Name: Thalia
Location: Los Angeles, California
I’m stuck and I’m hoping you can help. Also, please understand that my heart and mind are as sincere in their longing for the answer to this question, despite my sometimes cynical or pessimistic undertone- it’s not real. My aunt and I were discussing in a conversation- Why perfect awareness, consciousness would leave itself to play a game with itself whereby the appearances contained within it- would be completely ignorant of the nature of things, save and except a small few- giving us what’s commonly referred to as “The Game of Life” where Love is the Truth and Suffering the byproduct of Misidentification- what’s the point? Particularly if consciousness is nondual- why the game of make-believe? During that conversation, I understood as I still do that questions such as that would and could only be coming from an object inquiring of the subject. I also understand the immediacy of consciousness and how it is that which allows life to play out in it’s entirety and only an appearance would want to make life Personal to their appearance, pretending uniqueness, individuality, the body and the world but I MUST HAVE SKIMMED OVER parts of the question cause it’s back- just in a different way. Which means I didn’t fully understand the first time-what’d I miss? If we are to use our mind and our intellect to conduct self inquiry then there should be a tool to point at the question of WHY perfect and absolute consciousness would play a game of imperfection and individuality with itself- or else it seems that a Fundamental piece of Inquiry requires FAITH as opposed to knowledge or inquiry- which I thought that self inquiry differed from the faith based religions based upon the qualities of experienceable investigation and discrimination. When I sit with it all I’ve got is a)because b)boredom a) sounds like the familiar touting of parents’, “Because I said so…” and if the answer were simply, “just because” a greater reasoning is built into the answer, so what is it? b)which seems kind of like what a piece of something I’ve read that says, “pretty boring being perfect, absolute, everything and nothing” but that even insinuates a flaw of sorts with consciousness that it would desire(?), need(?), something to illuminate. If that were true wouldn’t that make it flawed in some way? Objects aren’t created by themselves, nor do they have independent realities and All things are Dependent upon Consciousness. It is also true that the notion of flawed, imperfection etc is simply a perception as are most things- but if Consciousness is truly, Actionless Nondual Awareness- it seems to follow that UNConsciousness is Changing, Dual, Ignorance which seems to accurately describe the “unexamined or uninquiring” but that paradigm suggests a relationship of Interdependence and if that’s the case then Consciousness seems like it’s Not that which Precludes the Objective world of Appearances but that they would arise, abide and subside concurrently? Which makes it seem like Consciousness doesn’t have the Infinite nature the teachings suggest. It makes it seem like Consciousness needs us as much as we need it. That can’t be right. please help. And then lastly this is more just for fun but if you had to postulate- What would consciousness want from this experience? thank you for your words in advance Francis- I’m sending you my love.
Dearest Thalia,
Thank you for your thoughtful question.
It may be subdivided as follows:
Why is there creation, maya, names and forms?
Why is there ignorance of our true reality, suffering?
In turn, each of these “why is there”s can have two meanings:
Before I begin to try to answer these, I have to forewarn you that all my answers will be and must be logically unsatisfactory. The only logically satisfactory answer is this: in non dual reality there is no cause and effect, nor is there a fact and an ulterior motive for this fact. This precludes the use of logic as a vehicle to reach the absolute, but not as a tool to debunk false belief systems based on mere assumptions. We have the right to use logic to answer a “why?” question, in order to meet the question on the level from which it was asked. See that the questions you are asking implicitly assume duality. No wonder you end up being stuck with it. Start instead from the reality of your experience
The answer to 1a and 2a is straight forward: consciousness, reality, the Absolute is the only cause and substance of everything.
The answer to 1b is certainly not “to avoid boredom”, which would point to a deficiency in the Absolute, but rather “to express happiness”. The creation is the universal song or poem or “word” that originates from the bliss of our eternity. You may have noticed that our moments of creativity always originate from a joyful, silent place within, for instance when we sing in the shower for no apparent reason.
The answer to 2b is the one which usually encounters the highest level of resistance, because it hits right at the core of ignorance. Here it goes: we create and maintain ignorance because we enjoy it so much that the accompanying suffering seems like a small price to pay for it. Ask yourself why we enjoy watching tragedies, drama, horror movies, thrillers, if not for enjoyment. Remember that ignorance, the belief that we are a limited consciousness, is optional, for there isn’t a single shred of evidence that awareness is limited by space, or time, or mind. Ignorance is a self-inflicted wound. We are glued to our pet belief that we, pristine Awareness, are an object, a body-mind.
Love,
Francis
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