Always That

Everything you experience is That. To go looking for an experience of the Self has to be self defeating because you cannot find what you already are. You cannot experience anything that is not the Self, so where can you go to find it? What is really required is recognition, often called realization.

Realization is an understanding, and the beauty of this understanding, is that you don't have to be experiencing oneness or bliss to know who you are. This is why Vedanta is considered knowledge, and why it is the knowledge that ends the search.

Of course, if you want to pursue experience, you can find ones that are blissful and unitary. Experiences of mystical union, however short, can have profound effects. There is probably nothing that feels better than the ecstasy of the experience of oneness. These experiences, however wonderful, may not lead to understanding.

To chase after the experience of oneness can be frustrating, because, as an experience, it doesn't last. And if you make the error that the experience of oneness is enlightenment, you will set yourself up for a lifetime of searching, because no experience lasts.

Experiences of oneness, bliss, and ecstasy can, however, point to understanding. They become part of your understanding. They can contribute to the knowledge you need to understand who you are. It is a boon to experience oneness, as opposed to the limited experience we typically have.

When the experience of oneness is gone, understanding is what keeps you on an even keel. What really helps is firm conviction and sureness as to our real being. The knowledge of our actual beingness as Awareness. One with all that is.

Knowing oneself as Awareness keeps one from continually looking for a particular experience. With understanding, one doesn't mind the particular experiences of a limited human form. They are just an experience, not who you are.

Awareness sees through many forms, and experiences what is particular to that form. Awareness, as John Doe, picks up the qualities and positions that make up John Doe. This is experience, and it may feel limited, but it is not who you are.

To get beyond limitation requires understanding. It requires an understanding that is deep and broad, seeing that the whole world is but a myriad of local focal points superimposed on oneness. Only understanding will take you beyond experience.

The understanding is twofold. The first is to see that everything is a form of the One. The second is to see that you are That One. Seeing this is understanding.

Being Awareness

Interestingly, being awareness is a big picture, yet it does not deny the body, nor the mind. The bodymind simply recedes into the background, a shift in perspective, a change of gestalt.

Knowing one is awareness does not alter the presence of a body, nor personality. So, one may say that as awareness I do not suffer, yet the body, the personality may still do so.

Granted, from the perspective of awareness, the bodymind seems to be at a distance; not as close or as personal as it once was. So, suffering may be lessened as identity does not reside with it.

The bodymind does not disappear, yet in some respects the presence of it may be more noticeable because one is able to see it more objectively, more dispassionately.

When the bodymind becomes an object in the field, just as other objects in the field, one is aware of it as any object, although of course, it has greater sublety.

Obviously, awareness allows anything in the field to appear. Anything may happen. The bodymind will still like or dislike according to its preferences, but the preferences will have less hold.

As awareness, the demands of the bodymind certainly have less drive. The bodymind may well be amazed at the lack of drive -- gone, like a leaf in the fall, dropping from a tree.

As awareness, the distinction between needs and desires is greatly increased. The balance of needs versus desires changes in favor of a few simple needs. Desires drop as if on their own. They are seen to be unable to satisfy.

Awareness, being what it is, is good at just observing. It has little to say. Egos playing, appear to be in a dream, and who can interfere with other's dreams? It becomes easy to be silent. It's like observing a joke that no one gets.

Awareness doesn't hold on to others, and others can become extremely irritated when one doesn't seem to hold on to them as they expect. They may even suspect that one is cold.

There is no going back. Awareness, once realized, cannot be let go. It is basic, like dirt. Basic, because one already is that. It is only a realization, a waking up.