Is consciousness elusive?

Is consciousness elusive?

Rupert, 

Thank you so much for your recent posts. It is a delight to read such a clear and practical explanation of something that is in effect impossible to put into words. Maurice Nicoll said in ‘Living Time’ that ‘nearly everything of importance is impossible to express’. Curiously, the more I delve into nonduality, the more words fail me. It is impossible to discuss these matters, and I find myself going completely silent, unable to explain anything to my friends and family! Yet it makes such perfect sense and is so obvious. How can it be so elusive at the same time?

Thanks again!
Lucia

 

Dear Lucia,

The only reason ‘it’ seems to be elusive is that we conceive ‘it’ to be an object, that is, to have some objective qualities that can be sought, found, held on to or lost. Once it has become clear that ‘it’ does not and can not have any objective qualities, a deep relaxation takes place in the mind and subsequently in the body. 

This relaxation is the threshold of a new and unknown direction towards which we find ourself facing, and from where the ever-presence of consciousness makes itself known to itself. (Please understand that the implied objectivity in the idea of a direction is metaphorical only).

As for communicating with friends and family, there are many ways that this understanding is communicated and words are just one of them. If there is a difficulty on your part or a resistance on their part, I would leave such conversations until the channels on both sides are free from awkwardness and reactivity, and the conversation can be conducted in an atmosphere of openness and trust.

Our deep understanding is communicated, often silently (and often more effectively), in everything we do: making a cup of tea, buying the groceries, whatever. As we take our stand knowingly as this knowing presence and not as a person, a separate entity, our thoughts, feelings and activities will naturally, effortlessly and, in most cases, gradually realign themselves with this understanding and will in turn, express it, without any forced effort ‘on our part’ to do so.

With love,
Rupert

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