If you pursue and rest in the I Am, you obtain liberation while in bliss. If you pursue the subject, the Witness, it keeps receding more and more into the Void so that eventually you are the Void.
But resting in the I Am, you feel the separation between you and the I Am, allowing you to realize you can only Be the Witness, the Absolute. It is not observable, it is not part of the world. It cannot be caught or possessed. You are not part of this physical/energetic world as the Absolute.
Then, by going back and forth between being the Witness and identifying with the I Am, you gain the final understanding that you are both. As long as the body lasts you are an incarnated divine being joined by awareness with the Witness.
COMMENT BY STUDENT:
You started nice, you cannot seek the absolute, you can only be it! After you started writing about seeking and you destroyed the beautiful start!
Ed's RESPONSE:
You belong to that large class of people that have the mistaken concept that all you have to do is stop seeking, stop spiritual effort and all will be revealed. That is absolutely not true. This is a concept that traps you in mediocrity.
Ramana would not agree with that; Nisargadatta and Siddharameshwar would not agree; Robert Adams an I disagree with that; Muktananda, Chetanananda would disagree with that. The six Zen masters I studied with would disagree with that. Buddha would disagree as would all Tibetan Lamas. Ramaykrishna would disagree with that. As a matter of fact, I can't think of any great teacher of present or past who would agree that effort is not necessary except the legion of posers on Facebook.
Only lazy and confused people believe as you do, or the tons of Facebook gurus that make a living off people who want to believe that spiritual effort is useless.
Realizing the Manifest Self--the Life Force permeating our humanity--and the Unmanifest source from which it arises.
raw power
ReplyDeleteAlthough nondual realization itself is entirely effortless, entirely without any sort of contrivance, we need to do the focused practice of subtle inward attunement in order to let go from deep within ourselves. But then we are able to really let go.
ReplyDeleteJudith Blackstone
Every time I hear these comments that "no effort is needed" and " practice is useless", I get chills. Or that there is no self to do practice. These teachers are leading people away from truth and awakening into intellectual stagnation. To me, this the worst kind of ignorance, to actively lead people astray from the most important work a human being has to do. There is no wisdom or compassion there.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate it every time you speak up about this, Edji. Maybe some people will hear you and come back into life.
hello,
ReplyDeleteThank you for this blog, you create a great opportunity to think about the meaning of life, our spiritual life. And i'm learning and enjoying from it.
As far as i can read (maybe you just summarised it), the comment of the student was imo not against spiritual effort but against seeking the i-am. As i meditate,i'm trying to get a balance between all the energies in and around me. The more they become in balance the more i seem to be doing those things that i really want to do; everything that surrounds me and is happening to me gets (more and more, allthough slowly i admit) its place in that balance: all is as it is.
Why should i seek for this i-am? It looks to make things more complicated than they are. Or maybe i should just try it ��
Thanks again for your clear writing, helps a lot.
kind regards
ron peleman, belgium.
Dear Edji,
ReplyDeletePlease tell me about resting in I AM.When i close my eyes I give attention to emotions I feel in heart center.I am aware of sensation of emotion in heart center and at the same time I sense (not actually experience clearly)subtle background on which this experience of sensation is taking place.Or if i want I can give attention to subtle energy movement in my body( particularly in face and head).When giving attention to this energy movement,I can sense the more subtle background more easily and clearly.Is that background I sense is I AM sense?Should i try and rest in that subtle background or should I rest in energy movement I experience?
You have not yet felt a clear presence of the I Am sensation, but it will be found in the foreground in front of you as aliveness, energy, and as being very intimate to you.
ReplyDeleteThe background is really an intuition of the witness, and is not appropriate to seeing and feeling the I Am.
Ultimately you are both. But from my point of view, stay with the foreground, love, identification and expansion of the energies. The self will come.
Dear Edji,
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot for the answer.Your latest post-dialouges with Jay about Ranjit Maharaj also makes it clearer.Thanks.