"As the story goes, all return to the elements from which they arose. Yet in truth, there never was a time before, I Am".
Who Am I?
Over the course of ‘your life’, it is inevitable that you will come to view God, nature, and self—illusory distinctions in and of themselves—as objects ‘out there’ to be studied, classified, and even further diversified into a countless array of ideologies, species, and races.
Yet the convenience of common sense does not always serve your best interests, as that which seems obvious proves most often to be erroneous.
Indeed, your innate yet inherently naive sense of reason—were it not enlightened otherwise—would lead you to believe that the world is flat, stationary, and lies at the center of the universe.
Similarly, so-called spiritual enlightenment most often requires, first, a conceptual revolution: a psychological shift from the naturally arising common sense belief in intrinsically separate bodies, minds, and spirits to an increasingly fundamental awareness that There is only I Am.
Is there ultimately any way to directly realize This One Self in advance of such philosophical considerations?
Perhaps. In fact, some say it can be as easy as waking up from a dream.
For example, the material world you perceive to be out there as you dream is, in retrospect, upon awakening, universally understood to be no more than a projection of your true and waking self: a self held to be transcendent of and from which arises that mostly fictional being whose life in your dream world you tend to mistake for your waking own.
For example, the material world you perceive to be out there as you dream is, in retrospect, upon awakening, universally understood to be no more than a projection of your true and waking self: a self held to be transcendent of and from which arises that mostly fictional being whose life in your dream world you tend to mistake for your waking own.
Direct realization is simply the ultimate awakening, a becoming aware of yourself as a Dreamer more transcendent still. However, first, the ego must be gently stilled. Thus, the art of Being Itself.
But, this ego, will it go without a fight?
As a partial detective, the ego is chiefly that part of yourself that forms all it perceives within a conceptual mold of sorts, a template which conveniently suits of course but one uniquely biased perspective.
For no more than a thought itself, the ego seeks to expand its domain through association, division, acquisition and integration perpetually morphing into new forms and meanings yet desperately falling short of the truth.
To be sure, conditional love is the ego’s defining characteristic, as its world is rooted in conditions - and this, in contrast to your very Being Itself, where You Are All That Is.
All you need do is simply rest from all thoughts of heaven and earth, all sense of time and place, and slip gently into the peace that is this one eternally present moment.
