Meditation's Being

My understanding of the pinnacle of meditation is that of Jnana Yoga, i.e., yoga of knowledge.  Of course, this knowing is not of a cognitive, subject-object sort.  It is simply consciousness effortlessly  "seeing" itself purely as consciousness without apparent cause, mediation, purpose or intent to achieve anything whatsoever.  IMO this Consciousness as Self-awareness is the image of God.  It is the Truth Jesus speaks of that he says will set us free.  The fulfillment of Jnana is abiding in the Heart of Consciousness, the Eternal Living Light of Lights, in absolute Freedom.  This in no way precludes being fully, wholly & robustly in the world because in Jnana we always know & are always abiding  in Self-Consciousness.  It needs no worldly form. It is true Self, or, Soul if you like.  In my experience this doesn't preclude the unconscious arising, i.e., what I call karmic momentum.  But in the State of Being of Jnana, unresolved unconscious or karmic sufferings arise & dissipate in Consciousness, given we can then "see" that phenomenal pain is not real.  The only thing that is experientially Real is Consciousness itself.  It surely does yield or manifest love, peace, happiness & freedom but as "ananda" it immanently transcends all ways it's various "colors" shine forth.  One may believe that the Real may include other things even God, e.g., but unless it is experiential it is only belief.  Nothing wrong with that.  And such beliefs may well be "true."  But meditation is absolute abidance in "experientially knowing" who we are, the pure 'I am that I am,' without having to believe anything.  To me this is the Sacred, the Heart of the Holy.  It is also eternal & absolute openness to the Mystery.  It's path, if we would call it a path, happens in " Satsangh," which means "communion with Truth, a "hearing" usually in dialogue in which the teacher, the Jnani, leads & points the student in the direction of the experience of this Truth, of this knowing of Self in Inquiry, "vichara," in Sanskrit.  This experience does not give answers.  It ends all questions.  That is, the intellectual questions about the True Self end but, of course, the questions of the world will always remain.  From the standpoint of True Self we can be "in" the world but free of being "of" the world.  IMO this the realm & home of the mystic.

I, too, 'I AM THAT I AM'

  Exodus 3: 13-15::  God says his name is "I am that I am." .... He says,  This is my name forever and this my title for all generations." ... When Jesus says "Before Abraham was I am," Jesus asserts his direct lineage to God in the name of God which is "I am." .... Psalm 46: 10:: "Be still and know that 'I am' God," is the only directive we need.  Meditate upon 'the I am that I am,' in the form of "stillness." .... Transcendence of God is immanent, within.  This is Jesus' message, the atonement, redemption, forgiveness & fulfillment that you also are in the "I am that I am" that we all are.  Move from faith to experience to the peace that passes all understanding.  Religion is not about endless Biblical scholarship trying to prove you have the right interpretation. It is about linking your self back to your intimate Oneness with the  "I am that I am" that we all are.  It is about being born again into the House of the Lord of eternal peace.  So just be still and experience God within yourself and end the search, the war of righteousness that always ends in self-righteousness.

THE HEART OF VEDANTA

Consciousness is the light of God. God is the living light of lights, eternal and absolute. It is not a thing. It does not act. But it shines through us as the source of the Real. Through consciousness awakened to its source, one can see without judgement and without loss of the Absolute Self of Divine Being. Consciousness as "self," i.e., as the purity of Self-consciousness, sees without ego. Consciousness "seeing" is not a perceptual act that focuses upon delimited objects. Consciousness "seeing" is unlimited reception and embrace of what is in the illumination of divine light. Just as one may listen and not hear, so also one may look and not see.

BEYOND WAR AND PEACE

 After every great war, the peace is greeted with joy, elation, happiness, love and love-making.  The images of warm embrace and the anticipation of normal everydayness appear in their beauty.  The simple life of work and play could never be more welcome.

In like manner when the wars we fight everyday in our minds, with our bodies, politically, with loved ones, friends and family, come to an end in awakening, the same peace arrives.

There are the hot wars of the great military powers and there are the 'hot' wars of ego, idea, desire and possessiveness.  Which is worse may not be as obvious as it may look.  It may well be that the hot wars of armies arises out of and are fueled by the hot wars of ego, identity, fear and anger.

So just as we see the peace at the end of the bloody wars of empires so also we see the peace at the end of the battle of ego, within each ego and and between egos and beyond ego.  

But in the end we need not fight wars nor fight for peace.  Letting being be in its nature allows the shining of the light of lights, the Life beyond all living, here and now, within and without.

Meditation is the perfection beyond war and peace.

Everyday Eternality

 Life lived in meditation is the eternal ritual.

The Stranger Who Always Loved You

 

The absolute autonomy of the subject can be seen in its spiritual sovereignty through reflection in which one thinks or imagines its autonomy as Self.  But in that experience it is not necessarily being itself. That is, it is aware in a moment of remembrance that there is That which could have done otherwise than it did. In short, it sees that it is free; it is freedom itself.  It sees itself as the source of action and agency.

However, in this moment of the external here/now,  the subject is always at one with the object.  It always attends intentionally to the object, whether internal or external object, physical or psychological object.  Only in the moment of epiphany when the subject transcends objects toward the spiritual Self which knows itself as the only Real does the Self know itself without external object or mediation.  That is, without external mediation it knows itself as itself as consciousness.  Consciousness directly and immediately knows itself as consciousness.  The Self sees itself as consciousness through consciousness.  This is the absolute paradox.

To "awaken" is to become aware of the True Self, the Absolute in a moment of ecstatic experience.  To be "enlightened" is to know this Self as one's self even in the face of all external distraction, distortion and absorption, that is, in the face of the dream life.  

Even though the self is realized, the momentum of the external, the prior and the other forces of existence may well continue to exert themselves.  We can think of this in terms of unconscious desire or karmic momentum.  These latter are the other within.  Yet the enlightened self knows these to be "unreal" and other than Self. 

To know itself as itself, is, of course, only half the realization.  In relation to all objects and the world, the totality of objects, the 'Self' can as one object among others, or even lost to itself as an object in the relative world.  However, the Realization of True Self becomes complete when it sees that this consciousness which is, and knows itself as such, is infinite.  The Self exists without limits, conditions, personal agendas, location or desires.  It is the Eternal, Eternality itself.  That is, all that exists in time, space, causality and materiality exists within Consciousness.  Consciousness does not exist within it or as a function of it.

When one sees one's Self, one's Soul, in its purity and clarity, in its comprehensiveness and inclusiveness, silent, still, serene, simple solace, then at that moment one experience the Love of Self which is one's own and always has been.  This embrace is that of a kind of "stranger" who has always loved you that you finally come to know.  In Enlightenment one can feel this love and it embraces not only the purity of Self as Consciousness but also the suffering 'self'' that spent its life seeking such love in others when really it always was that love, a stranger living so close one could not see or feel it.  

The true Self of Freedom and Love is also that of Peace and Happiness.  To have these experiences is to confirm in experience the true nature of consciousness itself.  These qualities are not phenomena of the empirical world.  They are the essential experiences of true Self, lying and living as Life itself at the Heart of Consciousness.  It is all given as a gift but not always gotten.

MERCY

God gave us time because we can't deal with eternality.

God gave us minds because we can't think for ourselves.

God made things appear real because we are ignorant of our own creativity.

God gave us evil people because otherwise we wouldn't know what to do with our hatred.

God gave us egos because we are terrified to think we are one with God.

God gave us past and future to worry about because the peace of pure presence is shattering.

God gave us desire because love is overwhelming.