Location: Mexico City
Hello Francis I have found great interest in your teachings, I wish you were my teacher, living teacher, not book or Internet, but I guess this forms of communication are the very next thing. =) My name is Carlo Mauricio, I am 32 years old, I was born in San Diego CA. an have always lived in Tijuana, and now I am living in the capitol Mexico City. Hope you can be over here some day with a lecture, or maybe I can catch one up north in California when I go up there again. This are my questions Francis: What is this receptacle if we can use that word where everything is happening inside of it, like form, inward outward, it looks like if it is some kind of limiting space where all the manifestations of form that I can be aware of happens. Is this receptacle the limit of our consciences? the limit of the mind? what is this receptacle can one go beyond? or is it just there to be held or to be it? Another thing that captures my attention is, and this my second question, all this inward forms, like thoughts, emotions, sensation etc, and all the outward like living things, people, etc, what animates all of this inward/outward, what is the energy behind that makes life go by move, be born, grow, perish etc. Sometimes I watch all this and get scared, some other times is just confusing. some other times is just joyful to behold it. some other times I don€™t see it at all. Is this how it goes? And one just observes and play along? thank you, please answer, best wishes 2010and always. your friend, Carlo M.
Dear Carlo,
Your first question is about the limits of our consciousness. How do you know that this receptacle in which everything appears is limited? If we are able to perceive its borders, it can only be because the borders we perceive are inside this receptacle; but, then, how could they possibly limit it? That which appears within consciousness doesn’t tell us anything about consciousness, just as the story of a movie appearing on a TV screen contains no information on the brand, age, or size of the TV. Therefore that which limits this receptacle is only the belief you have that it is limited, a belief that appears within it. We cannot nor have to go beyond it, for this beyond is a mere figment of our imagination. Our problem is not that we cannot go beyond it, but rather that we believe and feel that it is limited, personal, subjected to birth and death. This receptacle is precisely what we call “I” when we say “I perceive”, “I think”, “I decide”, “I feel”, “I move”, “I speak”, etc. It is our real self.
Your second question refers to that which creates and moves all forms, both inwards and outwards.
The first observation we can make is that the subjective world and the objective world are connected: we think about external objects we perceive, and, conversely, our decisions (internal thoughts) through our actions affect the physical world around us. This interconnection between the inside and the outside realms implies that they belong to a greater reality that encompasses both, and, possibly, other realms. This common reality, because it is common, must also be the reality of the inner realm; therefore it must be our real self, the consciousness that really perceives, thinks, decides, etc. This statement, although arrived at through the use of reason, may seem at first sight preposterous, but only if we forget the conclusion we reached while examining your first question: there is no valid reason to believe that consciousness is personal and limited.
The answers to your questions fit nicely together: the first answer makes it possible, and the second, necessary, for consciousness to be universal rather than personal. Since it is universal, we all share it, and the name for this sharing is Love.
Love,
Francis
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