Dear Rupert,
I am thoroughly enjoying these valuable exchanges. But the very clarity and precision of your responses raises here the question ‘Who is?’ Let me explain.
In your reply to Paul, you write: ‘In other words, it is only for the apparent entity that self-enquiry is a considered to be a process in the mind. When it is seen that this entity is non-existent and cannot therefore enquire into its own nature or indeed do anything else, it becomes obvious that there is always only consciousness and that self-enquiry simply means to abide knowingly as this consciousness. That is, self-enquiry is simply to abide knowingly in and as our own being.’
This being the case, all of this OAStudyGroup activity, the questions and replies, even the screen and the keyboard and the fingers typing at it are all only ever consciousness, and all the content of seeming apparent entities asking the questions about consciousness and the replies given about self-enquiry are also all just consciousness, either knowingly or unknowingly entertaining itself! It seems so incredibly circular.
So much of life in general would seem to be consciousness involved, not so knowingly perhaps, in doing lots of other things, but here we have consciousness seemingly getting very close to exposing its own unknowingness through these exchanges. Indeed, it would appear to be the desire of some apparent entities (as consciousness unknowingly) to achieve that very exposure to become fully knowing. Could you please comment on this?
Love,
Ian
Dear Ian,
It is only circular for the one who believes him or herself not to be consciousness. For consciousness, it is always in the same place.
Yes, everything, everything, everything, is only made of consciousness. That is easy to check in your own experience. Just ask yourself if you have ever experienced or could ever experience anything outside of consciousness or made out of anything other than consciousness.
Once this ‘seamless oneness’ of consciousness has seemed to be divided by thought into separate entities, objects, others and the world, then desires, fears, motives, causes, effects, intentions, progress, achievement, failure, and so on – the whole personal endeavour – become very real.
But consciousness is already everything it could ever be. It is one seamless, homogenous substance that can never be depleted, added to, changed or moved. It gains and loses nothing from the entire human adventure. From the point of view of the person there is bondage and liberation, veiling and revealing, knowing and not-knowing, but from the point of view of consciousness there is only ‘knowingbeing’ itself.
Imagine going to sleep at night. We lie down, fall asleep, dream that we leave home, undertake a great adventure that lasts several years, and then return. Then we wake up, only to find that we have been lying peacefully on our bed all along. It was a long, strange, circular journey for the one who seemed to be travelling. But for the one lying on the bed, nothing ever happened.
* * *
Consciousness takes the shape of a thought that seems to divide its own oneness into a limited entity and an outside world. It is this entity, made only of thought, of mind, that goes on the great adventure of seeking. The whole adventure of being a person, the whole human adventure, all takes place in the mind. It is just made out of mind. And what is mind made of? Thin air!
It is the mind, in the shape of the apparent entity, that sets off ‘into a far country’ outside of its own kingdom, away from home. It wanders around, as this entity in this apparent world, looking for love and happiness in relationships and objects. The whole adventure is created and enacted within mind.
And while the mind is off doing its thing, searching, achieving, failing, hoping, fearing, doing, thinking, choosing, and so on, consciousness is just lying peacefully in bed. It is true that the mind is ultimately made of consciousness, but it is the mind that takes the adventure, not consciousness.
The apparent entity knows what to look for because love and happiness are inherent in its own nature. It never forgets their taste, but they have been veiled by the apparent entity. Sometimes we look back with nostalgia and longing for the happiness and freedom of childhood. But that is just an image. This happiness we long for is not far away in time. It is deep down at the heart of this and every experience.
It is the presence of happiness itself in this very moment that shines in our experience as the longing for a happiness that seems to have been lost. Right there in the longing for happiness, is the experience of happiness itself shining through the veil of the separate entity.
Peace, love and happiness are inherent within consciousness. They areconsciousness, and because the separate entity is ultimately made out of consciousness, this peace, love and happiness shine even in the apparent person. Presence is never truly eclipsed.
This search for peace, love and happiness is not initiated by the person. It is consciousness shining in and through the apparent person. It is the seat of God in us. Eventually, in some cases, consciousness, as it were, withdraws the projection of the mind (that is, the projection of the person and the world) back into itself and, at that moment, tastes its own nature of peace, love and happiness.
Exchanges such as these are the means by which consciousness withdraws its projection and comes to taste itself again. These exchanges are made out of mind, and that is why they can be tailored to meet the separate entity who is also made of mind. But their true substance is not made of mind, and that is why they sometimes touch the heart of the apparent entity, whose true nature is also not made of mind.
Their source is presence, and it is this presence, behind, between and within the words, that is recognised. And who recognises presence? Only presence can recognise itself – not presence ‘there’ recognising presence ‘here’, but just presence, the one presence, recognising itself in itself, by itself, as itself.
With love,
Rupert
