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

enlightenment Is Not / 313
EACH pARTi(ClE) OR i-DEnTiTY OBSERvER, AWAR-
ER, COnSCiOUSnESS, ETC., ARE pOinTS Of viEW
WiTHin THE SUBSTAnCE, AnD ARE MADE Of THE
SUBSTAnCE. WHEn THEY DiSSOlvE
YOU ARE nOT.
I AM is like a particle of sand floating in the NOTH-
INGNESS, which, although it appears as different from the
NOTHINGNESS, it is the SAME SUBSTANCE and is pure
NOTHINGNESS. But even NOTHINGNESS means nothing
because it, too, IS NOT. Why? Because it would require an “I”
or an I am or an “awarer” to say that the NOTHINGNESS
is or was. This would make the nothing into a something,
which it is not. In this way, not only the concept of I AM, but
also the concept of a being, as well as the concept of Nirvana,
is not. The Buddha said:
“AlTHOUGH innUMERABlE BEinGS HAvE
THUS BEEn lED TO niRvAnA, nO BEinG AT All
HAS BEEn lED TO niRvAnA.”
(Diamond Sutra)
So to end this, I will recall a time when I was with Baba
Prakashananda and I asked him about liberation. First he
asked me what I meant by liberation. I said something like
“bliss, oneness, merging,” etc., which even as it left my lips,
“I” knew they were concepts. He then said this to me:
“YOU DOn’T WAnT liBERATiOn,
BECAUSE if YOU HAvE liBERATiOn,
YOU WOn’T BE THERE TO AppRECiATE iT.”
With Love
Your mirage brother,
Stephen