Consciousness, Emptiness, I-Am

Satsang January 29, 2017

The nature of Consciousness, Emptiness, Awareness, the Manifest and Unmanifest Self. A video.....


https://youtu.be/Mvokn_21jGc

SATSANG TODAY, SUNDAY, JANUARY 29, NOON ARIZONA TIME, 2PM EAST COAST.

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Upon deep reflection and inner attention, the emptiness within is found to be exactly the same as the space around us. Inner time, subjective time, like external clock time, measures the arising and disappearance of objects.  Inner and outer space/time is the container of all objects of consciousness.  But all arise from and are swallowed by nothingness while the eternal I in each of us watches. This the truth.

Experiencing Versus Reading

It is 10,000 times more “enlightening” to be able to watch yourself slowly awaken into somethingness (consciousness), and then at night to watch your somethingness, your consciousness, slowly submerge and dissipate into nothingness, than it is to read all 3,000 pages of Robert’s transcripts 10,000 times, which talk about Nothingness and Consciousness, . If you just read about Nothingness and consciousness from Robert or from Nisargadatta, you only learn a concept which you try to fill in with your own experience in order to make the concept of nothingness your own.  But it ever will only be a concept.

But when you can watch your consciousness as you, including your sense of presence, your mind, and your awareness arise from nothingness and set there too, it is no longer a concept. You know that nothingness is your true nature, and somethingness, consciousness, comes and goes, like a dream. It is insubstantial, ephemeral, transient, while nothingness is the great unknown, the complete rest, and complete peace and freedom.

        And, you also learn that YOU are aware of the entire process of something arising and setting into nothingness, and you are separate from both. You are that which is aware of the entire process of consciousness arising and setting, and you are also aware of of the flip side, of nothingness which gives birth to consciousness, and absorbs consciousness at its end.

With this you are free from life and death. You know consciousness and its setting. Each day you are born into consciousness, and each evening you die into it, and yet you have watched the whole process as apart from you.

You are that which is aware of life and death.

But to just read about it does not really help you much. For you the entire talk about consciousness and nothingness is just words, concepts, and you will continue to compare Ramana’s words against Muktananda’s, and Robert’s without EVER knowing for yourself until after you stop reading about it, and start investigating for yourself through self-inquiry and by watching the awakening process, and when that is mastered, watching the sinking into Nothingness process.

Then you will never again fear death, for nothingness is infinite, and the metaphorical womb for your consciousness, which is exactly the same as everyone else’s, as is your nothingness.

THE UNIMAGINABLE JOURNEY

It is so very, very easy to have spiritual discussions after reading dozens of spiritual books and doing some but of meditation.  But it is so hard to find students that really want to dive deeply into spirituality, but so few are able to let go of all their learning, and become spiritually stupid, or empty.

 When I speak about the emptiness that I experience, the Void.  Very few who listen have either seen or felt the inner emptiness, the inner space that interpenetrates all objects or mind, all feelings, all energies, and bliss.  Nor have they seen the light of Consciousness that illumines my inner world.

        Nor do they know about their own sense of presence, because for most, it is only a concept, not a direct, ongoing experience.

       Most have no idea about the I Am sensation, let alone experience it.  Nor after years of abiding there know the difference between I as the observer, and the sense of presence as the I Amness.

Fewer still now that everything that is, is consciousness.  All that we ever know is known through our minds and senses; thus all that we know is consciousness, its properties and its objects.

Many more experience the fires of consciousness, Shakti, Kundalini, bliss, or see flowing patterns of multicolored light flowing in and around the heart to various parts of their bodies. Few have learned how to eat emotions, by accepting them, abiding in them, then bring them into your most intimate heart-sense, and thereby integrating them into your sense of presence in a flash of bliss that might last a day of being unable to move because of the depth of bliss.  They call this aspect of Self the divine feminine, but all sentient creatures have its manifestation potentially within.

         Nor does more than a very few the difference between consciousness and awareness, where awareness is consciousness of being aware of awareness, and that being conscious of awareness gives you access to the deepest level of the Manifest Self, the ultimate first person, which Ramakant calls “The Selfless Self.”  The Selfless Self, is the ultimate first person, the primary knower, the hearer, watcher, and primary intelligence directing attention.  It is the executive functioning of all that is in consciousness.

Beyond all this is the Unmanifest Self, the noumenal, non-existent self of Nothingness, potential, from which the Manifest Self springs.

        When I speak to all these levels—and there are many, many more—there are so few who can listen.  They think I am mad, living in my mind or imagined inner worlds.  But these are as clear to me as is the experience of being in a powerful muscle car is for the average male teenager.

What a tremendous journey one steps into when they stop reading about spirituality and instead plunge into spirituality through intense and long meditation, self-inquiry, pondering the meaning of each experience and deepening each by attending within.  But it takes fearlessness to let go of the world and plunge within.  It take commitment to continue when nothing seems to happen.  And it takes—most of all—persistence, and that comes when you realize that there is nothing in the external world for you.  For me, it was not a recognition that I had given it up, but actually knowing that in my disinterest, the world lost interest in me.  It gave me freedom and helped me along in my inner journey.

The Complexity of Our Inner World--Satsang January 22, 2017

Our Inner World is as complex as our external world, with all kinds of "objects" and "Containers" such as Emptiness and The Void, as well as all kinds of knowledge about each.

The Heart Sutra talks about the equality of form and emptiness or the Void, but few even have experienced the inner emptiness, which is often first experienced as an inner and dense darkness.

Then there is Self.  The Self as human is regarded in Advaita as unreal, while the Self as consciousness is called the Manifest Self or love, Shakti, light, bliss, and flowing energies.

Deeper than the Manifest Self is awareness, whcih is first understood as there is something that ia aware that we are aware of consciousness.  This awareness is called "The Selfless Self" by Ramakant, Nisargadattas student, the Inner Man of No Rank in Zen, higher intelligence, the witness as in small w witness as opposed to large W witness, also called Parabrahman.

This kind of self-exploration and self-understanding can take a lifetime to realize and manifest.

See the video:  https://youtu.be/z02ahnxjbPA

PERSONALITY MUST DIE--NOT!!!

There is an pervasive concept that the personality must die either immediately before awakening or as a result of it.  This is not true.  What happens is that the personality becomes "hollowed"; it is pervaded by emptiness and becomes like a hologram that you can see through its form.  You, the witness, sees through your personality, and can choose to let it be in your life, or just hold it in silence.

So many teachers say the personality must die, but if you watch them, listen to them, follow them, you will find them filled with pettiness, vanity, giving themselves high rankings, or being rather thin skinned and defensive about their attainment or their teachings.

Robert was an amiable sociopath, always hiding motives and actions, manipulating people in the background, and he was the most profoundly entrenched in Nothingness than any other human I have ever met. 

The personality is just mind and the interplay of mind and one's own sense of presence, of existence.  Like the mind and the sense of presence, it can be watched, or allowed to function in this or that body.

RESONATE---NOT!!

As a bit of advice for seekers, as a general rule, don't go to a teacher whose words "resonate" with you.  The feelings of acceptance or clearer understanding that you feel, maybe of being understood, only means you are comfortable with that person's teachings.  This means you already understood this level of spiritual teachings, but the teacher's words confirm and clarify what you had merely felt before.

This kind of teacher and these teachings basically reinforce where you already are and make you comfortable there.

Instead, go to a teacher whose words you don't understand, and whose words may leave you stunned because what he or she says is so astounding, and his or her personality may be the the one that you find most uncomfortable, for this will challenge everything about who and where you are.

From Bliss to Peace

https://youtu.be/D1zp8x5DAk4

From Bliss to Peace

Satsang, January 15, 2017

https://youtu.be/D1zp8x5DAk4

SATSANG SUNDAY JANUARY 15, 2017.  THIS IS PURE Q&A.  Go to:

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password is    edji

SATSANG ON SUNDAYS; 12: NOON, ARIZONA TIME, JAN 1, 2007

HTTP://SATSANGWITHEDJI.WEEBLY.COM

12:00 noon Arizona time Jan 1, 2017

PASSWORD:  edji

CAT CARETAKER MARIE SCHUCKLES--DEAD!

Marie Schuckles, my companion in cat colony management in Northridge, has died after her long struggle with cervical cancer at age 70.  She died in great pain.  Even morphine did not make it bearable. 

Marie had a hard life the last ten years.  After her mother died, their home was sold to cover the mother’s debts.  Marie moved in with her sister P., who really didn’t want her there, and she slept in the living room, on a couch, without any privacy.  P. did not even turn on the air conditioning o heat at night for Marie in the living room downstairs.  Her other sister, N., finally convinced Marie to get rid of all her storage belongings, giving them to her newly found, adopted out son, and with that money she got her own apartment, and for the last three months of her life she was happy.

I just found out that she died ten days ago, and have been trying to locate the three people she turned her cat caretaking efforts over to.

They are:

Valerie

Maria 

And Marilyn

Michael feeding my street cats  in 2013

Valerie is 86 and has been managing feral cat colonies for over 45 years.  She now has at least 100 cats she is feeding, getting spayed/neutered, and placing in homes.

So far, I have not located the person that is taking care of the 27 cats I was caring for, near California State University in Northridge, and I am hoping it is Marilyn, who herself contracted cancer about 8 years ago, and so far has beaten her cancer.  She too was taking care of many cats, rescuing even more and placing them in homes.  I have two of her street cats, Radha and Sitta.

Look, I hold weekly satsangs, write books, and post about Advaita teachings, Robert Adams, and ways of experiencing  various kinds of self-realization, as well advising many hundreds of people via email, mail, and phone calls regarding spiritual practice.  I have had many people that have come and stayed with me for weeks at a time, and I have really asked for nothing.

But I am asking all of you who care for my efforts, and who

One of five stops where I fed cats

manifest love and compassion, to donate money to these three women who feed many hundreds of cats, have them spayed and neutered, rescue them, and place them in homes.

I want you to send them money.   I ask you to call them, talk to them, learn all they do, and ask how you can help.

Please do this for me.

-----------

Valerie  Stark (818) 900-3548

20032 Vintage St.  Chatsworth, CA 91311

When I last talked to Valerie two days ago, she was about to go out feeding her ferals, saying the winds were freezing cold and 70 mph!  We all worry about our feral friends outdoors.

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

Maria  Jacquec (818) 826 0299 

19037 Bryant St. #4,  Northridge, Ca 91324

Marilyn XXXX  

I am trying to locate her now.  In the meantime, please send the money to me which I will give her for caring for my cats.  If I cannot locate her, I will give the money to Valerie or Maria.

Ed Muzika  edwardmuzika@gmail.com 

19017 North Welk Dr. Sun City, Arizona  85373

If my teachings and satsang are valuable to you, please do this as part of your sadhana, your path, your devotion.

PS;  I have been donating money directly to Marie Schuckles for the past two years that I have been here, and will continue as I can.

SPECIAL CHRISTMAS SATSANG AT 10:30 A.M. SUNDAY 12/25

When I started this new round of Satsangs a month ago, that first Satsang was tentative, because that inner voice that had previously used me to speak for that which is beyond this Ed Muzika body and mind was starting anew, has now grown more powerful and more emotionally eloquent.

When we have Satsang, make no mistake, it is not me talking to you, but consciousness itself to your consciousness.  Also, deep within me, that which is beyond consciousness is also speaking to you who are also beyond consciousness, that who knows the coming and going of consciousness, and is itself untouched by consciousness.

For this reason, I want to hold a special Satsang this Sunday on Christmas, at 10:30 A.M. Arizona time, 12:30 P.M. Eastern Standard time, 5:30 P.M. U.K. time.

That day I will speak about the approach of love, of Bhakti, to the awakening of the Divine Self within, the spirit, Shakti, wherein the Self becomes aware of itself as consciousness and Shakti only, above and beyond the which are their vessel.

Go to http://satsangwithedji.weebly.com, and use the password   edji   whenever asked for a password.  Come early and listen to the chanting at the bottom of the page, especially the ALL NEW KUNDALINI CHANTS.

LISTENING TO THAT SPIRITUAL TEACHER

What is he saying, really?

Is he using experiential words relevant or potentially relevant to my life, or is he using abstract, philosophical words?

Jidda Krishnamurti and U.G. Krishnamurti emphasize the hopelessness of believing and following teachers who have little or no actual spiritual experience in terms of understanding themselves, and merely parrot Ramana or some other teacher, although Ramana is the teacher most frequently parroted.

You also need to be clear about what you are looking for.

Are trying to find someone who understands and can explain certain spiritual experiences you have had?  This is absolutely the wrong reason to seek out a teacher.

Drop that search immediately because it is not relevant to your present experiencing.  Past experience is gone, a memory that should not be allowed to haunt you.

You see, that experience has not stayed with you.  Where you are now is most important, and what you have to do is carefully explore your present experience, especially your inner experience, and see if there are any invariants, any inner experience that does not change.

Such would be the experience of a vast inner space, emptiness, which is the mainstay of Buddhism.  Do you know emptiness, both inner and outer?

Do you experience the Lifeforce within as a formless entity empowering and acting through you?  Are you aware that all that you know and all that you experience about yourself and the world is experienced through the medium of YOUR consciousness, and all that you really ever know is consciousness?

Are you able to watch big emotions, such as sadness, grief, love, jealousy, anger, etc., without fearing them?  Can you accept and totally coexist with even the strongest emotion?  Is this what you are seeking to do, to expose hidden emotions and reabsorb them into your sense of self?

Have you located the I sense within, or the I Am somewhere in your chest, gut, or head?  Can you focus on it, stay with it, and bring it into your heart?

Do you want to experience the bliss of having a close relationship with the Lifeforce, AKA Shakti?  Do you see how Shakti depends on consciousness to be part of your experience, and without consciousness--your consciousness--there is no experience of Shakti and no bliss?

Are you aware of your own sense of presence, that you exist as a presence in  the world, and this presence permeates and penetrates your body and mind and extends like an energy field into the space around you?

Are you aware of an inner, formless, "entity" that is aware of consciousness, and which can watch the coming and going of your waking state, dream state, and sleep without itself being touched?  Are you aware of all the movements of consciousness and the mind that flows when you first awaken, including the coming and going of consciousness, and the simultaneous presence of the witnessing of these changes within.

It is this kind of direct, experiential knowledge and experience which you should be looking for in a teacher, not someone who speaks abstractly about enlightenment or awakening, Nirvana or Brahman, Jiva or Atman, without carefully explaining these experiences.

          SATSANG

SUNDAYS DECEMBER—NOON  ARIZONA TIME

THIS IS 2 PM EASTERN STANDARD TIME; 7PM UNITED KINGDOM; 8PM GERMANY; 6AM MONDAY, MELBOURNE

Topics of course will be about Robert Adams’ and Nisargadatta’s teachings, self-inquiry, what is the self, what is consciousness? Perceiving energy/bliss.

Sign in a few minutes ahead of time, and listen to chanting found at bottom of page, especially Krishna Das chants.

GO TO:  http://satsangwithedji.weebly.com

Password   “edji”  will be required on two different screens.

Then INVENT a guest sign in name

Go to top of video box and mute your microphone until you ask questions.

TRY THIS A DAY AHEAD OF TIME TO PRACTICE GETTING IN AND LISTENING TO CHANTS.

THIS WILL BE A 10 WEEK EXPERIMENT TO SEE IF PEOPLE COME.

STEVE ECKERT NOW WALKING IN THE FOOTHILLS OF GREAT ENLGHTENMENT

TO ME FROM STEVE:


Sri Edji, I bow to you Master and thank you for calling me !

This AM when meditating, the personality was gone and I was Consciousness-very blissful.


Then out of nowhere...............you know how it is when your busy with something and all of a sudden you know something is Watching you.


Well I am the I am and shit all of a sudden something is watching this whole thing happen.


In my imagination my head turned slightly to the right only to see a window with a light for the background but nothing there. And I knew I and Consciousness was being observed.
Nothing like this has ever happened before but I realized that is behind the window ............. before birth, timeless, space less and emptiness. This is my true home.

I wish I had the words, the capacity to inspire others to pursue an inner search, an inner way of being, of discovery of all that lies within.  It is a fantastic voyage of profound satisfaction, discovering who and what you are.

The levels of consciousness are endless.  We seek and explore each level.  Waking mind, the subtle energy body, the workings of Shakti, the falling of the mind into the heart, the absorption of consciousness into consciousness, with the peace and freedom it brings.

I wish I could teach an easy and rapid way, but my own way was long, meandering, confused and confusing because I just drifted from teacher to teacher, having lost my own original way of self-inquiry which produced fantastic results in a very short period of time, and got diverted into Zen and then Siddha Yoga for a long period before returning home to the three greats, Robert, Nisargadatta, and Ramana.

But like Odysseus, because my journey was long, I see and feel what each method offers, but that ultimately, you have to find the deepest self within, the witness of all through self-inquiry.

The world is such a mess, and so is the spiritual marketplace.  How to find truth?  Look within for the I-thought, then the I-sense.  Feel for the I-sensation in yor chest, the heart of your being, the heart of your heart, the place to which the Kundalini returns, and with it, the loosening of your attachment to your body, which allows you to become universal, everywhere, everything.

I give you my love.  I give you all my blessing.

WHEN BUDDHA AWAKENED

When Buddha opened his eyes and saw the Morning Star, he uttered the most famous quote in Buddhism. What he reportedly said has a number of variants, but the most literal is, “From the earth below to the sky above, I am the only one.”

Buddha realized that everything from the external world, to his thoughts, feelings, and body were only known through his consciousness. His body and the world were just appearances in his consciousness.

I don’t understand why many readers have not understood this sentence and take it to be a denial of the existence of the external world. It is not. The existence or not of the external world is irrelevant.

It is realizing that the world is only known through YOUR consciousness. For all intents and purposes, it may or may not exist independently of your body, but your consciousness contains all your knowledge, your mind, your experiences, as well as the sense that you exist, the sense that you are. But this sense that you are has generally been identified with the body. The body is the source of consciousness that reveals the external world. But Buddha realized that all that he ever knew was really about himself, and he no longer identified as a localized body, but he identified with the entirety of his experience. He was one with everything, not just the body.

This understanding is twofold. Many people experience in meditation unity consciousness where the body appears to disappear and one feels like one has become the entire visible universe. These experiences open you to the possibility that you are more than just the body.
In this experience ‘you’ are no longer Fred, Ted, Sam, or Linda, ‘you’ experience yourself as everything that you see, hear, smell and touch. There is no longer any separation between you and the world. The totality of you as body mind, has become one with your experience of the external world.

You also realize that the forms of the world, like clouds, are constantly changing and impermanent. Even a mountain changes in appearance as you walk or ride around it, but in a sense, that mountain is always you, for it alone is your mountain, not Fred's, Ed,s, or Ted's. It is an appearance in your awareness; it is in your consciousness as a temporary experience, just as is your body.

With this experience you become free. There is no longer anything to be attained, anywhere to go, because each moment you are complete, at rest as self.

Of course your body continues to function using your mind to attend to day to day affairs, but you know deep down inside that all that you know is your own consciousness, and it contains everything.


Robert Adams said, “I see the world like you do, but I know that you are consciousness. You do not know that you are consciousness; you think you are a very limited body.”
The second most common first sentence the Buddha made was, “From the earth below to the sky above, I am the world honored one.”

This reflects two “facts.” One is that early Buddhism was heavily slanted to worshiping and idolizing the Buddha as someone very beyond you and me, and therefore, it is a mistake. Buddha's consciousness was the same as yours, but the understanding is different.

The second way this phrase may be understood is that with this experience, one obtains a new sense of wonder and a deep sense of gratitude, and peace. It is a different sort of existence than you have now where you imagine yourself to be a limited human. You have stepped beyond the limits of being human to becoming unlimited, and with it, the world becomes totally benevolent. It is not separate from you, as it does not exist without you, and in a sense it serves you, not the limited human you, but you as the manifest totality of your consciousness.

Everyone and everything is a guest in you, and you are the ultimate host, the owner of your consciousness. The knot in your heart that is the ego identity with your body, has opened, and you dwell resting in the totality.

THIS SHOW IS ALL ABOUT YOU

      Everything you see, hear, touch, hear, including the advice of all your teachers, parents, gurus and God, takes place within your consciousness. Even knowing—if you could—what is in another’s consciousness, is a knowing in your consciousness.  All this around you and in you is contained in YOUR consciousness.

      We have created the concept of a shared consciousness, a shared world between multiple sentience entities, but even this concept is within my mind which is watched by my awareness of my sense faculties as well as my inner senses of presence, mind, and the knowledge that I live.

Think about that.  It is all in you, the beginning and end of mankind, the birth and death of our world; all are hearsay evidence in the concepts that make up your empirical knowledge, all of which arises when you awake in the morning, and is forgotten when you sleep in the evening.

Lights on; lights off; lights on; lights off—again and again until the final lights off.

You can hear about atoms, quasars, string theory, God, guru lineages, but all are knowledge in you. 

You are the measure of all things. You are the beginning and end of all you suffering and self-imprisonment.  You are your own freedom too, by ending all the false, learned, second-hand hearsay knowledge that just is about this transcient world, body, and mind.

Knowing this is the first step to freedom: separating your identity from your body to that of identifying with consciousness, and then the totality of consciousness that you experience.

This is what Robert meant when he said, “You created me to awaken you,” and “The world and your body are not real; they are only appearances in consciousness’—your consciousness.

Think on this over and over.

     Your knowing contains everything.  Without knowingness, there is nothing.  Your knowledge that you are, your consciousness, is a container of all visible forms.  Your whole world is in it.

     In deep sleep you are not aware of the body.  Identification with the body appears after waking.  The world takes birth in your consciousness.  All the great teachers of the past, all incarnations, Krishna, Jesus, Ramana, and Robert Adams, all had the same consciousness as you have now.

     In addition, you were never born.  That you were born is strictly hearsay.  You have seen others born, but not yourself.  You were told that you were born, were given a name, and developed over the years until the beginning of your first memory, whatever that was, which is the beginning of your existence as self-conscious consciousness.  Before that memory, you are not self-aware.  You held no concepts and reacted as taught.  Birth takes place when there is awareness of existence, when there is the knowledge I am.  Self-awareness is really the first knowing that you are as an entity, as a form with which you identify, but actually you are formless, knowledge only.

     Distant stars and planets invisible to the eyes, are made visible by a telescope.  Your consciousness is like that telescope because of wage many things become visible.  Consciousness is your instrument by which you become aware of external forms and internal processes such as thought, imaging, emotions, joy and pain.  Without Your Consciousness, Nothing exists!

     Observation is the quality of consciousness but not of the observer.  Witnessing of the consciousness occurs to the observer.  Consciousness contains everything, but witnessing of all that happens to the observer.

     As Nisargadatta said, “Although I am talking to pure consciousness, the birth principal, the listeners identify themselves as men and women.  Hence, misunderstanding and confusion.”  That is, the sense of ‘I-Am’ identifies with the form of the body, and the great confusion of human existence begins for each of us.  Spirituality is a process of deconstruction and dis-identification with objects in the world as well as the body, and re-identification with the totality of the appearance of the world, the visible manifestation of the universe.  Within that identification with the totality of the manifest universe lies recognition of the observer who lies entirely outside of that manifestation, and in this finds total freedom.

THE PRACTICE WHICH EDJI SHARED WITH ME A FEW YEARS AGO... since it came up in Satsang today via the chat window.

Edward Muzika taught me this practice when I visited him a few years ago.

(Spoiler alert: It's nothing different from what he usually teaches in general terms. However, it is the "gift that keeps on giving," and I do it every day.)

a) Sit in meditation posture (straight back, eyes semi-closed, in a chair or semi-lotus or whatever posture you can manage. Actually, I prefer to close my eyes all the way.)

b) Observe the sensations around you--sounds in the room, feelings of your clothes on your skin, smells, breezes, etc.

c) Observe the sensations inside you--heartbeat, breathing, sounds of stomach, etc.

d) Feel your sense of being a person--of being present--the conviction that you exist. ("I am.") Locate it in your body.

e) Move your presence into that feeling. Watch it, be in it.

f) Follow that presence down to where it started... let your awareness sink down

that path. (Same as recommended by Nisargadatta, Ramana and Robert.)

g) Remain present in whatever comes up.

My own notes on this practice:

1. On days when I've had a good sleep and some caffeine, if I do this practice earlier in the day I don't sink down quite as far, and remain aware of mental chatter, images, emotions, ideas, and tracers of all sorts of fleeting images and sounds like a TV or radio scanning through the stations. But the usual sense of "me" is not there. I am just the awareness of these things. (These sessions can go really long... from 45-60 min.) And often I do drop down further after a while of this.

2. On days when I practice at the end of the day and didn't get enough sleep, the practice starts and I pop out when I'm nodding off into sleep (could be as short as 5-10 minutes.)

3. Every time I do this the initial phase of closing eyes, observing sensations and so on lasts maybe 1 minute. Then there is a feeling of pleasure and relief as the consciousness sinks down toward Ramana's "heart center" on the right side of the chest (could be different for different people, I suppose. Edji was recommending sinking to the "hara" or Japanese gut center of Zen, but I didn't get much out of trying it this way.)

4. After sinking down to the heart center which seems to be made of light and love and entering it, there is nothing. No impressions, no sounds, no images, no feelings, no consciousness, no me, no world, no bliss. It follows what Edji describes--seems to be the absolute ground of consciousness. I set a timer of 30 minutes for these sessions, but usually, if I've had a reasonable amount of sleep but had a full day, I'll pop out just before the timer goes off. The feeling of time completely evaporates between entering the heart center and popping out again. As I re-emerge I have no idea who I am, where I am, or what time of day it is. Then as Edji described in waking after sleep, the memories of who I am and where I am, what time of day it is etc. emerge as if I was awaking from a very deep sleep. But I know I haven't been asleep--something somehow has been measuring this whole process, and knows I'm back awake as an individual again.

5. After this I feel calm, relieved, tired, and reassured on a basic level that all the anxieties of the waking world and daily struggle to survive, provide for my loved ones, maintain health, job, art, chores, etc. are relative. It is also obvious that simply existing, being part of God's expression in the field of consciousness, is laudable and worthwhile... it's quite different from my usual feeling that I have to justify my existence by doing something. After a few years of practicing this way, subtle sensitivities develop more and more, but they're hard to describe because they're, well... subtle. However, I could say that I'm more aware of the fleeting nature of consciousness, more aware of what other people are thinking and how they are feeling, what their anxieties and beliefs about the world are, and I trust my own gut more and more. Finally, the gratitude to God that Edji mentioned is there, but I won't talk about it too much. It's best to experience this directly.

THANKS Edji!!!!

I hope that was helpful! Thanks for asking, Angela. Cheers, Max T. Powers, Enrique Umana, Andrew Hargrove, Syndria Mecham, Dinesh, Arvydas, Sergey, Keith, Michael Kujawa and please forgive me if I've left anyone out but I look forward to our continued conversations!

Matthew Brown, Toronto

teacherintherye@hotmail.com

November 20, 2016