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itself out and disappears back into the void. Throughout the day thoughtsand feelings arise and subside in endless succession in our minds like rippleson a pond. Both the subjective and objective worlds, psyche and matter, arewaves in the ocean of Pure Consciousness."The world of animate andinanimate objects is projected byimagination on the all-pervading substrate."(9)As Selves each of us is master or mistress of his or her destiny. Just asthe universe is a combination of spirit and matter projected by the allpowerfulSelf's macrocosmic mind on the formless screen of Awareness, 27each of us projects our own personal waking state universe. 28To "project" means to consciously or unconsciously assign meaningand value. For example, two persons smoke a cigarette, an enjoyableexperience for one, painful for the other. All objects in the universe, subtleand gross, are value neutral, but take on personal meaning because of aninner projecting power or "imagination."We share the same creative force with the Self, or God. 29 In additionto the fact that the Self consciously projects the universe and we generallydon’t, the Self’s infinite will gives it the power to create, sustain, and destroyover eons. The Self, Pure Awareness, is the essence of the individual as wellas the essence of the universe.Projections cause human beings suffering because they are thought tobe real. The stated purpose of psychological therapies and spiritualtechniques is to put us back in touch with reality by reducingunconscious projections and the problems they generate.In Awareness, the Self, there are no projections. It is the "light" inwhich the mind and its projections are known. Self-Realization is liberationfrom the mind and its projections."Just as bracelets, bangles, and ringsare gold in various forms, the forms in this27 Referred to in the verse as the “all-pervading substrate”28 The universal projection is called Maya and the individual’s imagination/projection avidya. Maya is “thatwhich isn’t. Avidya is “not-science.” Strictly speaking, maya and avidya are the ignorance that cause theprojections.29 Not everyone who sees the Self sees it as formless Spirit. For the purpose of worship, the Self personifiesitself as God in minds incapable of seeing It without form.20
world are nothing but Awareness.”(10)Melt down a golden ring or bracelet and it becomes a lump of gold.Though the form modifies, nothing substantially changes. Similarly, all theobjects in the world are only Awareness, but conditioning projects them assolid and separate objects. Melt down our conditioning and everythingappears as Awareness - a difficult task because we have invested ourperceptions with so much personal meaning.How far is a wave from the ocean? From the wave's standpoint it is aseparate form. From the ocean's standpoint, however, waves cannot existwithout the ocean. To think of oneself as a totally separate and uniqueindividual is the spiritual equivalent of a wave imagining itself apart from theocean.The purpose of spiritual life is to discover in what sense we are and arenot separate from our Source by disassociating from our conditioning. Onlythe Self is free of conditioning. We cannot become “perfect” i.e. turn ourrelative selves into the Self by changing our conditioning, but whenattachment to conditioning is severed, Self realization exposes therelationship between the conditioned and unconditioned selves. From thestate of the Self there are strong arguments for letting the conditioned self be,however: it isn't real, it isn't you, and it can't affect you in any way. And, asthe verse insists, “all the forms of this world are nothing but Awareness.”"Space seems broken and diversebecause of the many forms in it.Remove the forms and pure space remains.So too with the omnipresent Self."(11)On a perfectly empty flat space sits a roofless house with many rooms.Looking down from above, notice how each space (bedroom, kitchen,bathroom, and garage) seems different because of its association with thewalls and objects in the rooms. Destroy the walls and only indivisible spaceremains.The inner self or psyche, a manifestation of formless Consciousness, iscomprised of several rooms: mind, the emotional or feeling function,furnished with love, anger, feeling, greed, tenderness, passion, lust, hatred,jealousy; intellect, decorated with ideas, thoughts, ideals, dreams, fantasies,21
Page 1 and 2: SELF-KNOWLEDGE"I am composing this
Page 3: REMOVING THE WALLIf happiness or un
Page 8 and 9: "Action cannot remove ignorancefor
Page 10 and 11: lowing blissful cosmic experiences,
Page 12 and 13: Something tells me this knowledge s
Page 14 and 15: ody.We aren’t our feelings and em
Page 16 and 17: The belief that I am a waker comes
Page 18 and 19: If I’m the sleeper ego, the bliss
Page 22 and 23: imaginations; ego, filled with self
Page 24 and 25: The next few days saw many experien
Page 26 and 27: here, however, the subtle part, the
Page 28 and 29: state manifests as awareness and ac
Page 30 and 31: At this point in the text the “No
Page 32 and 33: time when it was appropriate? Greed
Page 34 and 35: Simply knowing that everything is a
Page 36 and 37: in the light of the Self.”(19)Tho
Page 38 and 39: ationalized or self-validating cred
Page 40 and 41: through which the Enlightened Being
Page 42 and 43: Of course the idea of a deluded Sel
Page 44 and 45: Since ultimately all transactions,
Page 46 and 47: Nearly everyone has, at moments of
Page 48 and 49: The complex process of experience i
Page 50 and 51: can't. The creative process is, acc
Page 52 and 53: eautifully mixed by the Mind (see "
Page 54 and 55: (Intellect's preoccupation with the
Page 56 and 57: attentioninwardsubtle bodystilledag
Page 58 and 59: attitudes, especially those which e
Page 60 and 61: specific results. For example, we t
Page 62 and 63: DESIRE IS STRESSOne major source of
Page 64 and 65: Meditation and Self knowledge go ha
Page 66 and 67: Put together, the sattvic elements
Page 68 and 69: Sleep is a symbol for ignorance, an
Page 70 and 71:
THE BODYNo particular physical posi
Page 72 and 73:
THE BREATHThe breath, as you’ve u
Page 74 and 75:
If the ego insists on intruding, ma
Page 76 and 77:
of objects in the Self alone and ex
Page 78 and 79:
(40)One symptom of enlightenment si
Page 80 and 81:
“As dawn dispels darkness before
Page 82 and 83:
Listen carefully to the next conver
Page 84 and 85:
This, the last, and the next five v
Page 86 and 87:
Imagine Consciousness arranged in l
Page 88 and 89:
nothing more is to be seen, and whi
Page 90 and 91:
The word, it is said, "killeth." Ho
Page 92 and 93:
agitationattentionfactor“Third Ey
Page 94:
OM TAT SAT94
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