Reading and contemplating over your post number 65 appears to have burst ’me“. ‘I’ am writing to confirm my understanding/experience. Initially when I read about the”ultimate perceiver“, the thought that came was”why cant there be more than one perceivers? (i.e. various individual perceivers and probably one super perceiver or God)" As enquiry into that question continued, after a day or so it dawned on me that a) my body-mind-thoughts-emotions are in awareness and not the other way around b) since awareness is not in any one location, there is no boundary separating “my” awareness from “anyone else’s” awareness. i.e. it is a field of awareness in which bundles of body-mind-thoughts-emotions show up. c) The only “separation” from awareness is a thought that “I am separate”. But since the thought itself is just arising in awareness and has no independent existence, it occurs like a bubble. As soon as that recognition arose, the “I am separate” thought burst. d) There was recognition that everything and everyone arises in and dissolves back into the field of awareness. Awareness/consciousness is all that is. e) “enlightenment” is a joke! There is no one to get enlightened! A thought/emotion bubble in consciousness appears to seek enlightenment, but the bubble bursts at some point into awareness/consciousness into which it arises. Thoughts-emotions-body bundles (“people” as commonly understood) have thoughts “I am not enlightened”, but are no different from “enlightened bundles” as both are just bubbles in consciousness. f) There was laughter accompanying the above realization. Then thoughts came back if this is just a temporary experience or just mental hallucination. That was followed by thoughts, “how does it matter”? The thought “I am enlightened” or “I am not enlightened” shows up in presence/awareness and disappears. Neither of them are true nor mean anything. g) There was a thought - “I should ask Francis.” followed by " What if Francis bunks it as hogwash!" followed by " How does it matter? There is no one here to be validated/not validated." “I” am writing to you anyway. Any comments / suggestions? Thank you so much for being available. Regards R
Dear R,
The sequence of thoughts you are describing makes sense. The understanding that “Awareness/consciousness is all that is” is all that is needed, provided this understanding is absolutely experiential and is not confined to the realm of thought. The way to ascertain this is to ask yourself: " Am I perfectly satisfied? Has the goal been reached or is there still a sense of lack?" This is a very intimate question and I am not asking you for an answer. This question is only between you and yourself. In most cases, the answer will be “no”, but this doesn’t mean the experience wasn’t true. It means there are still levels of resistance that have not been dissolved by it.
If that is the case, don’t call off the search yet, but keep investigating until you are fully satisfied. It may take some time and the assistance of a teacher may be required. Life will provide whatever events are needed to reach the goal, provided the desire for it stays alive. How couldn’t it?
Love,
Francis
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