Nancy: I had an experience two years ago of the sense of I disappearing and the deep recognition (cellularly) of Who I Am. It lasted 18 hours, and this Knowing, or what I call Awareness, illuminated that the sense of me-Nancy, the stories, and memories of me was just claiming ownership of what happens in each divine, unfolding moment. In actuality, life happens spontaneously and I, Nancy, am just a witness of It all. This knowing has been the greatest gift! Thank you, Robert, for being a wayshower!
This looks like a great post and I will read it as I do all of them, however I could not get past the first sentence without wanting to convey something that helped me more than can be described - far more than any other experience ever did, and as much as any teaching instruction.
There are exquisite experiences where the "I sense" goes away. They are genuinely beautiful, and one could comment not untruthfully that they are "more true to what is" than when the "I sense" is present.
However, THAT is not IT. This is! Meaning, whatever you are experiencing right now, *you* are whole and complete. There isn't anything missing, nor is it possible for there to be. If we contemplate (when our mind is calm ideally, unburdened by wants, needs, or clocks) about how it would be possible for anything to be missing from this whole and complete "is-ness," it's not too difficult to glimpse that it isn't.
"Holding" that glimpse is neither easy nor necessary, any more than it's necessary to learn more than once not to touch a hot stove. It may take a little time to gain full confidence in that insight, but so what, it's well worth it. Giving up just because there is a doubt is the same as wanting to learn the art of playing piano and giving up after one day of practice because you haven't achieved that.
The idea that the "I sense" needs to be gone in order to be "awake" (as Robert describes it) is completely false. Forget for now about its origins, there are many factors, but it is just plain wrong. The presence or absence of an "I sense" or I thought" is not the point, the point is simply to see that the person represented by the "I sense" is illusory in nature.
Not "an illusion," but illusory, meaning having no substance. how can we call the entirety of the experience of what we are while we are "here" an illusion? Only through a form of insanity called "the normal way of thinking." Calling life an illusion means missing out on the majesty of it, which is only found in the experience of it exactly as it is.
Some people talk about the "I sense" disappearing and not coming back, and maybe that happens. Why not? However, the "I sense" is as good as disappeared when you know that IT is not you, because then it is no different than a cloud which you would obviously not think shouldn't be there.
I was just thinking about this very same thing this morning. I've heard so many teachers explain that "I" am the aware witness. That leaves me feeling very divided and separate from my experiences. I understand that experiences come and go but unless I'm sleeping, I feel like I can't NOT experience...
I resonate completely with the essential message here, Robert. I will say that some of the phrases you dismiss as nonsense (e.g., nothing is born, nothing dies) are quite true when deeply understood, which in no way denies our experience of birth and death (children arriving and loved ones departing), but simply recognizes the absence of separate, independent "things" with clearly defined beginnings and endings. And of course, from the perspective that "all is One" or "everything is a dream," being kicked in the shins and the subsequent feeling of pain are simply aspects of the One or the dream. BUT....that said...I resonate completely with the heart of your message here.
This looks like a great post and I will read it as I do all of them, however I could not get past the first sentence without wanting to convey something that helped me more than can be described - far more than any other experience ever did, and as much as any teaching instruction.
There are exquisite experiences where the "I sense" goes away. They are genuinely beautiful, and one could comment not untruthfully that they are "more true to what is" than when the "I sense" is present.
However, THAT is not IT. This is! Meaning, whatever you are experiencing right now, *you* are whole and complete. There isn't anything missing, nor is it possible for there to be. If we contemplate (when our mind is calm ideally, unburdened by wants, needs, or clocks) about how it would be possible for anything to be missing from this whole and complete "is-ness," it's not too difficult to glimpse that it isn't.
"Holding" that glimpse is neither easy nor necessary, any more than it's necessary to learn more than once not to touch a hot stove. It may take a little time to gain full confidence in that insight, but so what, it's well worth it. Giving up just because there is a doubt is the same as wanting to learn the art of playing piano and giving up after one day of practice because you haven't achieved that.
The idea that the "I sense" needs to be gone in order to be "awake" (as Robert describes it) is completely false. Forget for now about its origins, there are many factors, but it is just plain wrong. The presence or absence of an "I sense" or I thought" is not the point, the point is simply to see that the person represented by the "I sense" is illusory in nature.
Not "an illusion," but illusory, meaning having no substance. how can we call the entirety of the experience of what we are while we are "here" an illusion? Only through a form of insanity called "the normal way of thinking." Calling life an illusion means missing out on the majesty of it, which is only found in the experience of it exactly as it is.
Some people talk about the "I sense" disappearing and not coming back, and maybe that happens. Why not? However, the "I sense" is as good as disappeared when you know that IT is not you, because then it is no different than a cloud which you would obviously not think shouldn't be there.
I was just thinking about this very same thing this morning. I've heard so many teachers explain that "I" am the aware witness. That leaves me feeling very divided and separate from my experiences. I understand that experiences come and go but unless I'm sleeping, I feel like I can't NOT experience...
I resonate completely with the essential message here, Robert. I will say that some of the phrases you dismiss as nonsense (e.g., nothing is born, nothing dies) are quite true when deeply understood, which in no way denies our experience of birth and death (children arriving and loved ones departing), but simply recognizes the absence of separate, independent "things" with clearly defined beginnings and endings. And of course, from the perspective that "all is One" or "everything is a dream," being kicked in the shins and the subsequent feeling of pain are simply aspects of the One or the dream. BUT....that said...I resonate completely with the heart of your message here.
“But we must know first that our acts are useless and yet we must proceed as if we didn’t know it. That’s a sorcerer’s controlled folly.”
— Carlos Castaneda
Thank you for this, Robert...