"The very first step in understanding what this is all about is giving up the concept of an active, volitional 'I' as a separate entity and accepting the passive role of perceiving and functioning as a process." - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Substance and its reflection


Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:


The entire manifested universe is an appearance in consciousness. If you are not conscious, the world does not exist for you, since you cannot cognize anything. This consciousness is all that we are. As long as we are in the phenomenal world, we can perceive only that; we cannot be THAT-which-we-are until we wake up from the dream of phenomenality, understand the dream as such and stop conceptualizing and objectivizing. This is the basic essential: noumenon is the substance; the phenomenon is mere reflection - they are not different.

When 'you' see 'him', both are objects seen by each other as appearances in consciousness. But do understand, there is no subject that sees the other as an object. There is only seeing, which is functioning as an aspect of the noumenon potential. This applies to everything else - hearing, touching, tasting etc. All is essentially functioning.

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सर्वभूताधिवासं यद्भूतेषु च वसत्यपि।
सर्वानुग्राहकत्वेन तद्स्म्यहं वासुदेवः॥

That in whom reside all beings and who resides in all beings,
who is the giver of grace to all, the Supreme Soul of the universe, the limitless being:
I AM THAT. -- Amritabindu Upanishad