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Listen carefully to the next conversation with yourself or others andnotice how it’s explicitly or implicitly centered on the supposition that youand the one with whom you are conversing is a limited "i."Assuming I'm an "i," certain things automatically become "mine."Since they're "mine" I become responsible for them and am forced to sufferthe consequences flowing from my attachment to them, an attachment that soconsumes the mind there is no time to look into the real nature of the “I.” Ifyour sense of responsibility is wearing you out, a redefinition may be inorder.The science of the Self doesn't advocate the wholesale renunciation ofresponsibility except for those with the appropriate temperament; however itrecommends taking a long hard look at this insidious conditioning. Makingthe search for Truth one’s primary responsibility automatically reduces nonessentialresponsibilities. And letting go of those that support Ego’s insecureand guilty psychology should be as important as sticking with those that leadto liberation.Contemplation on the inherent emptiness of the “i” might profitablyaccompany a program of responsibility divestiture. If the Self creates allthings and beings and dwells within them as their innermost essence, isn't Itresponsible for everything? In a way it's an insult for the "i" to takeresponsibility for things and beings because it implies that the "I," isincapable of looking after It’s own. Serving, loving, and helping othersbased on an appreciation of innate oneness of all things is the healthy viewwhile relating to others as “mine” brings only weariness. A wise man said,"Bitten by the vipers of guilt and responsibility, humans suffer endlessmiseries in the ocean of illusion."Creative endeavors involve two factors: raw material and theintelligence to shape it, neither of which is ultimately authored by humanbeings. Our intelligence is merely a reflection of the Pure Intelligence thatcreates and sustains the whole cosmos. All sentient beings are rooted in thisAwareness. Belonging to anyone, they belong to That. Not only doeseverything belong to the Self, it is the Self in so many forms. If you reallywant to be an I and possess something, wake up and discover that within thescope of your all-pervading multi-dimensional awareness everything isalready yours - because it is you."The enlightened see throughthe eye of wisdom and82
perceive the whole universe in the Self.(46)One view has the eye of wisdom or "third eye" as a still, mysticallypowerful, reflective mind, one capable of transcendental insight. Because theflow of thought has subsided, the mind, at meditation, merges into its source,looses its separate identity, and sees oneness everywhere.Another, not-incompatible, view contends that the “third eye” is just asymbol of the Self. We have two for seeing objects and one, the Self, forseeing reality.Enlightenment is a subtle shift from ego’s point of view to the Self’s.The ego, identified with the body, sees the universe “outside.” I am here,everything is there. However, the Self is all pervasive so nothing existsbeyond it and everything appears within It, like an image in a mirror.“Whole universe” does not mean that the enlightened see the wholephysical cosmos but that they are aware of themselves as the Awareness inwhich all ego’s perceptions are bathed."The Self alone exists.The physical universe is the Self.As pots made of clay are nothing but clay,everything is the Self to the enlightened."(47)Enlightenment is a shift in vision, not in conditioning. One'sawareness of a city is quite different viewed from street level than from anairplane high above. Most of us are situated at the street level, existentiallyspeaking, our knowledge conditioned by experience as ego-centricindividuals scurrying though the mind's labyrinthine streets. An awakenedsoul, however, situated in the spiritual sky high above the city of the mind,functions from knowledge based on non-dual “experience.” 109The shape, not the clay, makes a clay pot a pot; yet if the pot breaks theclay remains. Life is essentially formless Awareness whose solid andspecific appearance is projected by the ignorance of the Self. Self knowledgebreaks the conditioning that causes us to think of ourselves and our worlds asseparate and limited forms.109 “Non-dual experience” means that although the subject and object exist they are known to be essentiallythe same.83
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SELF-KNOWLEDGE"I am composing this
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REMOVING THE WALLIf happiness or un
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"Action cannot remove ignorancefor
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lowing blissful cosmic experiences,
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Something tells me this knowledge s
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ody.We aren’t our feelings and em
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The belief that I am a waker comes
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If I’m the sleeper ego, the bliss
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itself out and disappears back into
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imaginations; ego, filled with self
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The next few days saw many experien
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here, however, the subtle part, the
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state manifests as awareness and ac
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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 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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