I AM & I AM THAT: "TEMPORARY" AS OPPOSED TO "PERMANENT," BUT NOT TWO

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.

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.

ABIDING AS THE I AM VS. ABIDING AS THE ABSOLUTE

From a site visitor: Why do you say that only “abiding as the Abolute” can bring peace. I read that peace comes if you focus on the “I Am.”

[Note: the sharing today is for those protégés at the later steps of the “journey.” These pointers which are relevant for the few at that “advanced stage” will not, and need not, align with pointers offered to protégés at other points.]

F.: That’s a legitimate query because both teachings have their place for proteges at varying steps along the “journey.” (If you are not familiar with the terms “wet charcoal, dry charcoal, and gunpowder,” use the search engine at the top of this page to research this site for an explanation of those first.) The wet charcoal must dry out and then become as gunpowder if Full Realization is to explode inrto consciousness. That said, a child must crawl before it walks; similarly, a protégé must focus on the I AM before abiding as the Absolute. Yet focusing as wholeheartedly on the I AM as you might can only provide a temporary respite from the insanity and misery and suffering that persons are experiencing (or which they will be experiencing if they currently are not.)

To focus on the I-Amness is to ignore the fact that the very beingness itself is the initial source of physical pain and mental-emotional despair. Prior to the beingness, no problems existed. Prior to the manifestation, there were no troubles, no dilemmas, no crises. No predicaments were faced, no losses were imagined. There were no relative existence quandaries, no advances, no setbacks. There were neither feelings to witness as they constantly rise and fall, and there was no emotional intoxication to suffer. Physical ailments did not happen, mental illnesses did not happen, financial problems did not happen, struggles with the vicissitudes of nature did not happen.

Wars, famine, genocide, murders, rapes, burglaries, and robberies did not happen. Trouble with personal relationships and addictions did not happen. The stresses of school and child-rearing and employment did not happen. The daily grind of 9-5 did not happen. Multi-hour commutes did not happen. Having to deal with incompetent people in businesses, and in city and state and federal governments, did not happen. Dealing with the preponderance of insanity in the community and "the world" did not happen. All of that came with the beingness.

While focusing for a time on the beingness, an undertaking that provides some relief from all the energy-draining doingness, the fact remains that some do-er has to exist to do that focusing, some do-er has to exist to undertake that undertaking, and some do-er has to exist to experience the beingness. Are you beginning to see the glitch? Persons experience misery because two other people experienced ecstasy. That set the stage for all of the dualities of the relative existence: one nation is miserable while their conquerers are seemingly estatic; one nationality is miserable as they starve while another is seemingly estatic in their obesity; one living in poverty is miserable as others are seemingly estatic as they squander their fortunes.

If one were to try to apply “an Advaita-based theory” (a contradiction in itself), then they could argue that fixation in the beingness should theoretically assure happiness, contentment, bliss…whatever. The fact, however, is this: though abiding as the I AM might result in less discontentment than abiding as one or more personas, even those abiding as the I-Amness cannot escape periods of dis-ease (even though no emotional intoxication is happening and even as feelings are merely witnessed as they rise and fall). It is the very nature of consciousnes—even the re-purified consciousness—to be aware of such. From the moment that the I-Amness happened to the moment it is no longer happening, feelings (and therefore certain miseries) will happen as well.

In October of ‘05, this pointer was offered:

Asleep you do not know you are. You are unconscious while asleep—not conscious of the fact that consciousness is still present in your body. But when at rest in the sleep state, the consciousness is still present, whether you’re aware of it or not.

Physically asleep, you do not remember the I-Amness, so perfect peace can manifest. Yet you cannot sustain that physical sleep state; therefore, once awake, You again become aware of the I-Amness. In that awareness, the level of peace that happened during sleep cannot remain. That peace can only happen during the waking state by transcending the Is-ness and abiding as the Absolute.

Does this devalue the step which requires abidance as the beingness? No. Just as the third step requires the adoption of a religious and/or spiritual persona that is eventually to be transcended in order to continue the “journey,” so abidance as the beingness must precede abidance as the Absolute. The beingness makes possible the awareness of the True Self, and that Pure Witnessing/Real Self stage makes possible the awareness of the Absolute. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

NO BIRTH, NO LIFE, NO DEATH, Part Two

From a site visitor: On vacation last week and the news was all about a dead politician, a dead singer, or a dead dictator. The dictator seemed pretty cool about the hanging. Got me to wondering. If somebody was truly Realized whenever their time came to die, could they be afraid or would they be relaxed?

F.: Upon the occasion of what persons refer to as “death,” they (the non-Realized) will exhibit one of two emotional reactions:

1. Some in their ignorance might claim to be joyous, believing that their body and mind and personality will last for eternity in a place of “reward” because they were “good” or because they "died for the 'right' cause."

2. Others, in their ignorance, will be most unhappy, stressed over the fact that “their lives” are “coming to an end” or that they might spend eternity is "a place of punishment" because they were “bad” or “good, but not good enough.”

Of course, members of both of those groups are fools, devoid of even the slightest clue of what they’re talking about and incapable of differentiating myth-based fiction from fact. Convinced that they were “born,” they are convinced that they will “die.” Unaware of the Original Understanding of that which cycles and that which does not, they live according to a fictitious timeline of “birth, life, death, judgment, and eternal punishment or reward.” That timeline is a concept that is based in pure ignorance, as are all concepts. Persons look at what they call “their life” and take imaginings, habits, traditions, and memories to be truth. Trapped in their concepts and beliefs, they could not be farther removed from Reality.

To understand what that which persons call "dying" is really about, consider the analogy of the candle: the consciousness that has temporarily manifested in a space can be likened to the flame of a candle, a candle that is slowly burning down and that will be totally extinguished one day. The physical remains of the candle will rejoins the universal pool of elements. The oxygen that allowed the flame to burn for a time will remain, but it will not remain in association with the elements that had temporarily taken the form of a candle. That same space with its candle shape will never be again. The energy associated with the burning will last forever because energy can be neither created nor destroyed. Elements cycling, oxygen cycling, and conscious-energy cycling...that's all that is happening. As for any notion that the candle itself will last forever? Preposterous.

So it shall be with this consciousness: this temporarily manifested consciousness is slowly burning down and will be totally extinguished some day. The remains of the physical body will rejoins the universal pool of elements. The oxygen that facilitated the temporary manifestation will remain but not in association with the elements that had temporarily taken the form of the body. That same body will never be again, and neither will the “mind” nor the personality. The energy-consciousness that was associated with the “space” will last forever because energy can be neither created nor destroyed.

So there is no birth, no life, no death—just energy and matter functioning according to the laws of entropy and atrophy which make clear that (1) all elements and all forms or spaces in the realm of the relative that organize will disorganize, and (2) all forms shall deteriorate and all spaces shall wither away. But even as all that relative activity is happening, it has nothing to do with that which I AM or with that which YOU ARE which does not deteriorate or waste away or break down or wither away. Do you now see the level of ignorance among those who think that they are something special, who think that they know someone special, who believe that they were born, who think they have been “different” all their lives, who think they shall someday die, and who think that their bodies and minds and personalities shall exist in tact for eternity? That is the level of insanity and ignorance that dualistic concepts generate. Please enter the silence of contemplation. TOMORROW: ABIDING AS THE I AM VS. ABIDING AS THE ABSOLUTE

NO BIRTH, NO LIFE, NO DEATH, Part One

From a site visitor: On vacation last week and the news was all about a dead politician, a dead singer, or a dead dictator. The dictator seemed pretty cool about the hanging. Got me to wondering. If somebody was truly Realized whenever their time came to die, could they be afraid or would they be relaxed?

F.: First, everything associated with those events provides another opportunity to witness the relativistic results of the duality that drives the non-Realized: "life vs. death" and "good vs. bad" beliefs are generating insane behavior, the separating of persons by status, multiple funerals for a pile of physical elements, and barbaric conduct that the masses believe is quite normal conduct. In those three cases, as in all cases, what really happened is this: the consciousness manifested spontaneously and unmanifested spontaneously, but persons believe that so much more is involved. In fact, that manifesting and unmanifesting means nothing, but ego has to try to nullify the reality of net zero gain and net zero loss by making judgments about which persons have “value” and which persons are “worthless.” The fact that any persona can impact millions of people says nothing about that persona but says a great deal about the masses.

You can witness in the events you mention the ways that persons (absorbed as they are in their ego-states) are differentiating between “great people” or “notorious people”—people who are being given attention or honors that “regular people” don’t receive. The subsequent rituals—venerating corpses, chauffeuring cadavers from state-to-state in cars, using airplanes to fly carcasses back and forth across the nation, laying dead bodies out for public viewing (and for touching and for kissing in at least one of those instances)—are all rooted in the relative-existence-barbarity of fools who are trapped in their ignorance.

Note the duality as a “great man” receives a great funeral, as “a big entertainer” received a big funeral, and as a “bad man” is hanged because he was definitely “not good” and thus received a small funeral. Further, none of the three corpses will be cremated because the widespread belief is that the carrion must be glorified, conserved, and interred “in tact” so the remains of all three will be ready for their “resurrection” and for their eternal “reward or punishment.” These happenings illustrate the nonsense of dualistic, relativistic beliefs and the lunacy of adhering to rituals; furthermore, they show how attachment to concepts generates barbaric and insane behavior in a “world” that is nothing more than a series of images that persons believe are real.

Next, the answer to your question about dying is covered in detail in WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE? http://floydhenderson.com/whenidie.htm . A site visitor had asked, “What happens when I die?” and the book answers his question by making clear that you cannot die since you were not born. As for your query about what would happen if one were Fully Realized, no fear would happen in regards to any “events,” including the one you mentioned. Being free of fears and desires, there would be no desire to avoid “death” and there would be desire to induce “death.” Moreover, having no fear of dying, the Realized have no fear of living; conversely, having no fear of living, the Realized have no fear of dying. Among the Realized, what happens happens, and whatever happens is merely witnessed (including the witnessing of feelings that rise and fall, which happens without the emotional intoxication that ego-states experience). Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]