmanifest, occasionally manifested, or not. ‘Everything’ is really one thing. The term ‘unicity’ is accurate. ” [Excerpt, from The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, p. 191]

CONSIDERATION: The scientist invites you to look around this planet for things that are supposedly very different and then realize that everything began as a single atom. Everything can be traced back to one common element. Could there be a beneficial impact (relatively speaking) on your life if you sensed the unity of All? Please enter the silence of contemplation.
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EGO-STATES: “LOVE” OR “EGO,” BUT NOT BOTH (A Continuing Series on Ego-States), Part Five

FROM A SITE VISITOR: So the whole problem really begins with ego, right? Sam (PS Thanks for the blog site.)

F.: Taking into account all of the Advaitin pointers that have ever been offered, none is likely to be as despised by persons (by the non-Realized) as the pointer that “there is no continuity of body or mind or personality.” Ranking a close second is likely the pointer that, “If you have not Realized, then you have never loved; if you are only dealing with the non-Realized, you are not being loved.”

Those who would debate that point are the ones who really desire love or who fear not having love or who believe they really need love or who are convinced that no one could not love them. They do not understand “mutually exclusive.” If reason and logic are applied, it should be clear that one involved in self—that is, a person assuming any false role and taking the false self to be the True Self, will automatically be self-involved and self-absorbed.

One who is self-involved and self-absorbed will see “a world of others,” and all interaction with those “others” will only be to sustain one’s co-dependent or interdependent ego-states…one’s false self or false selves. That “world” of ego-states and egomania will always be devoid of love. Demanding sex every day might be taken as a sign that "he really loves me" and "he really wants me" and "I am securing my roles." The objective Advaitin witness can see that the only thing happening is that the ego-state of “The Lover” is being sustained for the husband. The savvy clinician will see that a sex addiction is being enabled...and nothing more.

Persons tout the benefits of "self-esteem"; that notwithstanding, to be self-involved and self-absorbed and in love with one’s false self/selves excludes any chance for the manifestation of unconditional love. The “search for love” among the non-Realized really involves nothing more than a desire to find an opposite-sex clone of self. The belief is, "Surely we will be compatible forever if we have the same thoughts, the same beliefs, the same behaviors and habits, the same desires, the same fears, etc.," as if persons are not in a constant state of flux and as if they "will always be the way they are now."

The non-Realized, being unaware of the unicity in which True Love is based, will claim that they are “in love” while actually being in love with a mirror image. They are only in love with self, and more specifically, they are only in love with their false ego-states while believing that they truly love those who support their false roles. “The Employee” loves the boss who allows that role to continue (especially if the job is high-paying) and hates the boss who fires her/him and destroys that role. “The Wife” claims to love the man who was her accomplice in forming and sustaining her false images.

That which is real is unchanging, so if love can turn to hate, it was not real to begin with.

The case study for this series is a woman whose husband claimed for years that he loved her but now “does not love her anymore.” After the beginning months or years of most marriages, a point is reached when it is declared that “the honeymoon is over.” What does that mean? It means that all of the images that were being shown or assumed during dating are eventually seen to be nothing more than misrepresentations. It means that the personality defects that were being covered up are now coming to light.

For those who are really asleep or in denial, being fooled (or fooling oneself) can go on for years. The woman going through a divorce claims that “up until now, he always loved me and I always loved him.” Objective witnesses who read the details of her account would conclude that other factors were involved which convinced her that love is compatible with being controlled by a self-absorbed and neglectful man who took the money she earned, who made her handle all projects and then attacked her over the results, who refused to discuss having children, who demanded sex every day for twenty years, who had a multi-year affair, and who is now leaving her for another woman after she played the role of “The Dutiful and Obedient and Accommodating Wife” for twenty years.

Some might conclude that she was more likely to have been in love with the idea of love or with the idea of “the two of you” or with the idea of their being “a couple.” Some might conclude that she enjoyed being seen about town with what she described as “the best-looking man in town” who bought “the biggest mansion in the city” where they “entertained lavishly.” Some would study her words and conclude that she was in love with something other than “him.” She knows the price they paid for their mansion to the penny, but she does not know the price she has paid by internalizing another person instead of finding her True Self.

Likely, for the first time in decades, she is in a position to finally be true to her Self rather than playing the role of “His Wife” (“his” meaning literally, “the wife possessed by him”). She is in a position to stop playing her false roles of “The Wife” and “The Opposite-Sex Clone of a Man” and “The Provider of Daily Sex.” She thinks he is leaving her, but the fact is that he was never "with" her. She thinks she is dying now, but she has been "dead" for years (meaning, dead to her True Self).

The relevant Advaita pointer has been offered earlier:

The belief by persons that their various roles actually define who they are becomes entrenched. Then, if personas feel that they are being hurt, challenged, interfered with, or threatened, most persons become willing to fight to preserve that which is nothing more than an image. Many have fought to the (relative) death to preserve the false personality that their “minds” have convinced them is who they actually are.

With her threats to kill herself, the woman is “entrenched” in the roles of “Wife,” “Socialite,” “Co-Owner of a Mansion,” “The Woman Enhanced by Being with a Handsome Man,” “The Woman Who Will Always Be Secure, Having Married the Rich Man,” ad infinitum. With those ego-states now being “threatened,” she is ready to fight to the death. In this case, the fight to the death involves her own relative death because she is convinced that if she cannot continue to play her false roles in “The Drama of the Lie,” that ending the manifestation of the consciousness is the only viable alternative available.

Consider how much suffering persons experience as 50-60% who marry will have to face the lost of their assumed identities and will have to deal with the emotional intoxication that happens when the loss of so many identities strikes at once.

If only all false identities were discarded on one’s own timetable instead of a timetable imposed by a co-dependent sustainer of one’s ego-states. If only the ego-states were discarded while visiting with a teacher/guide under calm and rational circumstances. Then, all of the trauma of having identities snatched away could be avoided by having given them up voluntarily. “The Fearful Employee” can disappear though the job can continue. “The Dutiful, Obedient, Accommodating Wife” could disappear though the marriage could continue (the indication for intensive counseling notwithstanding).

The difference is this: the Realized can still feel what they feel without becoming “robotic,” as some charge. Feelings are witnessed as they rise and fall, but the Realized are free of the assumption of false identities that drive persons to think that the loss of a culturally-assigned label is grounds for suicide. Realization, which allows for AS IF living, is a pre-emptive strike against that which will eventually strike all persons absorbed in ego-states. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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EGO-STATES: Either The Invisible Drivers or The Former Hijackers or The Eventual Destroyers, Part Four

FROM A SITE VISITOR: So the whole problem really begins with ego, right? Sam (PS Thanks for the blog site.)

F.: Henry David Thoreau suggested that most persons live “lives of quiet desperation.” An example of that is being observed in the case cited earlier in this series in which a woman is considering suicide because she is losing her “wife” label. Among the Realized, the quiet does often mark the relative existence but desperation mars none of it. The Realized merely see all exactly as it is yet still live in a contented, AS IF fashion that allows peace to happen whether “in relationship” or not, whether “in love” or not, or whether “married” or not. That is never the case with persons (the non-Realized).

Most persons move in and out of what they think are “personal relationships,” often settling into one that they think will be forever. That concept of “personal relationship” amounts to “duality to the second power,” so to speak, because “personal” is rooted in personas and because “relationship” requires a belief that there are two persons who are relating to each other (as opposed to the unicity being known). Were the unicity to be known, there would be nothing happening that could be taken “personally,” there would be no need to work on trying to “relate,” and there would be no ego or egotism driving all “interactions.”

However, since persons cannot witness objectively and see all exactly as it is, they operate in denial, claiming that “all is going along quite well, actually” and that “things in my life are as good as—or far better than—can be expected.” (If that were the case, why is it that as of January 2007, substance abuse rates are at an all-time high as persons try to escape the relative circumstances which they cannot cope with? Why is it that in the U.S., doctors are prescribing anti-depressants to over 10,000,000 women each year? And why is it that 25% of men and women are now abusing alcohol at a level that indicates a need for some level of treatment?)

Can Advaita lead to Realization which could provide a means by which "two" could function in a natural, "not-two" manner? Of course. Since few will ever Realize, though, is it likely that the relative problems that persons are experiencing in “personal relationships” will be reduced? Of course not. How could "two" who do not know the “not-two” possibly have any clue about what the term “love” is trying to point to?

How can persons who do not have the slightest clue about Who/What They Truly Are have any clear understanding of what “love”—or anything else—is? Since their “world” is nothing more than a distorted image of their own “I-consciousness,” and since that warped consciousness traps them in the false I / ego, and since that entrapment will motivate them to seek a perfect clone of themselves to “love,” all persons end up in love with self only. Several previous pointers are relevant in that regard:

Persons desiring to know what love is might benefit more (relatively speaking, of course) if they were able to understand what love is not.

What persons call "love" is the most magnificent experience of all; it is also the most horrendous experience of all. With such duality, how can that possibly be taken for the real? As for feeling or emotion, if love happens as a feeling, take the ride and watch the feelings rise and fall; if love happens as an emotion—that is, if it is being "experienced" by a person in an ego-state—prepare for war.

If such a discussion makes “you” feel uncomfortable to even consider the subject matter, find WHO is it that feels uncomfortable. And even if the discussion does make “you” feel uncomfortable, can you nevertheless relate to any part of the above?

For example, have you ever been convinced that you have really known someone—a friend, an employer, a spouse, a lover, whatever—only to find later that your impression or image of them was totally wrong and that maybe you had been totally fooled? When “the wife” becoming the “not-wife” was asked if her story could be shared anonymously on this site, she said, “If it might keep others from making the mistakes I made, then it’s fine with me.”

That supposes that, trapped as she was in a false identity, she chose to do what she did. It also supposes that if you are trapped in a false persona, you can have freedom of choice, if you can learn from her mistakes (which is not likely to happen either). Would anyone seriously believe that she chose the life she has lived for the last twenty years? Trapped as a result of assuming the false identity of “The Insecure and Dutiful Wife,” she acquiesced to a man’s demand that she abandon her natural instinct to have a child; that she work but never receive any of the pay for her work; that she assent to his daily demands for sex; and that she stand by in denial as he took another woman on trips and as he set up an apartment for the two of them. Now she claims that "he fooled her and didn’t love her," though "she loved him."

She loved him, or she entered into a co-dependent/dependent "relationship" and assumed multiple identities that required his presence to sustain them? Was that love that drove her to behave as she did in her relationship with him? Would love require the abandonment of natural instincts? Would love require that she forfeit the hope of having a child? Would love require the abandonment of Self? Would love require the forfeiture of all that is earned from one’s employment? Would love require that one place one’s head in the sand in order to maintain the status quo and status? Was that love she was showing, or was desire and fear being displayed as an ego-state was driving her and forcing her to place her relative existence on hold to please another and to prevent her from ever seeking the True and Authentic Self? Did she love him, or did she love the roles and the perks that came from sharing a house and a bed with a man she described as being "very handsome and very rich"?

Now, she wants to die without realizing that she has already been dead for 20 years to the degree that she lived a relative existence for someone else and without being true to Self. He had two lives; she had none. For her, the opportunity has finally come for the first time in two decades to actually Realize and then live a contented AS IF existence rather than to end the manifestation. But she would have to find the truth that these earlier considerations (based in non-duality) are pointing to:

“I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.” Oriah Mountain Dreamer

“It appears that where marriage is solemnized by the church and blessed by the priest, it may at the same time be surrounded with customs and ideas of a frivolous, superficial, and even prurient character. Love between a man and a woman is founded on the mating instinct and is not free from desire and self-seeking.” Charles Eastman

“I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to Your Self; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.” Oriah Mountain Dreamer
Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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THE MESSAGE OF NON-DUALITY, From India and Asia to the “Americas,” Part Five

[These discussions of the Advaita-Asia-India-“Native American” unicity are in response to an e-mail regarding the May 27th HBO presentation of “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.” You may visit http://www.hbo.com/films/burymyheart/ if interested in details. In an interview with actor-American Indian Adam Beach who plays Ohiyesa/Dr. Charles Eastman, Beach noted how the white man’s dualistic judgments affected him during childhood and into adulthood: “Imagine people trying to tell you being Indian is bad, is wrong and that your culture, your tradition is dealing with the devil. It affects my generation. After a hundred years of this manipulation of 'you're not a good person,' it really affects us.”]

CASE STUDY: A First-Hand Account of the Advaita Message as Transmitted by One of the Indigenous Peoples in the U.S. (Continued from yesterday)

THE FIRST TASTE OF THE CYCLES AND A SECOND TASTE OF NIRVANA
F.: (Are you seeing that the consciousness that was called "Grandmother" can still teach us all?)

With Grandmother, witnessing happened more than anything else. During walks in the woods, deer and owls and hawks and rabbits and coyotes and eagles and snakes and foxes and fish in the nearby stream and scores of species of birds would be witnessed. Once, while gathering herbs with her, I asked, “Can we get into trouble for trespassing if the owner catches us?” She said something that, at the time, made no sense at all: “Do not be concerned. No one owns the land.” I thought but did not say, Grandmother, all land is owned by somebody." Each morning, Grandmother would go into the woods alone after sending me to the garden where I picked the vegetables that we would prepare for lunch and dinner and placed them in a bushel basket: Let's see...for lunch we'll have okra and tomatoes, corn, and cream peas with cornbread, and tonight we'll eat blackeyed peas, potatoes, and the chunks of smoked ham that the woman gave Grandmother in gratitude for curing her migraines.

Many times at night, while sitting with her in the rockers on the porch, the plaintive cry of a bobcat could be heard in the distance as fireflies passed before our eyes. Grandmother could lift an upturned hand and the fireflies would land on her palm and walk about. On the few occasions when I could be still, they would do the same with me. (It seemed that I could not unwind during the first days of my visits with her, but the longer I was there, the more slowly I began to move.) The rustle of insects’ wings could be heard. Chirping crickets provided a musical background for a small child sitting next to his Ah-ni-yv-wi-ya Grandmother. But a happening one evening provided another taste of Nirvana. (Those early tastes would eventually drive me throughout a multi-decade-long quest as an adult to try to recapture the calm and soothing sense of at-one-ment that came in those early Nirvana moments to a child on retreat.)

It was late one evening when Grandmother and I were using paring knives to strip away willow bark in preparation for making a healing potion. Another woman would be visiting early the next morning, also for treatment for migraine headaches. After the bark was taken into the kitchen and put to soak with other herbs, we returned to the front porch and sat in rocking chairs. I was unaware of how vigorously my chair was moving on the dark porch, nor how still Grandmother’s chair was in contrast. Unconsciously, when my rapid rocking walked the chair to the edge of the porch, I stood, moved it back, and began the process all over again. Later, the full moon would clear the tops of some of the trees in the piney woods in front of the house, and a gap between the limbs of the taller trees allowed moonbeams to strike Grandmother.

I glanced to my right to see that she was looking straight ahead toward the trees and the moon. She was enlightened as the moon bathed her in a bluish luminosity that was still bright enough to reveal the brown spots that covered the top of her hands, hands which looked to be more bone than skin. I looked at my smooth right hand, then at the rough skin on her left hand, and then at the lines that crossed her face. Nature would not allow those lines to be ironed out into a smooth texture ever again. An obscure awareness of something about “patterns” or “cycles” or “phases” tried to surface from the brain-stem, but I had no tools to use to clear the way for it to come into consciousness: even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were.

So there sat a child that had not yet cycled one decade with a grandmother that had cycled many. There was smooth skin and rough, there was a day that had cycled into night, there was a moon cycling across the sky, and that full moon would soon complete another cycle as well. There was something there to be understood, but it was beyond my grasp, so the nervous rocking began again. And again to the edge of the porch. And again, a chair pushed back beside Grandmother’s. I looked to the right and saw Grandmother’s blue, expressionless face looking forward into the moonlight, then my rocking began again as I looked at her hand, at mine, and at the moon that had moved diagonally into a higher position in the sky.

With my chair moving front-to-back, front-to-back, front-to-back, I looked again at Grandmother, beautiful now in the subtle color that was fading into a darker blue. Something wanted to be realized, yet I was decades from that happening. Then suddenly, my rocking stopped...and did not start up again. And when it was obvious that something had stilled the chair and would keep it still for the rest of the night, I looked at Grandmother, still looking straight ahead, but I saw a smile form on her lips. Remember the peace that may be found in silence.

Then, I began to feel a calmness. Next, I felt her left hand move from the arm of her rocker and rest itself atop my right. In the stillness, I had finally become…available. The moon had moved so high into the sky that the roof of the porch was beginning to cast us into shadow. I looked down at those two hands and, for some reason, they did not look so different anymore when viewed in the fading light. I looked at her and she looked at me, and she smiled and I smiled, and then we both looked back toward the piney trees and the sky above, and I knew, by nothing more than the touch of a hand, exactly what it was like to love and to be loved, unconditionally. I felt in harmony with all things. Being Indian is an attitude…a way of being in harmony with all things and all beings. It is allowing the heart to be the distributor of energy on this planet. Yet that feeling would last but briefly. After reaching the “adult years,” it would take decades for it to manifest again.

Yet for a few moments that night, I sat back, in Nirvana, experiencing something that was indefinable to a small child, without a clue...but also without a single fear or a single desire. I felt, but did say out loud, “I feel whole; I feel complete; I feel safe; I feel happy; I feel like all is well; OK, Grandmother, I have learned another lesson and I am not concerned.” When I sneaked another glance at her, it seemed that Grandmother was even closer than by my side. I could not understand, but that did not interrupt the peace. The first peace, which is the most important, comes from within when people realize their oneness with the universe. I would barely remember being gently shaken some time later, coaxed to my feet from the rocker, guided to a bed from my rocking chair with her arm wrapped around my back and side as she half-carried, half-walked me out of the shadows and through the night and into the comfort of very, very deep sleep.

How about you? Have you had a taste of Nirvana that you might be recalling once again? Was the taste sweet enough to trigger a search to find it and keep it? If not, is the bitterness of not having that sweet taste enough to inspire you to begin to follow “the path” that will lead you there? Are you ready to walk out of the shadows and through the night and into the comfort of Realization? Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS, Part Four, The Conclusion

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Please explain consciousness as opposed to awareness. Thank you. Harish

[The discussion continues by referencing the picture posted on 3 May 2007. Please review the picture before continuing.]

F.: But all of the happenings in the picture's background of unicity, as well as all of the supposed happenings that are occurring via the manifested, dualistic consciousness in the foreground, are only possible because of the energy of the sunlight breaking through the clouds in the background. Without that background energy which is manifesting in the plants, nothing in the foreground could be happening. (As Szent-Gyorgyi said: “What drives life is…a little electric current, set up by the sunshine.”) Consciousness could not happen except for the background of Awareness, but Awareness IS, whether consciousness is manifested or not and whether consciousness of “this” or “that” is happening or not. Similarly, “stickiness” exists, even after the elements that form the glue stick return to the original pool of elements.

At the atomic and sub-atomic levels of matter/energy as “clouds” and “mountains” and “trees” in the background, Awareness IS. Yet there is no “one” that is conscious of anything. So it is when the temporarily manifested conscious-energy unmanifests and is subsequently “re-absorbed” into that unmanifested field of The Absolute.

Note too that in the foreground, many things seem significant: a delivery must be made on time; people must be at work on time; and food must be purchased in the mercato and consumed in order for the consciousness to remain manifested in the physical space. In the background, however, everything is merely cycling and nothing matters at all: clouds come and go; mountains that had formed will someday crumble; and trees that are rising will one day fall. So it is when abidance happens as the Absolute: what happens will happen, yet “the insignificant” is never misperceived as “significant.” That faulty perception that results in the insignificant being considered significant only happens via warped consciousness, via assumption of personas, and via the emotional intoxication that personas generate.

Revisiting the second analogy (the glue stick), take “sticky” to be a relative existence attribute of the elements combining as "glue" but take “stickiness” to be the underlying essence of glue; similarly, take Awareness to be the underlying essence of Reality that is beyond the relative and beyond attributes. Take “stickiness” to be the actual “identity” of the temporarily manifested elements called “glue,” and take Awareness to be the actual “identity” of that which is temporarily manifested and called Consciousness. Just as scientists discuss the various “forms of energy,” take Consciousness to be a form of the originally pure, unadulterated energy which manifests and which then becomes impure and adulterated as the consciousness is programmed and conditioned and enculturated.

If that is understood, and if it is understood how consciousness is corrupted, then it also becomes understood why seekers need a guide (or a guidebook with clear-cut directions, or both). As explained earlier…

…here is why the seeker must transition seven steps in order to realize: In the limitless expanse of energy called “The Absolute,” that energy which has the ability to be aware of, if manifested, is uncontaminated, unconditional, unconditioned, unqualified, unlimited, pure, unadulterated, and unambiguous. When the consiousness manifests in the space called “a human,” programming and conditioning and enculturation soon result in it being contaminated, conditioned, impure, adulterated, and ambiguous. That contaminating process results in seven degrees of separation from Reality, in seven degrees of separation from awareness of What the consciousness Truly Is, and from awareness of its original, unadulterated nature. Seven steps were involved in the-graduated-bastardization-of-consciousness process, so seven steps of re-purification must happen if the consciousness is to be restored to its natural, non-dual, no-concept, unadulterated state.

Only after Self-Realization can the movement to the next level happen, which is abidance not merely as the (re-purified) Consciousness but as the Absolute. This is often missed: even Self-Realization is not the end of the “journey.” That is why protégés have been encouraged to understand the post-Realization Teachings as presented in CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS: The Nature of Reality Beyond Self-Realization (Peace Every Day When Abiding as The Absolute). Even after having read From the I to the Absolute, even after completing the seven-step journey to reality, and even after Self-Realization, there is no guarantee of unwavering peace unless the Consciousness/Awareness is understood in order to abide as The Absolute for the remainder of the manifestation.

Even the Self-Realized, abiding as the re-purified consciousness, will experience instability since all consciousness must necessarily involve some element of duality, conscious of-ness being inescapable in that abidance. Absolute stabilization can only happen via abidance as the Absolute whereby Awareness happens without any "one" thinking there is someone or something that is present and able to be “aware of”: Realization is four steps beyond “The Religious One” and “The Spiritual One,” and awareness is even beyond that One which knows the unicity and which knows the beingness and the non-beingness. Abidance as the consciousness guarantees that duality will never be forfeited completely. Only the Awareness is “One” without any “one.” Consciousness can know the "not two." Awareness is the absolute "not two." If you stay alert to the reality of "not two-ness," then for the sake of discussion you might take consciousness to be the essence of beingness, the re-purified consciousness to be the essence of non-beingness, and awareness to be the essence of the Reality beyond both beingness and non-beingness.

Now, Harish, all that having been said, return to the original pointer: in the no-concept, non-dual Reality, there is no "one thing as opposed to some other thing." Therefore, the Advaitin understands that "I AM THAT; I AM" can be stated and understood without any sense of duality at all. So can "Consciousness/Awareness." Please enter the silence of contemplation.

CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS, Part Three

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Please explain consciousness as opposed to awareness. Thank you. Harish

F.: The excerpt from the book, CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS: The Nature of Reality Beyond Self-Realization (Peace Every Day When Abiding as The Absolute), continues and the picture referred to is in the 3 May 2007 post:

Please review the picture posted yesterday. Next, for purposes of illustration, take the foreground in the picture to represent the I-Amness and the background to be the I AM THAT-ness. Take the foreground to represent Consciousness and the background to represent Awareness. Note that consciousness involves being conscious of (something) so consciousness is always, ultimately, about duality: “this” is conscious of “that.” (Thus, the seeker who thinks he/she is Fully Realized and is the unicity because he/she knows the True Self is mistaken. That seeker might be Self-Realized, but That Which Truly Is is beyond self-ness, Self-ness, beingness, non-beingness, and realizing. It is even beyond “conscious of-ness.”)

PLEASE NOTE: The (Peace Every Day When Abiding as The Absolute) referred to in the aforementioned title manifests when abidance “beyond conscious of-ness” happens. The relative existence comparison offered by Advaitins is "the deep sleep metaphor" wherein peace happens beyond relative consciousness. (Compare the “beyond conscious of-ness” to the awareness of the body’s need that automatically, spontaneously keeps the heart and the lungs functioning even as there is no “one” present to consciously “do” that. Also, understand the automatic, spontaneous functioning in order to understand how your relative existence can happen with no illusion of a “do-er” being present and with abidance happening even beyond conscious of-ness. That happens when abidance as the Absolute happens.)

To continue with the discussion of the picture from yesterday, the doingness in the foreground is marked by consciousness and a sense of duality. Persons unaware of the unicity believe that they are conscious of some vast multiplicity of things: houses, roads, crops, intersections, buses, mercatos, etc. In the background of the picture, which includes trees and clouds and mountains and sky and sunlight, there is no sense of duality. Why? There is no “one” to be conscious of anything, yet there is awareness. In what way is “Awareness without Conscious of-ness” present in the background?

Observe that there appears to be a variety of “cloud” formations, but see that “the clouds” are not the real. What is “real,” for the sake of this example, is H20. As for awareness, a series of two hydrogen atoms are aware of an oxygen atom, but there is no “one” that is present to be conscious of anything. Awareness is just happening, so Awareness is not dualistic in its nature. (Yes, this explanation is beyond what has been offered on the site to some seekers who were not ready for this level of discussion. By virtue of the fact that Harish asked, there is evidence that he might be.)

The H20 can manifest in various "forms" or "spaces" which persons try to separate with labeling into “rain, rivers, lakes, clouds, vapor, water, snow, snowmen, snowballs, snow cones, snow flurries, snow flakes, snow piles, slush, ice, steam, lakes, pools, waterfalls, streams, fog, ponds, hail, drizzle, floods, mist, swamps, oceans, seas,” ad infinitum, but it’s really all one thing, all H20, merely appearing to be different. (See why persons live in the delusion of duality? See why persons are not "in the world" and why "the world" is in them...in their wrongly-perceiving "minds" that take what they think they see to be real and that try to support "differentiation" through labeling?)

Similarly, consciousness can manifest via the spaces labeled as "plants, animals, humans, birds," etc., and though it’s really all consciousness manifested, it appears to the non-Realized to be multiple and different things. For any perception of rain, rivers, plants, or animals to happen, conscious of-ness must also happen, and as a result of inaccurate suppositions rooted in distorted perception, the illusion of duality manifests.

(Again, it should be seen why it is frequently repeated on this site that, ultimately, there is no “goal” of abiding as Consciousness. For full freedom to happen during the manifestation of consciousness, abidance must happen as the Absolute.)

As with the “atoms as clouds,” whereby awareness can happen without any “one” being conscious of, so it is as the Absolute. Awareness is, even as there is no “one” to be aware of. Thus Awareness involves no duality. To use the second analogy, the glue is considered “sticky” as it adheres one thing to another (so it is dualistic in its very nature) but that which is independent and eternal is the glue's fundamental essence of “stickiness” (which is non-dual in its nature).

In both the foreground and the background of the picture from yesterday, everything is merely happening; however, in the foreground where consciousness has been corrupted, consciousness takes itself to be something it is not and leads persons to believe that they are making things happen and that they are seeing separate things. Persons are taking themselves to be “do-ers,” are lacking an understanding of the unicity, and are, therefore, strapped with delusional thinking generated by an illusory "mind."

So Harish, are you beginning to understand why you were advised that “in the no-concept, non-dual reality, there is nothing ‘opposed to’ anything else” but that your question could be addressed by discussing the supposed “attributes” of Awareness and Consciousness? Glue sticks and Scotch tape and Post-It Notes can be discussed; while manifested, they can each exhibit the "attribute" of being sticky; but someday the atrophy process will happen and those elements will return to the universal pool of elements. Then, what remains? Not glue sticks and Scotch tape and Post-It Notes but only “stickiness.”

Now, please understand what can and what cannot happen with the Post-It Notes in order to understand what cycles and what does not. If you understand this, then you can be free of nonsensical beliefs such as the Dalai Lama's “New Orleans was struck by Hurricane Katrina because of the bad (dualistic) karma of the people” or such nonsense as “Harish is going to cycle and cycle and cycle again, until he gets it right (duality)”:

it could be that millions of old Post-It Notes might be processed through a pulper that chops the paper into small bits and then heats them in a mixture that breaks them down into fibrous strands of cullulose (which is merely organic plant material). Then, the pulp can be screened and, if necessary, de-inked and color-stripped. After bleaching, that can be processed in a manner that results in it again taking the form of paper which can, in turn, take the form of Post-It Notes again. But what cycled? The organic elements. Are these the same Post-It Notes that existed before? Of course not. Will all Post-It Notes be recycled? No. Can their “form” end permanently? Yes. Can the organic material used to make paper be destroyed? No.

If recycled, it is the same organic material which can cycle into a form that appears to be the same, but that material could as easily take the form and appearance of a legal pad, a magazine, or a book. (That is how trillions upon trillions of "humans and animals and birds" have cycled into and out of manifested form on the planet while the planet has experienced zero-gain and zero-loss: organic material is merely being cycled, and it all happens with a speck of energy manifesting via plants. In the relative, you are what you eat and nothing more. It happens spontaneously with no master-control or Master-control involved. With condolences to those who take themselves or their offspring to be "gifts from God," what is really going on, and on-going, is a simple and natural organic happening, not a supernatural happening.)

Conscious-energy cycles (or not) in the same manner as the Post-It Notes. In the case of the legal pad, the magazine or the book, the attribute of "being sticky" would not happen, yet “stickiness” still remains though the original "sticky note paper" does not remain in its previous form. (Dennis Waite makes this clear by noting that those who are inpeccable with their words will talk of "tably wood," not of a "wooden table.") Do you grasp fully the functioning of the totality? Do you understand completely what cycles, how it cycles, what does not cycle, what remains forever, and what is only temporarily manifested? Please enter the silence of contemplation. (Tomorrow: The Conclusion)

ADVAITA TEACHINGS: Relevant, or Not? Part Two

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.: Next, the very fact that you found this site and wrote to it is evidence that you are searching for something. Ultimately, only the search for Self can result in finding anything that is real. All else that you have been searching for is illusion-based, so at this point you have no choice but to live a life that is based in lies. Yet you question the relevance of teachings that invite you to search for truth and to find that which is Real as you are "trying to navigate through" your misconceived I-Amness?

While your search should focus on that which can be discovered from within, you are obviously searching for that which is external to You as you “navigate” about. Using that approach, seeking something or someone that you think you "need," you will always be needy and dependent or co-dependent. Then you will never be free, and if not free, how can you possibly have a sense of fulfillment? See the circular trap you are in? Also, as you come across in a needy, dependent fashion, you will only attract persons who are prone to seek out, manipulate, and take advantage of the needy types and the dependent types.

Further, as you search outside yourself, reinforcing your false belief in subject-object (which was also discussed in the recent postings that you are challenging) you will engage in one “relationship” after another which can only lead to instability and chaos. (Remember the eternal, subatomic influence that triggers a desire to “relate to” something? Do you see how that is dualistic at its very core?) Why will that search guarantee misery rather than the happiness and fulfillment that you seek? Because you will mistake your culture’s definition of “love” for the real. In that regard, this pointer is offered in the book FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality):

What persons call "love" is the most magnificent experience of all; it is also the most horrendous experience of all. With such duality, how can that possibly be taken for the real? As for feeling or emotion, if love happens as a feeling, take the ride and watch the feelings rise and fall; if love happens as an emotion—that is, if it is being "experienced" by a person in an ego-state—prepare for war.

Not knowing that You Are the unicity, you will identify with a variety of ego-states and those will assure that (1) you will seek to find someone to “make” you happy; (2) even if someone else makes you happy for a time, if they have that power to make you happy, then they also have the power to make you miserable; and (3) all of your “relations” will, therefore, advance and degenerate along this continuum:

stranger -> acquaintance -> friend -> best friend -> lover -> spouse -> one’s beloved -> eventually, irritating spouse -> enemy -> ex-spouse -> mortal enemy

If you do not understand the unicity, which you don’t, you will search for persons and things to “make you happy;” thus; any notions that you have about love will be at a self-serving level only. In that regard, see the relevance of pointers offered in regards to subject-object witnessing and transitioning beyond to the Pure Witnessing level: when you believe “I love him/her,” that subject-object belief sets the stage for you to also experience “I hate him/her” or “She/he hates me.” In the book CASTING LIGHT ON THE DARK SIDE OF RELATIONSHIPS, the problems are identified before solutions are offered, and one relative problem is rooted in all of the misunderstandings about “what love is,” about "what love is not," and in the duality of subject-object. For one involved in external searching, as you are, that pointer should also be relevant.

Why else discuss emotions vs. feelings and witnessing? Emotional reactions are the product of assumed identities—false ego-states—and one who is emotionally intoxicated cannot be happy or at peace. Peace can happen, on the other hand, when feelings are witnessed as they rise and fall. Then, the full spectrum of AS IF living can happen without the misery of emotional intoxication. My teacher offered this pointer: "Love says "I am everything." Wisdom says "I am nothing." Between the two, my life flows."

Finally, happiness can only happen if free. One identified with body and mind and personality can never be free. Freedom from all nonsense and desire and fear can only happen via the re-purification of the consciousness and Full Realization. As far as this Is-ness is concerned, what could be more relevant than these Teachings that can lead to an understanding that can provide, in turn, freedom and happiness/contentment for the remainder of the manifestation? Yet peace does not come to the seeker. Peace comes when seeking ends as a result of having found, yet those searching externally will think on occasion that they have found, only to learn later that they have not. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

WORKING ON “THE FINAL PIECE” AND PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER?

Click FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)

WORKING ON ISSUES ARISING IN RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE NON-REALIZED AND ON FINDING SOLUTIONS TO “RELATIONSHIP PROBLEMS”?

Click CASTING LIGHT ON THE DARK SIDE OF RELATIONSHIPS

UNDERSTANDING THE UNICITY

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Thanx for sharing the story by Dennis Waite. I’m just getting starting with Advaita Vedanta and he cleared up part of the oneness idea that I’ve been having trouble understanding. I don't have it all down yet, but that helped.

F.: Agreed. The experiential approach is a highly effective means by which the Teachings can be transmitted. To reinforce the pointers, review the August ’06 entry, part of which included the following:

Understanding the unicity reveals that a pile of ashes, a pile of dust, you, a dog, a tree, a piano, and a plant are no different. All of those “seemingly different things” are one thing. Supposed differences perceived by the human eye and misunderstood as a result of warped “minds” are the result of varying vibrational frequencies only. Humanity’s (post-programming) propensity for misperceiving everything makes persons believe that differences are real rather than grasping the truth of the unity beyond the wrongly-perceived multiplicity.

H20 might temporarily manifest in the shape of this or that. Is a so-called cube really a cube because some humans labeled it as such, or is it just H20? Is a cloud a cloud because some humans labeled it as such, or is it just H20? Is a river really a river because some human labeled it as such, or is it just H20?

Now, take that one step farther: are you “a man” or “a woman” because some human labeled you as such, or are You a quantity of energy that has as one attribute the ability to be aware of while temporarily manifested? Are you “a husband” or “a wife” because some human labeled you as such, or are You a quantity of energy that has as one attribute the ability to be aware of while temporarily manifested? Are you “an employer” or “an employee” because some human labeled you as such, or are You a quantity of energy that has as one attribute the ability to be aware of while temporarily manifested? Are you the elements that have temporarily combined into a space, or are You a quantity of energy that has as one attribute the ability to be aware of while temporarily manifested? Are you “bad” or “good” because some parent or some religious or spiritual expert labeled you as such, or are You a quantity of energy that has as one attribute the ability to be aware of while temporarily manifested? And untimately, are You the consciousness that has manifested temporarily, or are You the Absolute?

The book FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality) http://floydhenderson.com/iamabsolute.htm expands upon that explication. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
ANNOUNCEMENT: Several months ago, after a five-year hiatus from receiving visitors and from accepting invitations to meet with groups and offer the non-duality teachings, the consciousness was moved to accept requests from several groups. In nearby cities over the last six months, satsanga was arranged in order to offer the teachings to certain small groups. That has led to inquiries into whether “the advaita vedanta retreats with floyd” will also be offered again. Information regarding retreat opportunites that are available may now be found at http://advaitavedantaretreats.blogspot.com/ or by clicking on the link to the upper right. The daily postings on this site will continue, and responses to inquiries from "seekers" will continue to be offered.

THERE IS NO DUALITY--THE UNICITY IS ALL THERE IS

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Thanx for sharing the story by Dennis Waite. That approach was effective.

F.: Agreed. The experiential approach is a highly-effective means by which the Teachings can be tranmitted. To reinforce the pointers, review the August ’06 entry, part of which included the following:

Understanding the unicity reveals that a pile of ashes, a pile of dust, you, a dog, a tree, a piano, and a plant are no different. All of those “seemingly different things” are one thing. Supposed differences perceived by the human eye and misunderstood as a result of warped “minds” are the result of varying vibrational frequencies only. Humanity’s (post-programming) propensity for misperceiving everything makes persons believe that differences are real rather than grasping the truth of the unity beyond the wrongly-perceived multiplicity.

H20 might temporarily manifest in the shape of this or that. Is a so-called cube really a cube because some humans labeled it as such, or is it just H20? Is a cloud a cloud because some humans labeled it as such, or is it just H20? Is a river really a river because some human labeled it as such, or is it just H20? Now, take that one step farther: are you “a man” or “a woman” because some human labeled you as such, or are You a quantity of energy that has as one attribute the ability to be aware of while temporarily manifested? Are you “a husband” or “a wife” because some human labeled you as such, or are You a quantity of energy that has as one attribute the ability to be aware of while temporarily manifested? Are you “an employer” or “an employee” because some human labeled you as such, or are You a quantity of energy that has as one attribute the ability to be aware of while temporarily manifested? Are you the elements that have temporarily combined into a space, or are You a quantity of energy that has as one attribute the ability to be aware of while temporarily manifested? Are you “bad” or “good” because some parent or some religious or spiritual expert labeled you as such, or are You a quantity of energy that has as one attribute the ability to be aware of while temporarily manifested? And ultimately, are You the consciousness that has manifested temporarily, or are You the Absolute? The book FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE expands upon that explication. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
NOTE: Several months ago, after a five-year hiatus from receiving visitors and from accepting invitations to meet with groups and offer the non-duality teachings, the consciousness was moved to accept requests from several groups. In nearby cities, satsanga was arranged and nonduality sessions were offered which focused primarily on the nisarga yoga approach. That has led to inquiries into whether “the advaita vedanta retreats with floyd” will also be offered again. Information regarding the nonduality, Advaita Vedanta retreat opportunites that are available may now be found at http://advaitavedantaretreats.blogspot.com/ or by clicking on the link to the upper right.