People’s views and understanding of the universe are true on the base of false self, within the false experience (waking or universe). The universe in which one exists is reality only when he thinks he is an individual separate from the universe and the universe existed prior to him and he is born in it afterwards. Until such conviction is there, it is impossible to assimilate non-dual truth.
Deeper self-search reveals the fact that, the self is not physical (body or ego) but self is consciousness (formless). Thus on the standpoint of the true self (consciousness), the universe which is in the form of mind is mere mirage. Until and unless we rectify our base of judgement from form to formless, it is difficult to understand, “what is reality” and “what is unreality”. This is vast subject therefore it needs time to sink in what I am saying.
The scientists now concluded that you are not the brain (body). Consciousness requires the joint operation of brain, body and world. "You are not your brain. The brain, rather, is part of what you are.
“The Biology of Consciousness by Alva Noë. Hill and Wang, 2009
Alva Noe, a University of California, Berkeley, philosopher and cognitive scientist, argues that after decades of concerted effort on the part of neuroscientists, psychologists and philosophers "only one proposition about how the brain makes us conscious ... has emerged unchallenged: we don't have a clue." The reason we have been unable to explain the neural basis of consciousness, he says, is that it does not take place in the brain. Consciousness is not something that happens inside us but something we achieve it is more like dancing than it is like the digestive process. To understand consciousness the fact that we think and feel and that a world shows up for us we need to look at a larger system of which the brain is only one element. Consciousness requires the joint operation of brain, body and world. "You are not your brain. The brain, rather, is part of what you are."
Thus it is for the seeker to investigate and realize the self is not the form but self is formless and base his judgement on the formless self [soul] to realize what is ultimate truth.
All the conditioning belongs to false physical self, which has been named as Suzanne. All experience of the pleasure and pain are experiences of the false self, within the false experience [universe]. Your true self has no form, no name, no conditioning and without experience of the universe. It is the formless witness of the universe. The universe /mind, is an object for the witness.
The formless witness is like a metro station and the mind or universe is like train, which come and go. The metro station is unaffected of coming and going of the train. Similarly the witness /true self, is unaffected of coming or going of the three states in succession.
When you realize the true self is formless consciousness then:-
Where is the body, where is mind, where is the world; the void; or despair in the true self, which the taintless soul or consciousness. They are or have becomes consciousness.
One thinks there is mind when he has thoughts, but when thoughts are not considered different from the consciousness, which is the true self, then where is the division into, waking, dream and deep sleep etc.
Void implies to duality: the universe may not exist but the thought of the second is there. If one knows there is Void (emptiness or nothingness), then there is something there to be known and know. They are or have become consciousness.
What are scriptures, what is self-knowledge, what is mind without the objects, what is contentment, and where is desirelessness for the formless soul/true self, which is ever devoid of sense of duality.
What is knowledge? What is ignorance? What is the ego? What is duality? What is mind? What is bondage? What is liberation? What is definableness to the formless soul, the innermost self , which is in the form of consciousness?
All these appearances are mere mirage, which come and go; hence meaningless to the formless soul/true self.
The ego based knowledge is not ultimate knowledge because ego based knowledge is dualistic knowledge based on the object [body] as subject. But in non-dualistic Knowledge whatever seems to exist also is consciousness; therefore there is no scope for the existence of the second thing.
What is past karmas? What is liberation –in this life? and what is that liberation at death? for the birth- less soul, which is ever formless.
Nearest state to understand the soul by itself is to eliminate mentally waking and dream as in deep sleep. Once this is grasped one has to understand everything is consciousness, which is the true self.
What is the doer or the enjoyer? What is cessation of thoughts or rising of thoughts? What is immediate perception and its result to, the formless soul, which is ever impersonal. A Gnani is the one who is never afraid of thinking and knowing all his individual experience and the world to be consciousness.
What is the world and what is meant by the aspirant for liberation; what is contemplative and what is man of knowledge; what the self is and what liberated self to the formless soul, which is the non-dual essence.
When we analyze the dream experience we find the dream entity, dream world with all people in it appeared as a whole, and the dream reality lasted until waking experience appeared. When one tries to know the truth of his true existence in waking through inquiry, analysis and reasoning, one becomes aware of the fact that, the self is not physical but it is formless soul, which is in the form of consciousness which is the essence of the three states from which the three states are made. Thus the illusions of the three states are made of one single substance, which is consciousness. By realizing the formless substance, which is consciousness as self, the ignorance vanishes and one become aware of the fact that the three states are mere illusion on the standpoint of the formless substance ,which is also the witness of the three states.
When one knows the soul as the true self:
What are projection and retraction, what are end and means; what are failure and success to the formless soul, which is formless and non-dual in its nature. The mirage appears and merges back into its essence is not an appearance at all.
What is the knower, the means of knowledge, the object of knowledge; what is anything or nothing to the soul which is ever formless. Knower, knowledge, object, thing, nothing or any word one may utter is after all they are the words and words have meaning only within the mirage. The consciousness is ever present in all the three states but as a person, one is unconscious of the consciousness because he thinks the body as his self.
When all knowing, known and knower are simultaneously mental as in dream what else is there to trouble about understanding them. Because of considering the waking experience as reality one is incapable of understanding and assimilating the non-dual truth.
What is the distraction? What is the concentration, dullness and delusion, happiness and sorrow to the formless soul, which is ever actionless.
As a person one may be drawn to observe his body and the world, but the Gnani is not disturbed by because they all are consciousness to him.
The physical attributes are nothing to do with the soul/self wrongly; all the attributes belong to the ego not the soul. Identifying the physical attribute to the soul is the cause of the ignorance.
What is relative? What is absolute happiness and misery to the formless soul, which is ever devoid of thought and activity?
If anything has a meaning it is only in duality. Happiness and sorrow are the nature of duality, which is mind, their differences therefore illusory on the standpoint of the formless soul, which is ultimate reality.
What is illusion? What is ignorance? What are birth, life and death? What is world? What is attachment and what is detachment to the soul/self, which is ever formless.
The mind and soul are one in essence ultimately. All argument about consciousness never touches it. The soul is not the ego in this particular body but principle which holds the whole physical existence [universe], which contains everyone and everything known and unknown. All words have no place and thoughts cannot reach. Even the thought of the soul or consciousness is just illusory and contradictory, because the thought and words belong to the world of duality.
What is activity or inactivity, liberation and bondage to the formless soul/self, which is ever immutable and indivisible. There is no division into waking dream and deep sleep in wisdom. It is not enough to but one must always see the formless soul [consciousness] as self and the witness the witness of all the three states and always realize and practice it. Some people get glimpses of truth and lose it; so it must be established. Such fixidity is the goal.
What is instruction and scriptural injunction? What is disciple and guru? What indeed is object of life for the formless soul, which is absolute and free from limitation?
Life is within world. World is within the waking or dream, the illusory limitation. When there is no second other than consciousness, then what is there for the soul /self to attain? But when one thinks the self is physical, then there is various things he will want to get and so be trouble by their lack. Hence don’t wrongly imagine the self to be the body.
What is existence, nonexistence, unity or duality? What need us there to say more? Noting from the soul because whatever seems to emanate from it, is non-different from itself. There is no second thing other than the soul, which is in the form of consciousness. One should not mistake self [soul] for the ego.
Those who assert world is reality, are still in elementary stages of preliminary analysis. The world is reality within the waking experience but the waking experience is mere illusion. The same way the dream world was reality within the dream experience. The dream became unreal when waking took place same way waking becomes unreal when non-dual wisdom dawns.
