BEYOND CONSCIOUSNESS

Robert used to say, "You are beyond the body, you are beyond the mind. He would also say "You are the witness of these."  Robert used the term "beyond" meaning you are apart from body, mind, consciousness.  Nisargadatta used another term, indicating you are "prior to" mind, body, world.  Both emphasize that your real nature has nothing to do with the world, your body, or your mind.

Think about it.

You can observe the external world with your senses.  You can see your body from the outside or in a mirror.  You can feel your body from the inside. You can watch your mind.  

In meditation you can find the inner Void or emptiness.  You can look outside into the world and see the space between all objects, and also watch them change through time.  You can witness your own sense of existence and your sense of presence and your inner energies that make up the Manifest Self.

In other words, you can observe the entirety of consciousness, but you cannot observe yourself, for you are not in consciousness.  You are beyond it or before it.  You can only step backwards so to speak, and be the witness watching the world, your body, your thoughts and emotions.  True, consciousness is all there there is, but you don't exist, as Robert said, you are beyond existence, beyond space and time, beyond consciousness.

My only difficulty with Robert's teachings is that most people will never get it because they never have had a great experience of themselves as the Manifest Self, as the I Am made large into a deep experience of the totality of consciousness, and as such they cannot move beyond it.

Many people gravitated to Robert because they were miserable, suffering, torn by emotions, loss, or confused and just wanted out of life's struggles.  But without the blissful experiences of knowing well the bliss of consciousness, the full sense of separate existence, and knowledge of consciousness, they could not go beyond it.