You Are Not Book.indb - Stephen H. Wolinsky Ph. D.

258 / You Are Not
can be understood as a concept or veil contained within the
mirage, which is made of consciousness.
Some say that consciousness needs a vehicle. However, is
not the vehicle also made only of the same consciousness?
So, if there is only THAT ONE SUBSTANCE, what is there
to perfect, change, transform or alter? “Imagine” consciousness
as water, which when poured takes the form of a glass
(the body), and realize that the body, also, is only made of
the same consciousness.
In this way, why change a body, thought, emotion, or
action, because it is only consciousness? Hence there is
no consciousness and no separate doer (of psychological
or spiritual practice) because in order to say, “It’s all only
consciousness,” there would have to be another substance to
say it is so. Moreover, ALL SPIRITUAL PATHS AND SPIRI-
TUALITY ITSELF, ALONG WITH THE “I” OR “AWERER”
DOING IT, IS PART OF THE MIRAGE; THIS IS PART OF
THE REALIZATION.
For this reason, we have these questions:
1) Who is doing the practice?
Answer: Consciousness on one level, but nothing is doing
the practice because there is no consciousness.
2) What does the “I” doing the practice want to
attain, achieve, or become?
Answer: The “I” that imagines it does spiritual practice
wants to survive or preserve itself, which oftentimes
is mislabeled as “enlightenment.” However it is only
consciousness on one level; and it is nothing or no
consciousness, ultimately.
3) Why would an “I” want to achieve, get, or become,
have a “state” of consciousness, which is
impermanent at best and not at worst or vice
versa?