What follows is an email dialogue between Steve Eckert and I regarding Steve's increasing awareness that he is neither his body nor his consciousness. His experience described here is almost identical to my own that happened while studying with Robert Adams in 1995. Only with me, the complete experience unfolded in amtter of a few hours while here, with Steve, The time sequence is taking a few weeks.

 

I met Steve eight years ago when he took a workshop led by Deeya Gair and I in the North Valley of Los Angeles. What's memorable about my meeting with him was the tears of devotion he had in his eyes when I spoke to face-to-face. That devotion has never left Steve. Beginning five or six years ago Steve began emailing me wuth descriptions of very deep Shakti experiences, of love, like, and power, many of which I posted to my blog or my Facebook page.

 

Recently though, his described experiences began changing more closely approximating both the experiences and understandings conveyed by Ramana Maharishi, Nisargadatta, and Robert Adams as well as myself.

 

I think Steve's unfolding in the very careful way he describes what is happening to him can begin to give to some students of self-study, an idea of what they are shooting for in terms of self-discovery, rather than many of the dead-end branches that present themselves to the seeker along the way.

 

Note  that I have not included many of my responses to his emails, as they are not important to his description of his unfolding.

 

Ed Muzika, September 21, 2021

 

PART I: JULY 23 THROUGH August

 

July 23, 2021

 

Dearest Master,   best 'thoughts' to you.

 

I been sitting on the couch just looking outside at all the different  birds and animals we feed.

 

Realizing that it's just a movie and asking 'who is watching the movie?'

 

It's all just Consciousness and is non-existent. 

 

The solid  World of 3 years ago is gone and transformed into a transparent film today that has lost all its meaning. 

And the Steve that sat in Satsang with Edji and Deeya in 2013 is just a non-existent shadow.

 

Awareness  of  some form appears to be present if so it is without identity. 

 

Many rooms in the Mansion but this is the weirdest. 

 

How are you Edji and where are you in this darkness? 

 

Your devotees, steve

 

JULY 24, 21

 

Edji, you put me into the Heart Center with music.

 I'm sailing on the fabric of nothingness through time that is from an non-existent imagination 

 

Such a journey 

Who's to enjoy it?

Untethered 

Released

An imagination that is non-existent 

No ground, no gravity

Something floating in the darkness 

 

Sitting on the couch with Mia . 

But she turns onto a mirage. So no one is on a couch , yet 2 humans are sitting  here.

 

Funny place to exist

Funny place to non-exist

 

Forever,  steve

 

July 24, 21

Edji, the answer...happen to stumble upon your writing The Portal.

 

Yes it's been some trip so far somehow being guided to various rooms in this Mansion.  But now I  understand that this one is Void, absolute emptiness and darkness.  Life is only a fabric blowing in the wind. No solid ground on which to stand, reality is just a reflection in a puddle of muddy water, people are just electronic static moving at random, sounds are squeezed out of the mist. Who the hell am I  besides a thin dust cloud? The Earth itself has changed to one of fear and loathing and death.

 

The entire Void is so thick with Darkness,  nothing is alive. Just out of control and descending deeper and deeper.  All hope has burnt-out.  No control whatsoever.  Absolute Nothingness prevails. 

Steve E.

 

August 3, 21

 

Edji, that light radiating out of my chest (projector showing Consciousness on your own individual  screen)is my view of the World. 

Placed there from infancy, elementary s, high s, college, military etc etc.

 

All mine to watch and get involved with but a very distorted view that I could have wasted a lifetime trying to change.

 

I call it 'Lost in Consciousness'. Ever consuming humans precious time in this World.

 

Actually  ever since childhood I  have been taking it apart. My out of body experience at 5 years old taught me to regulate the building of Consciousness and not take this life so seriously.   Plus what adults say is only their belief system. 

 

Guess it has all been worth it as nothing important exists in Consciousness. 

 

Everyone has the opportunity to play in Consciousness but not everyone can see through it and realize it is just a movie  playing and sucking them in.

 

Steve

 

August 4, 21

 

Hi Edji, well my Consciousness games are all played out or tossed out. 

 

Interest in the World and its surroundings have petered to zero. 

So this last year it happened that getting psa checks every 6 months,  colonoscopys and any other tests done is over and done with. 

 

Done doing anything  preventative and prolonging the body and its health factor.

 

Just don't require a body anymore! 

Very peaceful and blissful and Void.

steve

 

August 4, 21

Strange I  feel very strongly that I am a part of you and we are somehow  a form of I  don't know, hard to explain, (like a sparkling flowing energy ) not a Consciousness type energy at all and not even on Earth.   Not tuned into any Consciousness  here!

 

Earth does not exist wherever we are. The complete Cosmos might be gone too...nothingness, ah ah Void.

 

'Other's  as  'energy forms'  are around here also. We are definitely not alone. 

Words don't even touch where we are at ...the peace is unexplainable.  Even this imaginary body sitting on the couch can feel it.

 

steve

 

Ed

 

Yesss!

 

Steve

 

How long you have  been here Edji?

 

Ed

 

Long time.

 

August 5, 21

 

Yes Yes Yes.   this body is a vessel of sparkling Love.  

The World seems to be far away now and all of its drama gone.  

A Peace so deep it has no boundaries. 

I bow to you Master Edji.

 

Steve

 

Ed      August 5, 21

Do you see why I fought for you to leave Trump and the baby eater fiction behind?  That stuff is false. Even the world is false. God dwells within; we just have to look within and forget about that which is without. And love yourself with all your heart. It happened to me because I loved Janet, but I realized I was love, and that love of Janet became love of self also. Love of the self in another can lead to love of self in one’s on cell.

On Wednesday, August 4,  Steve  wrote:

A Flickering light way down in the bottom of the dark canyon

 

Lifetimes spent treading pathways made by those before me.

 

Foul and danger, distractions prevalent, tripping and falling.

What a heavy cross to carry.  

But now lingering within reach the flickering light calling.

Crawling closer the light slowly dissolving this trap of a body.

Gone, vanished, sucked in to a blissful  heaven for eternity...well worth the travels. 

Thank you traveler's before me and I  bow to Master Edji who signaled that the Void was right there in front.

steve

 

August 6, 21

 

Date: Friday, August 6, 2021
Subject: Crazy
To: Edward Muzika

I just want to laugh and laugh.

 

Don't know exactly what happened and don't  give a damn. 

I just start laughing looking around at the perfect Manifestations of the Self.

 

In the car dealership getting the Honda looked at I  just wanted to get on my knees , like I  do at home, and bow to the Self.  

It was All me in that dealership,  I  was the furniture,  the soda, the new vehicles and also the people  sitting in the waiting room. 

 

What the fuck is happening ..no one cares.

Time and space are nonexistent. 

I AM

 

Love ya, steve

 

 

August 8, 21

 

(Responding to my August 5 email about his  recent Trump Anon obsession)

 

Date: Sunday, August 8, 2021
To: Ed Muzika

Ha ha ha.....ha ha..o o o yea.

 

I sure got pulled in...but.. think I  needed that to Wake Up even deeper. 

 

The last vestige of the World flushed. Trump and all the antics off to the sewer.

 

I needed you to jump on this Mind and pop that last fart out! 

And when it happened I was in a different  existence. 

 

It's like since that original Awakening newer/other doors are opening unexpectedly.  

 

Going so so deep into death and finding the brilliance of salvation in the deepest pit of despair. 

 

I was sitting on the porch one day last year and something was observing the railing and it wasn't steve.

 

The last couple of weeks totally giving up the body and mind and any attachments and favoring death ...opened the Eternal Heart Center  and there it was The Source-The Self, pure Love Of The Self.

Oh how could I  ever have missed it. Right inside the Heart Center. 

 

I can go there whenever and wherever I AM.  More and more.

 

Ya know all the happenings usually are instigated when I converse with you Edji.

 

I think if you and I went out somewhere to eat I would just start acting insane in public dancing and singing around your chair pouring water on your head and baptizing you.  I wouldn't be able to restraint myself.

 

An Owl showed up 2 weeks ago and stared at Mia and I  for a good 15 minutes.....from my time spent with the Ojibwa I knew something big was about to happen. 

 

Take care Self,  I AM

 

August 8, 2021

 

Edji, 

 

I can see Just the experience of the Source of Creation within and focusing on that ....is extremely powerful. 

 

Kind of giving up the meditation been doing since your Satsang in 2013 . 

 

Instead seeing the Self inside,  

pure Love.

 

Steve

 

August 9, 21

 

Then after I baptized you in the restaurant I would remove your sandals and wash your feet with camomile tea. Then kiss them.

 

steve

 

Date: Monday, August 9, 2021
Subject: tick tock
To: Edward Muzika <satsang.online@gmail.com>

Edji,  ya know all these accumulations, body and mind are so easy to see now not only in the development of steve but also in others.  The pain these acquisitions cause is unbelievable.

 

And if for a second I mention attachments (rarely do that) the top popps off and it is an argument. So I don't interfer with anyone except my wife....we go at it and then laugh about it.

 

She plays Robert's Satsangs for the cats, caterpilars, moths, wasps, raccoons, stray cats, birds....anything moving.  We have 11 cats now plus lots of insects, wasp nest between our inner and outer door (for 3 years now). once in a while a wasp will come into the house and fly around and maybe bump into our head and take off.

 

Something strange about all this life....they are much like humans. 

 

They communicate with us, mia repairs the wasp nest and feeds them honey when it rains cause they can't get food in a storm. 

 

I guess this is the only thing interesting for me in the World. Plus the Mexican neighbor lady had a baby and she spends every minute playing with that baby. That is good to watch.

 

Have not watched TV in 17 years , no radio or newspaper and stopped any attention to politics and all that bullshit....what a distraction. Watch your Satsangs on YouTube.

 

Its a whole new existence watching and residing in the Heart Center.  Perfectly calm and peaceful, no fear, no worries just paying attention.

 

Thank you for all your knowledge and service not only to me but all your devotees.

 

Steve

 

Date: Wednesday, August 11, 2021
To: Edward Muzika

Yes, I  noticed that.

These tendencies developed since childhood, 

memory patterns , cyclical,  physical and mental actions

have created reoccurring patterns..a trap. 

Disabling software steve has written...useless today.

 

I'm going over rewriting this mess and  'The Ultimate Medicine' will help changing the software.

 

Thank you for the recommendation! 

s

 

Date: Friday, August 13, 2021
Subject: staying here
To: Edward Muzika

Hi Edji,    Ya know there is nothing holding me here.

 

I have seen all the beautiful manifestation that the projector shines. It means nothing. 

 

Is there anything that holds you here?

 

Guess my desire to stay has been fading away fast.

 

I know there is a technique to prepare to exit the body. 

 

 Sadhguru's wife exited at a Satsang and even had a 7 year old daughter...she wanted to go.

 

Nisargadatta is right on!

 

Steve

 

On Saturday, August 14, 2021, s alan  wrote:

 

Edji, was wondering if you explored exiting the body without injuring it?

 

Building up energies,  removing any rings or jewelry and exiting through the head (the same way we came into the body).

 

Don't think you done any Satsangs on it.

S

 

August 15, 21

 

I am not a yogi.  They do shit like that.

 

 

 

Death, loss, love, enlightenment and Beingness, and beyond them all is ...

Using continuous chanting for enlightenment

 What do Robert Adams and Nisargadatta mean by the absolute, or by the term ultimate witness?

You cannot understand what they mean until you experience that absolute state for yourself. Before that, both of these teachers are basically saying the world you live in is not real, Robert says it's like an optical illusion. Nisargadatta calls it and all phenomena, happenings and consciousness, and consciousness itself is not real as it is constantly changing. Only the absolute, the ultimate witness is real. It does not change.

The experience is like this: waking up in the morning for the normal human is no big thing. Waking up in the morning for an enlightened individual is nothing at all. There is no change between sleeping and waking other than the appearance of the world and body as objects, which are experienced as not me, not touching me. I am apart from both waking consciousness and sleeping consciousness. It is like turning on a television set and then turning it off;  there is no change for me.

However, I myself as witness cannot be experienced. I do not experience myself but the other, the world and my body, or sleep. I only know about my existence as the observer because I notice that consciousness does not touch me. Sleep does not touch me. Therefore I must be something different from consciousness or sleep or dream. That which has presence, or existence, is consciousness, not the absolute which is apart from it, and is apart from consciousness.

Prior to this realization, when I awakened in the morning, within a second or two after awakening I realized who I was as an individual operating from the position of being a body located somewhere in human space and time with the mundane identity of sex, work, name, desires, emotions, and physical being this. After awakening to the ultimate witness state, you realize you are something beyond physicality, beyond consciousness, beyond experiences. You are the subject of those phenomena, not the object. You are not phenomena like other people are phenomena. Realize that everything else in the world is just a phenomena, like a movie on a screen and as such they have no reality and no autonomy. There like movie characters on the screen. They do not exist as individuals.

How to Disidentify with your body and reidentify with Consciousness

HOW DO I REALIZE MYSELF AS THE TOTALITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Realizing I Am as an ecstatic explosion of light and energy within WATCH!

WORDS CREATE THE WORLD WE LIVE IN; GOD REALIZATION WORDS MAKE IT HAPPEN

Exploration of Robert Adams' and Nisargadatta's teachings and Experience...

Understanding the totality of Robert Adam's and Nisargadatta's teachings...

Thorough Guide to the Enlightenment Process

The Humming of Beingness

Attaining blissful God realization, losing it, and then attaining Nothin...

Nisargadatta and Robert Adams as One story

Peace That Surpasses Understanding

Guided meditation showing the supreme peace of the Brahman state that Robert, Nisargadatta and the Ashtavakra Gita Speak of. The highest, most subtle, and happiness/bliss that can be experienced. https://youtu.be/_P13rrGGjrU

 Both Robert and Nisargadatta speak of the first freedom state as Brahman, the disappearance of the mind and body in becoming the wholeness of the existential, manifest universe. This is the fundamental teaching of Nisargadatta, which represents freedom from the identification with one's own body and mind. Curiously, Robert would often repeat the phhrase "I am Brahman" over and over. This is the beginning of realizing one is not the body, but the totality of consciousness. This is partially a guided meditation.

https://youtu.be/xRVLZgndKyc

Deep Diving  Nisargadatta and Robert Adams in a concise and clear manner covering the bredth and depth of their teachings as well as my expereince of them. https://youtu.be/8APZacwgP_4

 During this Satsang, we learn how to leave the dream or fake world of the mind and enter the nonverbal real world

Repeated attempts to go beyond the words is called meditation. Sadhana is but a persistent attempt to cross over from the verbal to the nonverbal. The task seems hopeless until suddenly all becomes clear and simple and so wonderfully easy. --Nisargadatta LINK: https://youtu.be/FkvxO54Uz0A

NO MIND: I AM THE SELF!

A thorough discussion on the relationship between mind and Self. This is more about experience than philosophy, and focuses on finding the Self absent mind. The experiential self is left behind and identity shifts to the totality of consciousness where identity is lost as being meaningless. Link: https://youtu.be/eP9hJt2N-XI

 MOST EFFECTIVE SELF-INQUIRY

& THE STATE OF 'I AM EVERYTHING' There is a proper way to practice self-inquiry through choiceless observation and non intentional experience of feeling everything feelable. This leads to a succession of new discoveries of inner states and entities, giving them great attention, then moving on to other self-discoveries. Then you realize you are no longer seeking one object or one state no matter how deep, but all of them are you. You are the totality of consciousness and its objects and even more, beyond even this. LINK: https://youtu.be/Ky0Chbtwfy8

 Passing from ordinary human unhappiness to clarity, peace, and a previously unknown kind of happiness that comes from realizing self as emptiness, silence, and extraordinary peace.

https://youtu.be/Zr2zkbII59U

Spirituality is largely about leaving thinking behind and regaining one's ability to feel. You become like a new born, opening to a new world of emotions, inner light, energies and devotion which delivers you to the world of the divine..

LINK: https://youtu.be/NCyD0kmfvr8

 The Burning Man: Experiencing the Fire of God Within

Experiencing God and Self-Realization reveals the inner purifying and siddhi fires of the Eternal I Am. This Blaze burns away sin, embarassments, failures, to reveal a soft and tender-loving Self. Yet there is something beyond even this.

YOUTUBE.COM

Burning Man Experiencing the Fire of God Within

Experiencing God and Self

 A WORLD SANGHA FELLOWSHIP HAPPENING

OCTOBER 3, 2020, 7:30 PM MELBOURNE TIME

The Sanghas of Sw. Shankaranandaand Ed Muzika honor and worship each other in deep devotion.

Sw. Shankarana will speak of the divine light of Baba Muktananda with ecstatic chanting.

GOTO: https://vimeo.com/event/24009/644cc3699b

For live participation, the local equivalent times are:

Arizona: 2:30am Saturday

New York: 5:30am Saturday

England: 10:30am Saturday

Germany: 11:30am Saturday

Bulgaria: 12:30pm Saturday

It is very easy for the Europeans to participate with the live program. American and Canadian people can watch the video the next day at their convenience.  Atthis ame site, a link to the recorded video will be posted.

This is an ecstatic Satsang. You can feel the white/blue light, bliss, and ecstatic power that gripped the Sangha throughout.

Just sit in a quiet place, relax as deep as you can, and feel the flow of truth that can catch you on fire if you relax and breathe it in.

LINK: https://youtu.be/ma1E8-LHDug

The I Am Brahman State, Nisargadatta, and Power

Both Nisargadatta and Robert Adams spoke about the oneness state where the sense of I Am identifies with the totality of experience. The little you is gone, replaced by the life force, beingness as the I Am, and the experience of God. My experience, during salient intervals past the original awakening to the I Am Everything state, was the experience of brilliant light and the immense power of God within and everywhere. All this flows from the story of the oneness of the Manifest Self, God, and the world: the I Am Brahman concept. LINK: https://youtu.be/QeUmu-0ajpY

 Nisargadatta begiles you with a created story about epistemology, who you know and how. Robert Adams and Ramana rely more on stories about what is, and how the universe works, such as the idea everything is predetermined, the world is illusory, and everything is unfolding as it should. If believed, you just give everything up, because you can't do anything to affect the world or even your life. That relaxation and emptiness begets spiritual states that take you close to enlightenment.

THIS IS A FUNNY SATSANG NEAR THE END AS ED TELLS HIS OWN STORIES. https://youtu.be/hidScY7X6ZI

The difficulty of leaving the joy of the life divine and go beyond to Nothingness, to existencewithout knowingness. And discussion of upcoming combined Satsangs with Sw. Shankarananda https://youtu.be/br4drxX-Z2Q

COMING SOON LIVE INTERNATIONAL FOUR-CONTINENT SATSANG, 0CTOBER 3. NOON MELBOURNE, LATE EVENING FOR EUROPE.

With Swami Shankarananda, Australia, and Edward Muzika, USA.

LIVE WITH ECSTATIC CHANTING. DETAILS LATER.

 NEW NISARGADATTA TEACHING ONLINE CLASS BEGINING SUNDAYS, NOON ARIZONA TIME AT LINK BELOW.

TEXTBOOK WILL BE THE ULTIMATE MEDICINE PRIMARILY, BUT USING OTHER SOURCES. BOOKS CAN BE FOUND AS PDFs ON MY WEBSITE.

I WAS A STUDENT OF JEAN DUNN DURING THE 1980s, AND MY SPIRIT UAL TEACHERS, ROBERT ADAMS, ENDORSED MY UNDERSTANDING IN 1995.

MY WEBSITE IS: WEARESENTIENCE.COM. BOOKS ARE IN RESOURCES..

PASSWORD:315547

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fus02web.zoom.us%2Fj%2F87385817496%3Fpwd%3DN1Y1bWo1OW1CUjdFZ3B3bXlHTGR3dz09%26fbclid%3DIwAR3QNH3yUZykSBagrU3jM4MIhzpAXEXraf-Xf7YAT0vkzNM6a7vG45dwKxs&h=AT2wF7-3a7ePGeAedvcVDmqZ2xxZZczFeCfk-MVVoSxTtjw5D3vRbZUdkKPBP5jWfzUegQh8RsRFeyqrUdbtw5oRhSQJYvocSvzjNLsDTgTZ3zQs8JjGyzF-PaV9DvQM14sbfMfyYpk8LFs4Zg

 BEYOND SUFFERING TO NIRVANA

For ten years I have taught God-Realization that ended suffering and yielded joy and bliss and provided direct access to the life force. Now it is time to teach about the final step the Absolute, thw non-existent Before-Consciousness state.

The body and Consciousness are shows, entertainment; the Absolute observes all that but is not of it, and as such is beyond space, time, and death

https://youtu.be/ET5nN4ckuz8

 WITH THIS SATSANG, EVERYTHING CHANGES!

GOING BEYOND GOD-REALIZATION AND THE DIVINE;

FINDING YOU BEYOND EXISTENCE AND LIFE ITSELF!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FvZ7CT3gp4&t=64s 

 To me today on Messenger:

"I feel I’m not in charge anymore

It’s like I don’t want to be.

It’s Total surrendering

Understanding very little.

Everything just goes on within me.

This joy , It’s an inherent inner aliveness

It’s all inherently sacred and so deeply satisfying

Everything is AFIRE with God divine"

"Ed

Please have faith in me !

And love me

And feel me

When I tell you

That you are

Love

"YOU ARE LOVE

I FEEL THAT

"I don’t think that

I FEEL IT IN MY BODY AND SPIRIT

My mind has shattered

And all I am is LOVE

That recognizes

LOVE"

Today was different at Satsang. Love exploded everywhere. The whole Sangha is transitioning now into the divine.

ATTENDEES AT SATSANG (7/9/20) SHARE BLISSFUL AND PAINFUL EXPERIENCES AROUND THE TOPIC OF LOVE AND SURRENDER

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/play/vpZ-d-v7rD03S92UswSDAPB6W9S9e_ms0yQbqaAJzEznUXIENFGkM-ATM7c21pGkKEWUaLICutbyGCiC?_x_zm_rhtaid=441&_x_zm_rtaid=9ip6RJUKRn6H-3BZkDr54Q.1597020283332.22efc592bcadd820314a299303f39288&autoplay=true&continueMode=true&startTime=1596996118000

FURTHER POINTERS FROM NISARGADATTA WITH CONTEXT

I have studied Nisargadatta since 1986. I was fortunate enough to meet Jean Dunn in 1987 as well as Ramesh Balsekar about the same time I met Robert Adams in 1989, and more or les laid Maharaj aside for the next seven years. I and many of Robert's students would ask him his opinions of Maharaj or his teachings. Robert did not care for Nisargadatta because "He was too rude." Robert said he used to torture Ramesh unmercefully during the time Robert was with Ramana.

In the late 1990s I began a deeper study of Maharaj depending more on Robert Powell's books that were far clearer and much more detailed tha Jean Dunn's. I began to really understand Nisargada, But also recognized that Maharaj was frequenly inconsistent and he also interlaced his talks with unending references to various hindu ontology concepts that distracted rather than clarified.

He made himself hard to undertand by being sloppy in his talks especially when he was speaking of issues that he considered the highest or final teachings. This study lasted for 15 years until I had an entirely new enlightenment experience entirely outside of the Advaita or any non-dual teaching.

This awakening event entirely eclipsed my many experiences with Robert and Jean. I experienced both realization of the Manifest Self and of God at the same time. I entered the divine, the kingdom of God and was brought alive into the Manifest Self of awareness of the life force within.

Yes, Nisargdatta spoke about the life force and also beingness, but in an abstract way with the usual distracting stories or terms he often used. I was never able to "feel" that Maharaj actually experienced that which he wrote about, and instead quickly transitioned to discussing the witness and nothingness instead, the experience of which was supposedly entirely outside of consciousness. Therefore his freuent discussions of this subject were often most confusing.

The early Nisargadatta, the one who wrote Self-Knowledge and Self-Realization, was a Bhakta, a lover, a devotee who spoke of God, saints, devotion, and chanting. None of this Bhakta remains evident in his last teachings between 1979 and 1982. His Witness concept and experience had totally swallowed the loving Nisargadatta. It should not have.

It is this world of light, love, energy, and the divine I awakened to in 2010. It is from this possition I discuss the spiritual developmental steps that are often almost hidden in his eachings, but also add a step Maharaj did not take: joyfully returning to the marketplace. This marketplace is the mundane world I left after I enetered the divine, God, Manifest Self. That is, rather than resting in the Witness, I reentered my human self, consciousness itself, and played there, exploring beingness, the underlying life force, feltandplayed with spiritual energies which I called the Voice of God. Robert sometimes had praised me because in the 90s, I never experienced or spoke of them.

I will speak of these later, but in this essay I wanted to clarify the existential spiritual developmental steps he seemed to speak about in his own chaotic way, and speak of them based on my many years of study.

-----------------------------------

Step one:

Watch the body closely. Scan the body frequently, running the attention from toes to scalp over and over many times a day. One needs to know their body as perceive by consciousness, and not as learned knowledge from books, teachers, or previous experience.

Step two:

Realize that You, whatever that is, are definitely not the body. Your body is something perceived by you. It is an object, not part of the subject.

Step three:

Realize that you, from your present state of knowledge, are spirit, that which Ramana Maharishi also called the self, which he was always aware of. From Ramana's level of understanding, you are pure spirit, awareness, that which apprehends the body and the world.

Step four:

Stay here for a time, constantly aware of the body in the world, and that spirit is that awareness. With Constant observation, you realize you are are a "spiritual" entity within the body feeling the totality.

Step five:

The fundamental state of the human spiritual being is called beingness, a state of silence, joy, bliss, and sheer happiness. Just rest in this beingness as your resting state. Accept it as your base world. You are now far from the mistaken knowledge that you are your body. Now unhappiness rarely touches you. You have found the divine, which is separate from the mundane world, and in a sense, you live above the mundane world and the body. You knowboth but choose the divine, because there you are happy.

Step six:

Constantly be aware of your beingness by resting there and making it very, very familiar. At this point will begin to realize you are not the divine, are not beingness, happiness, or bliss. You are beyond all of these as the Witness.

Step seven:

In a deep sense you will realize that you can only be It, the Witness, you cannot be aware of that which witnesses everything else. It is altogether beyond the mundane, and also beyond divine, spiritual. It is altogether beyond existence. It is this incomplete understanding that makes you think the Witness is immortal, but immortal relates to a quality of entities within the mundane.

Step eight:

When this is fully realized, and you own the knowledge that you are not of this world, not of consciousness, really not of awareness, you realize you are from "nothingness"anotheresoteric term that make you think it is real because you named it.

Now you realize the uselessness and imaginary nature of all knowledge, from physics and chemistry, to all knowledge we have of ourselves and others. We rest in not knowing, emptiness, being truly stupid.

Step nine:

After resting in this knowledge of no knowledge for some time, you will probably find you are bored and that your practice is very dry. So at some point, you return your attention back to consciousness, to beingness, to energies, to bliss, and beingness is your basic state, your resting state. This point, you will realize you have escaped from nothingness, and you could totally throw yourself into life, playing inside of consciousness as your own play yard. This point is never made clear by Nisargadatta, it brings us back to the marketplace where we live life in the combination of mundane and divine, fully involved in life, getting to know the life force which permeates your own beingness. For all intents and purposes, this is your manifest self as opposed to the transcendent witness, which is beyond life and death. This is the experience of Self spoken about in the Ashtavakra Gita, which is not Nisargadatta's world, or the world of Robert Adams.