FEELING GOOD

The essence of Self-awareness is feeling.  We might call it self-affection rather than self-consciousness.  Self-affection does not mean that one simply has affection for oneself like a warm emotional sensation.  But it means that one feels oneself as the essence of life, the source as Life itself.  Whether I am eternal is one question which may well be debated.  But whether Life is eternal cannot be debated.  Life in this sense is however conscious.  It is fully present to what is present and what is present is made present by this consciousness.  Such consciousness as Life-source, Life itself is also an eternal stillness, silence and utter inexorable simplicity.  It does nothing but is ground of creation of all things.  If such living consciousness does not "show up," so to speak, nothing shows up.  And in that case the question of whether matter and reality exists prior to and independent of consciousness is irrelevant and meaningless.  To "know" who one is, then, is to feel the very Heart of one's being as Eternal Life.  Jesus illustrates and says much the same.  It feels good and is good.  One cannot help but love it, that is, love one's feeling of Self, of Existence of Eternal Life.  Feeling oneself as the Life within is the fulfillment of meditation.