The freedom that you seek,
the Love that you seek,
the Happiness that you seek,
is in this understanding,
is revealed to you,
and established in your Being,
as you live this understanding.
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Briefing Document: Exploring the Nature of Awareness and Reality
Document Overview:
This document analyzes excerpts from a spiritual teaching session, focusing on key themes of awareness, reality, and the nature of self. The speaker guides the audience towards an understanding of non-duality (Advaita), emphasizing the formless, unchanging nature of awareness as the core of existence. The discussion tackles common misunderstandings around illusion and the relationship between consciousness and the perceived world.
Key Themes and Ideas:
Presence and Being:
- The session starts with a call to settle into the present moment, welcoming experience “just as it appears to you.” This establishes a foundation of direct experience rather than conceptual understanding.
- The emphasis is on “simply be,” inviting the mind to rest in “Presence,” a state of non-doing, and “no seeking.” This underscores the idea that the truth isn’t something to be attained but is already present.
- The core of being is stated as “I Am, is there, by itself,” independent of any personal identity or story. This implies a fundamental, inherent state of being.
The Nature of Awareness:
- Awareness is described as the “light of awareness” that is always “on,” analogous to the breath for the body – always present and essential.
- It is not an object or perception itself but the very fabric within which everything arises: “Thoughts and perceptions appear in awareness. Movement appears in the stillness.”
- Awareness is described as “non-movement,” “stillness,” and “knowingness.” This contrasts with the ever-changing nature of thoughts, sensations, and the body.
- Importantly, awareness is not “a feeling, not a sensation, not a mind state.” It is the fundamental reality that underlies and perceives all these things.
Reality and Illusion:
- The speaker introduces the idea that everything that appears may be “dreamlike, an illusion, a mirage,” yet stresses that “reality is there.” This clarifies that illusion does not mean non-existence but rather refers to the impermanent, changing nature of the phenomenal world.
- The analogy of the ocean and the waves is used: “When you look at a wave you only see the wave, but the ocean is there, always there.” Similarly, the mind, thought, and sensation are the “waves” while awareness (or consciousness) is the “ocean,” the underlying reality.
- The reality of a lie is used as an analogy to make it clear that even illusory things are perceived by something that is real: “Although, what is being shared is a lie, there is a reality to this lie. Something which perceives this lie, effortlessly.”
- “That which perceives the mirage, is not a mirage. That which perceives the body, is not an object, is not an impermanent thing.” This highlights that the observer is not part of the fleeting phenomena.
Non-Duality (Advaita):
- The core concept of Advaita, or non-duality, is presented: “Reality remains as it is, one reality. Awareness refers to the reality which perceives. Not to that which is perceived.”
- It’s emphasized that “separation is an illusion,” and names/forms are conceptual tools used “judiciously, for practical reasons.” The example of the body (right hand, left hand) demonstrates how conceptual distinctions do not imply a true separation.
- The speaker states “the ocean is one. Reality is one,” emphasizing the unified nature of existence.
- “Sat Chit Ananda,” being, knowingness, and bliss, are described as aspects of the same reality. “Being is the ‘I am’ ” and “Knowingness is awareness,”
- The whole teaching is summed up in one word: “Advaita,” emphasizing the unified nature of existence.
Attention & “Attention Span”:
- The discussion on “attention span” reveals two types of attention: “phenomenal” (directed towards objects) and “nominal” (directed towards the Source).
- Nominal attention is associated with “not knowing, a restfulness, the non-activity, peace, the stillness, and openness.” It is attention turned to the underlying awareness.
- “Attention span” is declared a conceptual idea – “span is in the mind,” because in experience there is “only one span, which is eternity.”
- The speaker advises to not work on it. Let the attention span be what it is, whatever it is, without knowing anything about it.
The Knower and Knowingness:
- The question “who is there to know?” is posed to address the duality that language introduces, clarifying that, “there is awareness of a perception. And the perception is not apart from you. The perception is intimate with awareness.”
- Awareness is not separate from the mountain or any perception, they are “intimate” with each other.
- The mountain and consciousness are not “two”, meaning that a mountain is a concept appearing in consciousness, and has no independent reality apart from consciousness, nor is it separate from consciousness.
- It is further explained that while in relative terms a mountain might be 10 miles from the body, it is at zero distance from awareness.
- The question “Is recognition even necessary?” touches upon the idea that the direct experience of being is sufficient, and there is a difference between the “understanding” and the mind’s “narrative” about it.
Inquiry and Self-Investigation:
- Inquiry is presented as a valid approach to deepening understanding, with the question “What is it that is aware?” as an example of a valuable question. However, there is an emphasis on discernment with the guidance that certain questions, like “why is there awareness?” should be avoided.
- The speaker states that questions appear within the mind from consciousness and they are not personal questions.
- Consciousness is seen as wanting to know itself by “unveiling” itself from personal identity. “It is consciousness which is asking these questions”.
Addressing the Illusion of the World:
- The speaker clarifies that while the world and its perceptions can be seen as “illusion,” this does not mean they are not real. They are real as an appearance within consciousness.
- The perception that the senses give us are translated through the brain, such as the image in the eye being upside down. Perceptions are not a one to one representation of reality.
- There is a world out there, but the reality of that world is consciousness.
- There is an emphasis on not denying the world, as that would deny the experience of others. The approach is rather to explore the reality of experience.
- The example of a dream is used to explain how the dream is an illusion, but the dreamer and therefore there is a reality to the dream. That reality is consciousness.
The Nature of Self:
- “It is I that hears these words,” indicating that awareness is the hearer, and not the physical ears.
- The identity of “I”, is not a female or a male, not tall or short, and is not located anywhere. The body has phenomenal attributes, while “I” does not.
- When the senses are no longer functional, awareness or “I” is not broken or ceases to exist.
Key Quotes:
- “Invite yourself to simply be.”
- “There is a vastness, A knowingness. Being.”
- “The wind does not make the wide open sky spin.”
- “Reality is not a movement.”
- “That which perceives the mirage, is not a mirage.”
- “You are that reality.”
- “Separation is an illusion.”
- “The ocean is one. Reality is one.”
- “Sat Chit Ananda, Nama Rupa. Being, Knowingness, bliss, name and form, One reality, one non duality.”
- “In our experience, is only one span, which is eternity.”
- “The concept even what is a concept of a mountain without awareness?”
- “It is consciousness which is asking these questions.”
- “There is a world out there, but the reality of that world is consciousness.”
- “The continuity, that which is continuous in your experience is not the body…That which is constant in your experience is consciousness.”
Conclusion:
The text presents a consistent exploration of Advaita principles, emphasizing the fundamental nature of awareness as the single reality that pervades and perceives all of existence. It encourages a shift in understanding, moving from an identification with the fleeting world of appearances to a recognition of the unchanging, formless, and ever-present nature of consciousness. The speaker’s approach is aimed at not only intellectual understanding but also experiential realization, aiming for “causeless peace of freedom.”
Disclaimer, the above text is machine generated!
It is intended as inspiration for your own dis-covery.
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