Gliding Through Life

 

What are you when the world is considered as a whole of which you form a minuscule but essential part? What will "you" appear to be when viewed from longer and longer distances? What happens then is that the "you" first merges into the room you stand in, then to the house, then to the city and so on, until you are the world, until you are the universe from the viewpoint of infinitude.

The whole point is that "you" just do not exist as an individual entity. You are either "nothing" or "everything". Either way, the startling conclusion is inescapable: I am not what I appear to be; I am not what I thought I was.

Acceptance of this conclusion, even at the intellectual level to start with, will lead to a lasting faith if you take the time, as often as possible, to sit for a while quietly. Let your body relax, let your mind cease its usual chatter, and turn your mental gaze inward.

If you do this, there may occur realization (if there is Grace, if this fits in with the divine plan of the functioning of the totality), realization that the nothingness that you are is not the emptiness of the void but the fullness of the plenum, realization that "your" body is but an instrument (with eyes, ears and brains) which Consciousness uses in its functioning.

Such a realization of one's phenomenal absence as a separate entity is tantamount to the realization of our subjective noumenal presence with the whole universe as our objective body. And such realization, say the Masters (the Sufi -- the Advaitan -- the Taoist), is Enlightenment: I exist as phenomenal absence, but the phenomenal appearance is my Self.

Such realization translates itself in actual life as the actionless action of pure witnessing. Pure witnessing is of a dimension radically different from space-time, and is clearly to be distinguished from a mere movement in mind because: a) there is in witnessing no "witnesser" as an individual entity, b) there is no judging of what is witnessed as being "good" or "bad", and therefore, c) there is no desire to change "What-Is" in any shape or form.

In other words, such realization leads to an effortless gliding through life with a willing acceptance of whatever life might bring.

The final truth, therefore, is that the subjective "I" is all that exists. It witnesses the phenomenal manifestation (including all the me's) and its functioning, and is not aware of Itself when there is no phenomenal manifestation to witness.

~ From: The Final Truth, by Ramesh Balsekar.