The One Infinite Creator

He who thinks he is the doer, is also the sufferer ~ Shri Ramana Maharshi

Once one begins to acknowledge the identity as rubbish and watches it’s conditioning play out like a movie instead of embodying the role of the identity; there is space between oneself and the identity. By constantly watching all the appearances coming and going on the screen as a witness; the mind is not involved in interpreting every appearance on the screen. For example when a thought or emotion appears as anger towards somebody or an incident – the mind would usually interpret it as an attack, put the identities defences up and add more fuel to the anger by exagerrating the situation. But if the mind is not entertained in that instance and one remains solely as a witness – just watching it merely as an appearance on the screen of conciousness; the anger eventually dies out without the fuel of the mind.

The wise can nohow deem as real a world divided and destroyed by time’s wheel. Whole, eternal, perfect, ever-shining and transcending time and space, such is the nature of reality. Ramana Maharshi

Anything which involves time and space is objective and is experienced as an appearance with a beginning and an end. These appearances can be manifested as emotions – feelings – sensations – sounds – visions – thoughts – people – the weather etc. All of it eventually passes by and does not stay forever. When one dreams at night all the experiences seem very real; sometimes so real that one doesn’t even realise that it’s just a dream while their body is actually in bed unconscious. Similarly everything that one experiences in waking life is also just an appearance on the screen with a linear context as there is a continuation to the dream.

The world that hides the self is but a dream. When the phenomenal world is hidden by the Self’s bright light, Awareness pure, the Self, abides. Ramana Maharshi

So if the linear story of ones waking life is not believed to be real or given any value; as one continuously witnesses the story as it is being played out; at some point the illusory nature of what is seen on the screen becomes evident. Once it’s clear that the images appearing on the screen are not real – then the attention can be shifted towards the only reality that exists – the ultimate watcher – the one in front of which everything appears – the subject. As the attention is directed from what’s seen to the seer- the light of the self shines forth and the world disappears. This light is formless and eternal. It does not come and go, it does not have a date of birth or personalities or characteristics. Just like how a painter cannot be absorbed by its painting – one finds oneself not absorbed by what appears in front of them.

You are the source from which everything appears and disappears.

Let the waves of the universe rise and fall as they will. You have nothing to gain or lose. You are the ocean. Ch-15.11 ~Ashtavakra Gita~

Namaste

Who am I?

“Your mistake lies in your belief that you are born. You were never born nor will you ever die, but you believe that you were born at a certain date and place and that a particular body is your own” Nisargadatta Maharaj

As we take birth into this world – at the beginning there is no identity at all just a sense of presence.. this pure presence is radiated by every child before they begin to learn how to communicate. Through language the mind comes in to interpret everything absorbed by the 5 senses and gives it some form of meaning. Over time – we are all conditioned to believe that we are a body with a sense of sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste. We begin to develop a memory with a record of everything that we have picked up from the exposure to our environment being upbringing, schooling, university, work, media, internet etc and over time a whole identity is created with a collection of memories.

This identity belongs to the body which is time bound – it only exists until the body lives. Actually it doesn’t really exist at all – it’s merely an illusion – a mirage. Just like how a rope can be mistaken to be a snake – this body too is mistaken to be real. Imagine yourself playing a game like Grand Theft Auto – where you have forgotten that you are not the character in the game and believe it to be real. Same way we have forgotten that everything we experience in this life is merely a hallucination projected by our senses. In Hinduism they refer to this as “Maya”.

It is important to acknowledge the fact that this identity that is being played out with eons of conditioning and patterns is basically rubbish. The belief that one is a body – that is anything other than God – Source – the One Infinite Creator is not true. Even the very quest of self realisation establishes the existence of a seeker which is really just another identity. It is important to disassociate with all these identities playing out and stop entertaining all the mind games which come with that.

By acknowledging all this rubbish (the identity) that one believes to be true as bullshit; one is free from having to bear all the burdens of personhood. One can drop all the luggage which one is holding on to for no reason and just be free.

The fool who knows he’s a fool is that much wiser. The fool who thinks he’s wise is a fool indeed ~ Buddha