I really don't know anything about God, nor do I know anything about myself, except to know that ''I AM'', and that's as far as it goes for me...I
Nick_A wrote: ↑Wed May 27, 2020 2:50 amI’m not being critical here but just asking how you know this. For example Buddhism suggests we have no unified I but function as five skandhas changing from one to the other. So if there is no I, what creates AM other than imagination. So I need a means to verify what I am in the context of universal purpose
The I AM is one thing, one being within which everything appears. So the skandhas are just the appearances of this oneness. Even the sense of otherness, aka twoness/duality is an appearance within the same oneness.
Appearances, are what awareness is aware OF... which are inseparable from the awareness. To be aware of appearances is known as the first person singular pronoun. It's self evident. In order to know I AM ..I also have to know I am not, by using a metaphorical thorn to remove a thorn, then throw them both away. To remove ignorance, knowledge is necessary, but finally both must dissolve into Reality. Your Self is without ignorance, without knowledge. That's the true I AM ...I still don't personally see a purpose for this other than what the mind puts there, which is again the dream of separation. This is the way I see it Nick.
Knowing I AM is an Awakening in and of itself, because it informs me that I am aware I am aware.
Nick_A wrote: ↑Wed May 27, 2020 2:50 amBut which I is aware and why are all the other I’s composing the skandhas not aware? How can you verify I AM which would be reasonable for a Buddhist?
The skandhas are appearances. appearances are not aware, they are being awared by awareness, the same one, which is always prior to the skandhas. There are not many I's here, there is only One...and the many contents of this one that only appear to many other I's are in reality the same One Self.
Ecclesiastes 4:2-3 : And I declared that the dead, who had already died, are happier than the living, who are still alive. But better than both is the one who has never been born, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun.
Nick_A wrote: ↑Wed May 27, 2020 2:50 amQuite true. But it does explain one of the values of conscious evolution: to become a part of conscious life ABOVE the sun.
Yeah that maybe so. It means not allowing oneself to be yanked back into the maelstrom of mental activity...aka awareness of otherness. And yet, one can simply be in total nondual awareness without ever zoning out of mental activity completely, because once one has awakened from the illusion of duality, there is no returning to it, and yet you still have to act as though it is a reality for you ..but once awakened, you literally function effortlessly without desire or attachment. I should know because I am living proof of this totally free and expansive experience of nondual being...It's like having the best of both worlds, one can be and do what others want you to be and do, and at the same time be totally unattached to any outcome of the way life is playing out in the given moment, but just to accept it as it is totally without judging it. I suppose it could be seen as some form of escapism, but then again it can be seen as just being aware of a Reality for what it actually is, rather than what you would like it to be, because Reality is never really what thought imposes upon it...that's all just a imagined story...and yes, this story is very real in the sense it is directly experienced. Except that no one is experiencing any of it, it's just appearing as a fictional conceptual narrative, and the reason I say that is because you can notice every conceivable thing coming and going in your life, including feelings, thoughts, beliefs, sensations, sights and sounds, and even animal and people. All things come and go except YOU
The following quote describes this feeling of being in the world, but not of it ..quite well...
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
So it's not like awakened people are just trying to escape from REALITY...when their ego dissolves into the great ocean of being, rather, they are just being REALITY for what it actually is without any agenda or strings attached.
Nick_A wrote: ↑Wed May 27, 2020 2:50 amI have experienced my desire to interpret rather than experience. It is very hard not to do this This error is modern philosophy. Asking questions as we’ve been doing isn’t arguing. It is the essence of a Socratic dialogue which has been lost in favor of arguing.
I see interpretation and experience the same thing...because as one is interpreting their experience is within the same moment of what they are interpreting.
We are in essence only talking to ourself, asking questions to ourself, and seeking answers that we already have. Oneness has no argument with itself..if there is then that too is with itself and no other.
Now if every human being understood nonduality and their nondual being then the world might be a totally different place than it is now.
But part of the game of duality is the dream of separation, so in that regard, there is no knowledge without the dream, and the dream is all there is, and so nothing will change, because you never change, change is always within you.
So even if every single person had an awakening, they would still be a part of the dream, because that's all there is. And no one knows what sort of a reality that would be like to all be awake, because we all pass from this dream world, and so do not get to witness everyone awaken at once.
And yet, that too is just within the dream story...in REALITY there is no one to awaken, be born or pass away...for everything is already wide awake.Awake awareness is invisible, content-less, formless, boundless, and timeless.
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