Two Realized Beings Recognize Each Other

Dear Ed,

I wanted to write to thank you for your book “Self-Realization and Other Awakenings”. I read half the book in one sitting and plan on finishing the rest today. I want to say that your writing is excellent and your ability to put forth difficult realizations that really should be understood thru silence is amazing and inspiring. I struggle with the thought of writing about realizations that really cant be put into words ( and perhaps shouldn't). But you have done this. 

I don't know much about Robert Adams and the others that you mention. I do agree with your description of the variuos awakenings you and others have had. I have read a lot but not as a seeker but to confirm my realizations and understandings which don't seem to have a readily available source of “verification” in my immediate environment. I find your descriptions helps me feel a little less isolated knowing you and others have had similar awakenings. I don't feel I need confirmation but I thank you for putting out all the effort to put forth a document that has made me feel there are others (living) out there. 

I have not followed any teachers or gurus. The inner and outer shakti of god would not let me go my whole life. She forced me to introspection and growth and realization, which never ends. Such as it is, it never changes but always creates everything. The sky of the heart is the creator of all things and it blesses my apparent self everyday. You confirmed that crazy wisdom and mystery and love that comes with surrender to the source of everything.

Bob

Ed: Thank you Bob for your confirming words.  Yes the miracle of "shakti" unfolding is a sight and feeling to behold in awe.

A Complete Summary of the Self-Realization Teachings of Ramana and Nisargadatta as the Result of a Question.

To Me:

Hello Edji

Would you please explain the difference between shuyata (Emptiness, the Void) and the witness. Is shunyata (Void, Emptiness)  an object ?

If so, does it mean that one can never know the seer because he is the seer? 

Maybe you can feel the seer as the Void. I feel like all of my question been answered except this distinction that perplexes me. Can we sense the witness at all?

Ed’s Response:

Sunyata, Emptiness, the Void all describe the same thing: the inner space that contains all other phenomena. It is the background field from where thoughts, images, memories, emotions emerge and then subside. It is the constant empty space that contains all inner phenomena, and is the inner equivalent of all external space that contains the entire world.

Because we can experience the Void, Shunyata, Emptiness as a field, it is an object, just like a thought or emotion, and thus is part of the inner, subjective manifest universe.

On the other hand, the Witness, the subject who witnesses emptiness and also the external world, is entirely outside of either the internal or external manifest worlds, and cannot be experienced directly. It, itself has no characteristic, color, form, or energetic presence.  You could say it does not exist in this universe or it is from a different dimension.

Thus it is often called the Unborn.  All things appear to the Unborn, but the Unborn appears to no one, to no thing.

You can only be the subject.  You can experientially fall backwards into the subject and suddenly you can't locate the subject anymore because you are it witnessing the world thoughtlessly.

This is precisely the goal of Douglas Harding’s books and experiments, to take you to the position of the pure subject seeing the world and not aware of itself (Having no Head).

So you can either be the subject, or know of it as an intuition.

The I Am, on the other hand, is the Self of the Manifest world. The Atman, the base of Consciousness also called Turiya, the 4th state.

Self-Realization is when that Self of the 4th state of Consciousness shows itself to you, the individual human, and you identify with it as opposed to your body and mind.  You become Atman, who was always there, but was unseen because of constant thinking, emotional issues, and just a plain lack of knowledge that deeper things lay within your Consciousness.

There are several characteristics of this Self-Realization: You now know pure knowingness; you become pure knowledge itself, and you know without wavering who and what you are.  You are the Life Force, Shakti, as well as the Void and everything within the Void.  You are the fullness of an energetic presence or Subtle Body, as well as a physical body. 

You also are your emotions, though at first they do not feel like you, but as a visiting entity.  When you learn to invite them into yourself, they become you by identification, and their energies are added to you.

Lastly, you are God, AKA as the Atman, or Turiya, the deepest level or most subtle level of human consciousness.  The experience of the arising of Self within an individual is Self-Realization, described by many as a brilliant white light, expansion, tremendous energy and power, and also with experiences of great grace, purity, surrender, and gratitude towards that inner arising being.

Nisargadatta refers to this as finding the Baby Krishna, that is the incarnation of Krishna in the individual, and its experience as Krishna-Consciousness.[1]

Ramana refers to it as Realization of I or Atman and describes it:

Is the body I? It is silent and inert but I feel the full force of my personality and even the voice of the 'I' within me, apart from it. So I am Spirit transcending the body.

The body dies but the Spirit that transcends it cannot be touched by death. That means I am deathless Spirit." All this was not dull thought; it flashed through me vividly as living truth which I perceived directly, almost without thought-process.

"I" was something very real, the only real thing about my present state, and all the conscious activity connected with my body was centred on that "I". From that moment onwards the "I" or Self, focused attention on itself by a powerful fascination. Fear of death had vanished once and for all. Absorption in the Self continued unbroken from that time on. Other thoughts might come and go like the various notes of music, but the "I" continued like the fundamental sruti note that underlies and blends with all the other notes.

Whether the body was engaged in talking, reading, or anything else, I was still centered on "I". Previous to that crisis I had no clear perception of my Self and was not consciously attracted to it. I felt no perceptible or direct interest in it, much less any inclination to dwell permanently in it.

As you can see, the experience varies from person to person.  Nisargadatta’s was as the result of deep devotion to his Guru Siddharameshwar, and searching for the I as per his Guru’s instruction[2].  The experience was then of bliss and joy, and knowledge of who and what he was.

Ramana’s experience appears to lack the devotional element.  He did not mention God at all in his description, but soon the devotion would come as a worship of the mountain Arunachala as an embodiment of the divine.

Later, all merge into one.  Witness, I Am or Atman, and the individual all become integrated.  You see and feel and know all simultaneously.

Ed

---

[1] Self-Knowledge and Self-Realization by Nisargadatta, circa 1950.

[2] Master of Self-Realization, Siddarameshwar, recorded (handwriting) and transcribed by Nisargadatta Maharaj, Sadguru Press, 2009.

NOTICE:  You need to realize that this is my best explanation based on myown experienceas well as the writings of Ramana and Nisargadatta.

In essence, though the word 'Self' for me points to a certain kind of past and present continuous experience, it may have a very different meaning for other teachers, especially for those like Nisargadatta, who later dropped the critical centrality of the I Am in his teachings, to that of the Unmanifest Witness.  He took the position of the Witness, but still had the I Am available as an experience, in which he gradually lost interest.

The neo-Advaitins always talk about "beingness," and I really don't know what they are talking about.  Often they equate it with emptiness, nowness, experiences in the moment, or the concept of an unmoving awareness or witness, which they regard themselves to be primarily, and everything else is illusory.
        -----------------------------------------------------------------------

Please help me help you and others seeking to understand themselves and to realize their own Self.  This blog is the main support for this blog, the wearesentience.com website, Sunday Satsangs, and video and email support for seekers, as well as many outdoor feral cats and my own cats.  Please give generously, or whatever you can.

SATSANG TODAY, 2PM CALIFORNIA TIME, OCTOBER 19 

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Password is edji used on two separate screens. 

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FROM EMPTINESS I HAVE COME ALIVE

OCTOBER 12, 2014 ONLINE SATSANG


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CARLY ON TODAY'S SATSANG:

I watched your Satsang today and OMG! I

I love that I truly understand you now.

I love that I know I am a co creator now.


I use to blame everything and everyone for

my life not knowing I was creating it all the

whole time. I love because of free will God

Is always being surprised  by itself. It gives

life and we get to be little creators of this

given life. Oh its so beautiful and such a

marvelous design.

I saw u cry and I know

that cry, I love that cry. It's a cry of

perfection from the being to the end. A cry

of beauty.  I know the knowledge of past

lives I had. How lucky Edji that we get to

be the ones that experience and we get to

be the ones who allow God to know itself,

experience itself. I love being alive Edji.

Gratitude becomes a constant and I was

missing that I needed that.


I love that there are no good and bad ,right or wrong.

That's a human experience.  So the bad is

the exact same as the good to the source;

it loves us just because we experience. My

purpose is to experience and I believe the

best orgasm for the source is to remember

itself thru the human consciousness .


Edji without you I wouldn't have found the

strength to keep trying and keep going.

I know that nothingness, I thought the void

would be black but it seemed to me to be a

bright light. I didn't know tho until I was

out of it. There was no body to know it

just was. I could be wrong but I feel a

knowingness a place in me feels like its

in my solar plexus tells me truths. It feels

like fear is in the bottom half of myself. I

cannot leave this world behind because I

wouldn't be able to do what I was made for; to

Experience god.

Great Satsang Edji. Sorry

I missed the others. I love u so much. Guess

What?? I love me too. Not my body me,but

The real me. The me that's you and the

me that's  everyone else. If not for last

summer all the pain I had, the broken

heart, I wouldn't be where I am today...

Happy as fuck!

Carly

ONLINE SATSANG TODAY, SUNDAY OCTOBER 12 AT 2PM CALIFORNIA TIME

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Sign in with the password   "edji"   the two different times it is asked for.

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TOPIC:  Coming alive into Grace from the Void. I HAVE COME ALIVE!

FROM THIS TO THIS IN FIVE MONTHS--THE SCIENTIFIC WAY

I am not sure when this photo was taken, nor was I at my maximum weight at this time of 236 on May 10, 2014.  I was probably 225 here.

Taken with Rajiv sometime in 2013.

Notice how stiff I am from lack of movement post hip replacement surgery.

Taken about a week and a half ago.  Weight 198.

The following is about scientific weight loss principles and practice.  I lost about 40 lbs in 20 weeks.

The basic principles are you have to know what you need to weigh, count calories every day for the  weight loss you want, maintain a high protein diet to preserve muscle mass, stay away from hard exercise and concentrate on diet, exercise enough to maintain muscle mass, spend a bit of time each day as you lose weight to take advantage of your increased mobility and flexibility.

HERE IS THE ENTIRE PROGRAM. IF YOU FIND THIS TO BE OF VALUE, PLEASE DONATE TO HELP SUPPORT THIS BLOG, MY TEACHINGS, AND MY ANIMAL RESCUE WORK:

HOW I LOST 40 LBS IN FIVE MONTHS WITH LITTLE EXERCISE.

Rather than a specific diet, these are the principals.

Determine your optimal weight based on insurance height and weight charts.  Be kind to yourself and use the top of the normal weight for your height value.

CALCULATE YOUR TOTAL DAILY CALORIE INTAKE FOR YOUR IDEAL WEIGHT.

For men, maintenance calorie intake is 12 calories per pound of ideal weight, and for women, it is 10.  This is a basic, maintenance value for someone who is basically sedentary.  These calories are needed just to maintain metabolism. Exercises require additional calories, or result in additional weight loss.

Suppose you are a 50 year old man who weighs 200 lbs, but the ideal weight charts say you should weigh 160.  You have to lose 40 lbs.  To maintain a 200 lb weight you have to eat 200X12 calories a day, or 2,400 calories.

A 160 lb man has to eat 160X12, or 1,920 calories a day.  If you just eat as if you were 160 lbs and wanted to maintain that weight while weighing 200, you would have almost a 500 calorie deficit, which would result in a weight loss of 1 lb. per week (1 lb of fat = 3,500 calories).

Thus by eating 1,920 calories a day, you would lose the 40 lbs in 40 weeks.

But if you consume only 1,400 calories a day, you would lose 2 lbs per week, and the 40 lbs. in 20 weeks, or 5 months.

PRESERVE MUSCLE MASS. As you lose weight by eating less than you need to maintain your fat weight, the body has to decide whether to consume your internal fat or your muscle mass.  Therefore it is incredibly important to maintain a high protein intake proportionately to the total calories consumed, or you can lose almost as much muscle weight as fat weight.  It is not uncommon to lose as much muscle as fat, and you do not want to do this.  Muscle mass actually increases your metabolism, and the body’s need for calories, making weight loss easier.

This is difficult if you are Vegan, but not impossible. If a vegetarian, it is much easier with cheese, yogurt, milk, and eggs, as well as tofu and legumes.

As a general rule, the textbooks say you need 1 gram of protein for every pound of ideal weight. Thus for a 160 lb man, this means 160 grams of protein a day to preserve muscle and organ mass.  I think this is far too high, as it means 640 calories of a 1,400 calorie diet must be protein, which means you’ll be eating all cheese, milk, and egg products in addition to tofu and legumes.  For myself, I kept to 90 grams of protein a day by using protein supplements, cheese, tofu, and eggs once in a while.

DO NOT WEIGHT YOURSELF MORE THAN ONCE A MONTH, otherwise the short-term weight swings will drive you crazy.  Trust that restricting calories will result in weight loss.  Experiment during the month with different food combinations, calorie restriction levels, eating 3 to 5 meals a day, which will teach you what works best for you in terms of weight loss and overall feeling of well-being.

LEARN HOW TO COUNT CALORIES.  You have to know how much you are eating each day, and one of the best ways is to by microwave dinners from the supermarket that tell you total calories, total fat and total protein calories.  This makes it so easy to calculate how many of each kind of calories you are eating each day.  Specific recommendations are mentioned later.

ELIMINATION

Since you are consuming less food and densely rich food, you need to be concerned with urinary and fecal elimination.  It is easy to get constipated using such diets, which will have a major impact on your scale weight. Also the kidneys will be working overtime to eliminate by products of fat burning.

So, drinking liquids is imperative.  I drink an extra 40 ounces of water in addition to 60-80 ounces of coffee, tea, soft drink, and occasional beer per day.  You need to add fiber to your diet, so at least one of the glasses of water needs a fiber supplement, such as Metamucil or Citricell.

Also, each day I have one meal that is low calorie and nothing but raw vegetables and fruit.  This is my bulk meal, just 200 or so  calories, and it consists of about one pound of: chopped green pepper, cucumber, mushrooms, tomato, olives, olive liquid, apple, and Krafts Low Cal. Balsamic Vinegrette (25 calores per tablespoon), or a low cal Italian dressing at 15 calories per tablespoon.

EXERCISE:

Really, none is needed except to maintain muscle mass.  Each day the body has to decide whether to consume your fat or your muscles and organs to maintain life.  Daily aerobic exercise is nearly useless in weight loss, because you have to do so much to lose so little.  BUT, working out with resistance, either free weights, rubber bands, or machines, at relatively heavy levels for just 15-20 minutes, twice a week, tells your body you need to maintain muscle mass as part of your life.

Of course, as I lost weight, my mobility increased and I can walk more, do yoga, twist and stretch more, and lift more weight in terms of daily activities, which increases calorie burning, and also health.

Current medical thinking is of the idea that the single greatest cause of illness, including some cancers, is not cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, bad diet, junk foods, but a sedentary life style. 

EVERY DAY YOU NEED TO THINK ABOUT HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR MOBILITY A LITTLE BIT MORE, whether by adding stretching, free exercises like pushups, walking, deep knee bends, yoga, Tai Chi, swimming or bicycling. Increasing mobility improves health, reduces health risks, lowers blood sugar and cholesterol.

Don’t be a fanatic, but just improve your strength and mobility by a tiny bit every day.

When I was young (25) I could bench press over 400 lbs, and did over 300 pushups non-stop.

As of May 10 of this year, I could not do even one pushup without major cheating.  But as a result of weight loss and increasing mobility, I do now 25 every other day and have only been doing them for a week and a half.

In this, I have to thank Swami Chetanananda, who told me exactly this: every day I have to move a little more and think about ways to increase my mobility and flexibility as part of an overall fitness program. Swamiji calls his Ashram the Movement Center, and increasing movement is a goal both in spiritual work and in health.

BUT I AM NOT DOING CARDIO WORK.  IT IS A USELESS WASTE OF TIME AND EFFORT.

The increasing mobility and movement came as a secondary result of weight loss.  I was able to move more without pain having lost 30 and 40 lbs of fat.  I was able to be more flexible, and the more mobile and flexible I got, the more I wanted more mobility.  I never consciously exercised during those five months except the two-times-a-week weight lifting.  All the other increases in exercise were because my body was able to do more, and wanted to do more spontaneously.

MANY ADVAITINS AND BUDDHISTS WHO PRACTICE MEDITATION ON EMPTINESS, OR FOCUS ON SILENCE, THE WITNESS, OR THE ABSOLUTE, TEND TO STOP MOVING, believing that nothing is real, or only the Void or Absolute is important, and they become sedentary sitters and stop moving.

DON’T CHEAT.  Once you get in the swing of counting calories, increasing flexibility and mobility, don’t cheat on the eating with adding sugar or going way over your calorie limit.  Each time you cheat, you weaken the effort.  During the past 5 months, I cheated maybe two days, yesterday was one of them.  I went way over my calorie limit with peanuts and popcorn and feel bloated and immobile today. 

ABSOLUTELY NO SUGAR IN ANY FORM, AND VERY LITTLE WHEAT PRODUCTS. These are high calorie, low protein foods that need to be eliminated.  Maybe twice a week I’ll have a Swiss Cheese sandwich, with 3X 70 calorie slices of cheese, and a single 60 calorie slice of whole wheat bread with low fat mayonnaise, for a total of 300 calories and 26 grams of protein.

ALCOHOL consumption calories need to be factored in.  Alcohol consumption just makes weight loss slower.  I like to have a double brandy every now and again, and that is 260 calories.  That is factored in.  In addition, once in a while I like to have 12 ounces of beer, my choice is Bud ice at 130 calories.

As Bill Maher puts it, he saves his sugar calorie allotment for alcohol.

Bi-WEEKLY CHECK YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE, and watch it drop as you lose weight.  My current blood pressure resting is 115/65 at 196 lbs. (Down from 236 lbs.)

Two Comments About My Book, Self-Realization and Other Awakenings

I've been reading your book for hours, and when you speak of these different states, you speak of them in a way that I feel their truth; not as an intellectual knowing. I enjoy the approach you take with spirituality as no neglecting any part of experience; identifying with it ALL, both the temporary manifest and the permanent "Para-Brahman." Just thought I would let you know

Tannr


When I first read Edji's book, a whole new world of inner experience opened for me. As a zen student, internal experiences and enlightenment were never talked about. In fact, all experiences were considered distractions from focusing on the root, the Absolute. And awakening was beyond words and concepts so couldn't be talked about and shouldn't be tried because it just led to thinking and more attachments. 

For me, this lack of sharing left me lost in space.

So, I turned to Shamanism looking for maps of my inner landscape, which I did find, but the experiences were all very densely intertwined within a culture that I didn't belong to.

No matter how deeply I entered into that sacred world, I was still a visitor.

Edji's book talked to me about me. I saw myself reflected in his experiences. I viscerally knew what he meant, what he pointed to . He described both the deadness and depression I was then experiencing, and the awakening of energies and life force that I had sometimes felt but was trained to ignore. 

And here he was saying, welcome these experiences, love them, jump into them. And especially.... trust them_ trust your emotions and energies....they are real and trustworthy. I cried through parts of Edji's book with both relief and anger. 

It hit home in my heart so directly and so forcefully, that I knew I desparately needed and wanted this teaching and this teacher. 

And here I am, 10 months later, full of life and love, exploring my Self, my inner sentience as Edji's student. I feel very, very fortunate. 

So...read the book !!! Hahaha !

Syndria

Dialogue on Manifest Self Versus Witness and Use of the Mind in Seeking

TO ME:

What is your opinion on free will? It seems that all of our thoughts and thought processes are a result of experiences, however which thought processes become dominant is a result of where our attention goes, so I guess the question of free will boils down to whether we have control over attention. I am inclined to say attention is something we have complete control over, though one could argue that past experiences could form complex thought patterns that would lead one ultimately to make decisions based on where to focus attention, for shouldn't a decision on where to put attention precede where attention is placed? Therefore, does a complex array of subconscious thoughts and ultimately past experienced decide where attention is placed?

ED’S RESPONSE:

Are you able to "feel" how far such questioning is from being you?  It is only logic, theorems.

You know yourself by feeling Self, not by thinking.  You have to stop all such useless thinking about philosophy and only dwell in your sense of Self, I Am.

You can never awaken to who you are on any level—and there are many—until you let go of the goal of intellectual understanding.  There is a knowing far more profound than that of the mind, and that is where I am taking you.

TO ME:

I am able to feel it, yes. I have been pondering the question for a while and I figured asking someone who has experienced the states you have may shed some light on the subject.

When you say dwell in sense of self, I do that already, but I recognize simultaneously there is an even more subtle perception that is watching this happen, and then I usually find that to continue to acknowledge the subtler perception is to perpetuate the never ending process of objectifying subjectivity, and so at that point all thinking just stops and I abide in that non-thinking state. At this point, what should I do?

Ed’S RESPONSE:

Abide in the I Am.  That will lead you to the Manifest Self--Atman.

Leave the subject alone for now.

Eventually the two come together as one, but first know the Manifest Self of energies, lovee, bliss, and all of the emotions, positive and negative.

At this point the Witness is only a distraction.

Do not dwell in emptiness or no thought.  It is easy to get lost there and accomplish nothing.

Steve Transitions From the Manifest Self (I AM) to Observer and Back--a good description

Edji,  Great experience this morning.....I could actually feel and experience the transition from being in the  I AM  into the Observer.   It was so gradual and smooth almost like the Sun moving in the sky....barely perceptible but truly an amazing transition.....slowly blinking an eye...but a transformation into a different more tranquil dimension.  Then transitioning back into all the feeling and emotion of life.

Like being  at a concert and feeling like I Am the music, the notes all the octaves and harmony and then slowly transitioning to being the complete theater, roof, seats, music...just everything and watching from not one spot but from everywhere.  Watching the music sailing into me like a river just flowing and meandering wherever....not being tied into the feelings.

God, that Carly is contagious and such a flow of rainbows of Grace.

A Devilish Guru Oversees his Vast Dominion

A new, thinner Ed.

Only 30 lbs. to go.

One advantage of years of meditation is that you develop an iron will that prevails in dieting, exercising, and focus.  Almost 40 lb. weight loss in five months.

Carly continues to grow in knowledge and love

Thank you so much. 

I love this creation I love knowing I co create my life I love that not one person can be responsible for my life but me. I love knowing that what I focus on becomes my reality. I love how meaningless words are. I love that the non-physical communicates by vibrations, energy. I love this human experience because just being alive and experiencing is my only true purpose.  I love my human body how it interprets the non physical, interprets feelings. I love I am not only my feelings and that they just guide me. I love knowing there is a source that is everything was always everything and will always be everything and nothing al at once. I love it's insane intelligence.  I love the formula for creating.  I love my life. 

How lucky am I that I get to be a part of the greatest show ever. I was picked to be the vehicle that God or the source uses to experience itself, myself. My personality I feel goes on, to keep learning and experiencing for eternity :)

I'm so grateful  I desire to know myself and to self realize. I noticed sadness and love are the same feeling, just different words to make meaning and empowerment. Also rage and hate seems to feel the same too!

I laugh at plans now. I just watch and observe and try to be a part of the flow. I notice when I'm happy I feel connected and when I'm depressed or frustrated I feel disconnected. So my feelings tell me where I am at, not who I am!

I love u.

Carly

MY RESPONSE:

Yes Carly, now you have come alive to accepting your physicality as long as it is present.  Joyful acceptance of your life-embodied.

Yes, all emotions are essentially the same, forces and energies within the Subtle Body that affect the physical body and vice-versa.  They are messages between the two and to the ultimate witness who watches.

FROM THE ABSOLUTE BEYOND NOTHINGNESS, I HAVE COME ALIVE!!!!

EMAIL TO ME:

Hi Ed!

I'm having a bit of trouble, but first I will give you some background information…

I've been practicing this for years unknowingly, as you did as a child. When I first found the " I AM-ness" I thought I had reached enlightenment. However over the course of a few months of continued practice, I realized that there is an awareness watching all of this happen; watching the I AM be, and therefore there is something more fundamental than the I am-ness.

However, I feel myself searching. I can't get over the problem: I know that I am the ultimate subject. I feel that and I have felt it before, but if that is the truth of who I am, then who is this person seeking the truth? Who is the person even asking that question?

Some days I will be tormented by this sort of thought process all day, spending hours intensely thinking, and sometimes it leads to spontaneous Samadhi, but it is inconsistent and unsustainable…

I also find myself beginning to reject values of the self. For instance, I am beginning to find my mind rejecting or suppressing being excited or feeling lust or even feeling affection or interest or expressing creativity. However as soon as it happens, I recognize that rejection - the inclination to suppress or resist those things - as simply another form, no different than the original impulse itself. I suppose I am confused, but to even say that is confusing, for I cannot help but wonder who is confused, and then, who is the one wondering who is confused?… Please help! I'm becoming exhausted from this constant conceptual circle.

MY RESPONSE:

Dear W.

You truly understand: You are both the manifest Self, the I Am, Atman, and also the Witness, the Absolute, Parabrahman.

So what is the problem?

You are both!!

As long as you are alive in your body you will be the Manifest Self, living, emotional, desiring, rejecting, thinking, feeling, working, struggling, and also potentially in endless bliss and joy knowing you are God incarnated into a body.

You are also Shiva, he who witnesses all this, and who is not touched by any of the Play of Consciousness.  You have not identified with that part of you yet, and it bothers you, thinking that is more real than your present body/mind/existential state.

All you have to do is when the doubt and tension arises and the strong need to search for anything, rather than just search, go into the doubt and tension that is driving you to search.  Go into that pressure, accept the feeling, love it, let it into your heart and gradually you will realize that all of this is you, both the manifest and the Absolute.  So just enjoy both.

Feel the divine energies arise in you as bliss, struggle, and pain, then settle downwards into emptiness and bliss again. Feel the show totally; exalt in the energies of the Life Force, and know you are ALSO THAT which witnesses all.

You cannot find THAT; you can only BE That, and you are always THAT already.  But THAT is being offered the ability to come alive for a brief period of time, whether 15 years for a cat, or 90 for a human.  

Think of it this way:  You as the Unmoving, Absolute, Witness has come alive briefly.  It is up to you to know this and then thrive as a Life Form while your body is alive.

Ed

Deeya's Shrine to her Doggies: Freddie, Fawni, and Fuji--Beautiful Pic.

Witness and Self

What is happening here.?

When I focus on going into I AM,  usually I feel like I'm there.   Aware from where ever that is. Not watching it happen or  observing I AM .

But all day today,  instead of sinking into my heart center,  my  sense of awareness is popping up into my head , third eye, where the sense of lighted consciousness is.   The light is familiar to me from zen,  but hasn't  pulled me in lately.

I observe from there down at my heart,  and sense my consciousness sinking into the heart center and below. Finally resting in subtle body behind my physical back. That is often the place I rests, but not always.

But its strange feeling remote, just observing, while also sensing the connection and sensation of being in I AM. But not being in it.  My awareness is watching I AM

Feels schizoid;  sensation and  awareness separate With awareness observing .    Sensation being felt.

Who's feeling the sensation and aware of awareness?

It feels like my body feels I AM  and awareness is watching.

I don't like it.   If I stay there long enough,  the light expands out completely until everything disappears into just the lighted field.   No sensation, just light.

This has happened over and over, no matter how hard I try to stay with the I AM   I hate it. !!!

ED'S RESPONSE:

Syndria, it is all you.  The Witness is where Nisargadatta wants you to go, and the I Am is the Atman, energy and sentience together.

All these are what I call rooms in the spiritual mansion.  Also here find Emptiness--the Void, the lighted field which fills the void, find also bliss, grace, deep sacred humility, various levels of the I Am sensation terminating in Turiya, Satchitananda, AKA as Atman.

These are all parts of you.  After you have visited all of them enough, you own them all.  You accept them all as you as well as the day-to-day living as an ordinary, "unrealized" person that has moved 360 from knowing nothing, to knowing Emptiness and Nothingness, then all all of the magical, blissful, and energetic states, then back to Syndria drinking tea with a Zen master, also drinking tea and farting. (Old Zen masters do that.)