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Of course the idea of a deluded Self is ridiculous, a cosmic joke,because the Self is always free of the mind and its content. For this reason,spiritual ignorance, is defined as that which is not. Self-Knowledge is notobtaining something you don't already have (to claim that you don't have aSelf is to claim that you don't exist), but the rediscovery of something alwayswith you by removing a confusion that isn't actually there!One lamp is not neededto illumine the light of another.A second awareness is not neededto know the Self, Pure Awareness.(28)The sun illumines everything in the world. To see it, no second sun'slight is necessary. When someone claims to know the Self 51 we areimmediately skeptical, if not downright incredulous. It's possible to know ofthe Self because It’s fame is considerable, but It can't be known with theintellect in the way a fact or a person is known. Using a flashlight to see thesun is analogous to trying to know the Self with the mind. The intellect, likea telescope, is an instrument capable of illumining objects in a field butincapable of seeing itself, much less the Self, its origin.In so far as it’s a reality, the universe is Awareness or Consciousnessarranged in several planes from gross to subtle: the outer layer, the materialworld is so dense it doesn't even appear as Awareness; the senses, subtlerthan the body and marginally less opaque, enjoy a little sentiency borrowedfrom the Subtle Body; the Subtle Body, because it’s made of chitta, 52 a formof Consciousness, and subject to the gunas 53 is still subtler; and behind theSubtle Body, at the innermost core, all-pervasive pure Awareness enlightensthe Subtle Body. No subtler awareness illumines It.In order to "know" the unknowable Self the intellect must be switchedoff or transcended - the idea behind discriminative meditation practice.When the mind is brought to stillness, (it need not remain that way more thana few moments) an awakening may occur during which the Self reveals itself.After waking up in the morning, I needn’t inquire of my wife if I’mawake. Similarly, Enlightenment is self-validating. "I and my Father areone" is the statement of a Self-aware being. Those who haven't experienced51 Or God. God is a personification of the Self according to Vedanta.52 A Sanskrit term from the Yoga philosophy meaning “mind-stuff.”53 Energies of Consciousness that color the Subtle Body. See Chapter 3 of Meditation, The Science of theSelf.42
the awakened state make a big fuss when someone talks like this, becausefrom the human state, nothing is self-contained, secure or self-validating."Negating the conditioningswith the knowledge "I am not this"realize your Self identityas indicated in scripture." 54(29)The ego can neither deny itself nor assume the transcendental positionwithout undergoing a spiritual transformation. Spirituality is not selfimprovement,but the egoless growth of the outer self triggered by theawakened Self within. Having "seen the light," we should allow ourselves toenthusiastically participate in the unfolding of the Self in our lives, asometimes painful and drawn-out process involving unlearning anddisassociating from incorrect self-ideas and images.How consistently we indulge our emotions, looking for pleasure andreaping pain, yet fail to discover we’re not our feelings. Even in old agewhen separation should have occurred, failure to see the body, mind, andintellect as insentient vehicles is commonplace. Passing through life withoutlearning that one is not one's equipment, how will a few verbal denialschange facts? Fortunately life seems to be designed to disillusion until theclinging stops."The three bodies are perceived objects,as perishable as bubbles.Realize with pure discrimination,I am not them.I am limitless non-dual pure Awareness."(30)Experience takes place when the ego, motivated by the Unconscioususes the Gross and Subtle Bodies to contact or avoid contact with objects intheir respective fields. In spite of the unhappy fact that the bodies and theirobjects are in constant flux, it has somehow been led to believe that hookingthe bodies up to objects will bring happiness. Based on such an unstablefoundation, is it any wonder life is so inherently insecure and frustrating?54 Scripture refers to the Upanishads and Brahma Sutras.43
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 20 and 21: itself out and disappears back into
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 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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