Notes from Kings Cross Thurs - Friday 27 - 28th Dec 07.

We are all intelligent people so called, and we have solved a lot of problems with our mind, but we have never solved this problem of the mystery of being - 'who and what am I?' - we have never solved it with the mind.
Having looked endlessly in the mind, which is itself time, and not having found any solution there, wouldn't it dawn on us that perhaps the answer is not there? When this dawns on you and you cease looking in the mind for an answer, where does that leave you? - here and now present and aware as you have always and ever been.

This presence awareness, Is-ness, pure non-conceptual knowing-ness, is exceedingly subtle.
So subtle in fact, that we cease to notice it at all and instead look outward and fixate on the gross experiences - food, sex, music, sensory perceptions and objects, ignoring the very subtle space of knowing-awareness that everything is taking place in.In fact everything, including sentient beings and apparent separate objects are nothing but this self-shining empty cognizance appearing as other.

This emptiness suffused with awareness is utterly non dual.
This is what Advaita meaning not-two, really is.
This uncompromising pointing to this ever present principal is the genuine article of all true and authentic Advaita teaching.
In this there is no teacher nor is there any teaching - everything "is" this non dual Absolute, that no can at any time, ever negate.
No one can say - I am not, because you, as the Absolute, would have to be there to say it.

That being said, let us investigate this presence awareness that everyone, so called, is enjoying.
Can you ever remember a time when conscious knowing presence was not there?
As far back as you can remember it was there, and if you receed even further back prior to your own birth or conception in the womb, all you can say is, I don't remember or I don't know.
Realize however, that it is this ever present awareness that is allowing you to say, I don't know or I don't remember.

By awareness we mean just this pure activity of knowing that you are.
Not knowing this or that, but just bare naked knowing - even without a thought or concept.
Even without a thought arising or being present, there is still a pure knowing-ness or 'is-ness' present.
There is a pure knowing there, prior to consciousness of being a person, or labeling and naming something eg - saying that is a chair, that is a tree etc.

There is a knowing there even before a thought says that is So and So etc.
This pure unadulterated "isness", knowing is the Jnana of a Jnani.
This is the lost innocence or wholeness that everyone is seeking.
We actually know what everything is even before we name or label it.
We think we know something by calling it a chair, but the word or concept "chair" is only a label, and you can't sit on a concept or label.
The word chair is not the actuality, only a name, a description.

Therefore a chair is not actually a chair, it is simply vibrating pure intelligence energy - awareness, appearing as a chair.
The chair is only a momentary appearance in the changeless space like awareness. - Awareness is self-knowing, self-shining.
Emptiness suffused with awareness is the non dual Absolute.
Because awareness as we are using the term, is non dual - Advaita - it cannot know itself as an object.
If something is not two or One without a second as Advaita claims, it cannot and need not know itself.
Note, that in using language, the very language itself has an inbuilt limitation and implies in it's very use a duality that doesn't really exist.

However language or words are the only tool we have to point to this TRUTH or non duality that you have never ever left, except in your own mind or imagination; which is itself only an aspect of this non dual Absolute.
When I said in the previous paragraph - if something is non dual or Absolute, there is an implication that REALITY or TRUTH is a thing or an it, and THIS is not an it or a thing as such.
Things come and go, but what we are pointing to here, doesn't come or go.
Let's clarify our terms here. - REALITY is THAT which never changes.
This empty space of knowing that you are enjoying right now as you are reading these words is timelessly present, has no dimensions, is Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent, and I am THAT, you are THAT, there is nothing that is not THAT.

Your (original) name is I AM THAT I AM, not Mr or Mrs So and So.
So what do you need to attain? - or to seek, to become enlightened or fulfilled?
How can you ever find yourself if you "are" yourself?
How can you ever become what you already are?
It is impossible to be in need of getting something extra to be added (to you), in order to become what you already are.

End.