Location: manchester uk
Dear Francis, An apparent object arises in consciousness, for example, a sound. I ask the question ‘What knows this sound?’ I trust that asking this question leads to some kind of falling back into the true I, silence or subjectivity - that which is unknowable. I am then left with two questions: 1)What happens to appearence when the perceiver falls back into itself as the unmanifest? 2)In the original inquiry there appears to remain some fundamental duality operating between the unmanifest and the manifest with a privileging of the unmanifest over the manifest. If this is the case is the use of the question ‘What is experiencing this?’ enough to dissolve this apparent duality as it seems to privilege the unmanifest over the manifest? Could it be the case that the true I, silence, or true nature is in fact previous to both the manifest(appearence|) and unmanifest (emptiness)? Would a better question then be ‘What precedes both appearence and emptiness?’ However, even this more subtle questioning creates a duality as it seems to be pointing at one thing over another. Is this perhaps the point to let go of all questions and fall into the unknown with no more inquiry? Is this in the end the only way in the finish the form/emptiness duality and die? Many thanks for your answer in advance. Richard.
Dear Richard,
You asked
What happens to appearence when the perceiver falls back into itself as the unmanifest?
Appearance becomes pure consciousness, which it had been already during its existence. What happens to the wave as it reaches the shore? It becomes water, which it already was. The problem is that your question starts positing a duality (appearance and the unmanifest) which you later on have to struggle with. Go to the experience, to the real meaning to which the words of the sages lead, without getting caught in self-created intellectual paradoxes:
“The eye trough which God sees me and the eye through which I see God are the same eye.” (Eckhart)
“Wherever the eye falls is the face of God” (Sufi saying)
“Emptiness is form and form is emptiness”. (Buddhism)
“That which is never ceases to be, that which is not never begins to be” (Baghavad Gita)
Beautiful. No duality there.
Love,
Francis
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