There is only one 'I', only one Self here.
See how effortless it is to confirm this fact.
How many selves are you?
Obviously only one, right?
I am one Self, one Presence, without the necessity to count that I am one, for there is no evidence or intimation of another Self, a higher self or lower self, in myself with which I could be compared or counted alongside.
'I' is a complete statement of truth. It is not a measurement of what I am. It is simply the announcing of the indivisible Presence that I am.
There is no distance or separation between Myself and Myself, Presence and Presence, I and I. It is not possible for a subject-object interplay to exist between Myself and Myself. I am Myself, a seamless wholeness.
In this understanding, we can see that, ultimately, our Self is never separate from itself and therefore is unable to seek itself, nor could it ever arrive at or find itself. The entire adventure of trying to awaken to the Reality of Oneself, and stabilise in Oneself, is an illusion fabricated out of the thought that imagines it. No such adventure ever really takes place for our Self.
Our Self is fully itself now and always. It doesn't need to find itself, because it is itself already. It doesn't need to stabilise in itself, because it has never for a moment been apart from its imperturbably stable Presence.
How to know our Presence is imperturbable? In the immediately available knowing that our Self is ever-presently what it is, never not what it is, we discern that our Self remains absolutely present irrespective of the movements of experience, unmoved from its abidance as Presence.
Has any form of experience prevented you from being present to it? No! That experience of always being present is imperturbability.
Another attribute we can discern about our Self is that it is intrinsically aware, and aware of its Presence. We are always aware that 'I am' irrespective of whether we have the thought 'I am' or not.
Being aware and being aware of Awareness are not two distinct and separate experiences. Being aware and being aware of Awareness are one and the same experience, that is, they are the one experience of being self-aware Awareness.
The substance of Awareness is Awareness itself. As such, it is the Awareness of itself. Just as, in relative terms, the sun by nature is light and so innately illumines itself. Shining light on itself is not an act the sun performs from time to time. Illuminating itself is what the sun is. Likewise, our Self, by nature, is aware and so aware of being aware.
Clearly our Self need not awaken to or become aware of itself, for it is never dim or absent in its Awareness of itself. Its nature is to be completely aware of its Reality, Awareness. We can never become more or less aware of our Reality.
So who is this Self that we seem to be, that seeks to become aware of the Reality of itself?
Can the Reality of our Self be separate and independent from the current experience of itself?
No! Our Self is the Reality of itself. Evidently there is an attribute of Reality intrinsic to Awareness, our Self. Awareness is not nothing or non-existent. It is substantially present and real.
Something that is unreal would not be present. Only Reality is present. It is not possible prove or verify the hypothesis; "That thing is unreal!" For such a thing would not be in Reality in the first place to refer to. If we seem to be referring to something that is unreal, we can only be referring to Reality, believing that we are not referring to Reality. There is only the presence of Reality, which does not coincide with non-reality, non-being or absence.
By virtue of the fact that we can say, 'I am', with absolute certainty, it is clear to us that we are Real, that we are a Reality. Thusly, the question comes; are we experiencing more than one Reality right now?
There is only one Reality. And this Reality is the essential substance out of which everything is made. So if we investigate the experience of our Self, we can only experience this substance of Reality. This substance of Reality can only experience itself.
As such, the 'self' that seeks to know its Reality is none other than Reality itself, masquerading as an imagined seeker. Who else could fabricate the appearance of 'seeking Reality' other than Reality? There is only Reality.
But Reality is already Reality, so how could Reality seem to seek itself?
Reality pretends to seek itself in its own imagination, clothing itself in the mask of a fictitious separate entity, believing as a result to be identical and limited to the mask alone.
Looking through the filter of this belief, Reality seems to overlook its nature and Presence. It overlooks the fact of its ever-present, unchanging substance, imagining instead that it is a temporary, ever-changing object. It's absurdly funny! From this starting point, Reality can conjure all manor of elaborate and theatrical means in its imaginary adventure to find the treasure of itself.
The illusory mask upon Reality is solely composed of a thought which believes that the Awareness of our Reality is not present now and that it might be acquired in the future. We have, in this process, seem to become a separate entity. However, we haven't really become a separate entity. We merely imagine and believe that we have become it.
Every movement of thought and perception appears within the medium of Awareness, including the thoughts that say, 'I have lost the experience of my Reality and am now seeking to find it' or 'I have found the experience of my Reality after a period of losing it.'
Who is this separate 'I' showing up in these thoughts?
This apparently separate entity is an imaginary 'I', and hence this 'I' can never find the Reality it is looking for because it is looking in the wrong place. An imaginary entity can never find or locate Reality. The imagination can only come in contact with the imagination, in the same way that a movie character can only come in contact with other movie characters and movie objects, but never can find or locate the screen within which it appears, and out of which it is made. The imagination cannot come in contact with the screen of Reality.
All movements of enlightening or endarkening are merely thoughts or perceptions that appear within our Self, the screen of Awareness, and are not therefore limitations of our Self.
The very substance of the imaginary-seeking-self is that for which it is in search.
What happens to the mind when it is struck with this understanding? It ceases to rise with an attempt to find the Reality of our Self anywhere. And as we are already right here, right now, being the Reality of our Self, thought need not arise at all for our Self to be completely known. We simply know our Self by being our Self.
The Self is Reality itself. It is the unlimited substance of everything that appears.
Comments