Tuesday, April 2, 2019

To End Separation

In form, in a body and mind that believes it is a body, there is a sense of separation. Every other bodymind is sensed to be separate. In fact, everything in the universe is deemed to be outside the body. This sense of separation is untrue and causes one to seek.

For this universe to exist, and for the drama of life to play, there must be form, and form requires limitation. This sense of limitation gnaws at us, and we long for freedom. The teachings of non duality show that we are free and not limited.

The Eastern sages call the world Maya, an illusion. It is not that the forms do not exist, but that they are temporary. If they are temporary, can they be real? 

As one seeks truth one has to question deeply, "Who am I." It stands to reason that to know anything about this universe, and this life, one needs to start from the one truth no one can deny, "I exist." What is this I, and what is existence? The sages of ancient India used the phrase, "Existence, Conscious, Bliss" to sum up reality. The unpacking of this phrase shows that Existence cannot be outside consciousness. Existence equals consciousness.

Awareness, from which we are never separate is available, without judgment, to see any object, physical or mental. Every thought, feeling, sight, and sound, appears in awareness. Yet, one seldom steps back from the objects of awareness to awareness itself. If one can do this, the feeling of separation has a chance to recede. This is called, "standing in awareness."

If one contemplates this long enough, one begins to get the sense that the bodymind and everything known is in awareness. Pursued to the furthest depth, one comes to the conclusion that one is awareness, not a bodymind in a universe.

This shift from being a bodymind to being Impersonal Awareness is a difficult shift. We are hard wired and conditioned by experience to perceive ourselves as a body in a world. A better interpretation of our experience is required to see that we are Impersonal Awareness. It is a difficult, outrageous, and counter intuitive leap. But this shift must happen to end the sense of separation.

One may have an intuition that non separation is the truth. To get the mind to see this, accept this, is the journey. It is a journey from separation to oneness, or non duality. When one sees this non duality, and it becomes real, that is called "Realization."

My own path found real value in studying the Upanishads of Advaita Vedanta. The ancient sages developed many teachings that reveal to the mind, in a logical and methodical way, the correct method of interpreting experience. It shows that everything is in Awareness, and "You are That." 

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