Is consciousness the real illusion

[anthony c]

Originally Posted by inavalan

That was a waste of time ... Both the content and the presentation. Thanks.

See- Your ego is telling me it's a waist of time so you haven't even realised your ego is and illusion and yeah i know it's my ego telling you that but atleast i realise does not exist ;) If it goes over your head then i guess it's a waist of time. Your welcome..

[anthony c]

Originally Posted by Rah nam

Consciousness is the only thing that is not an illusion.

The Absolute(The Dao or real nothingness) is outside consciousness and it has no attribute meaning it is Real nothingness(not a thing but consciousness is oneness and it's a thing, still 1 attribute.)If one has no attributes that is total freedom!! That is what she is saying imo and that is what i seen a guy in a video clip that claims he has transcendent consciousness.

This nothingness needs consciousness and everything come's from it.

Guess one has to experience it to really know if it's true.

[anthony c]

Originally Posted by Greenslade

'Real' illusion?

'Technically' there is no ego as an entity, 'ego' is more of a collective noun because our sense of 'I am' is made up of a number of different aspects. Spiritually it's a bucket-full of invented things.

'Pure' is a prefix that the differentiated consciousness of the ego uses to differentiate/categorise. It also implies not-pure, but all consciousness is consciousness just the same.

Consciousness is an 'object' of consciousness and that's where the illusion begins in the context of non-Duality. To the mind consciousness is something we have or something we can work towards acquiring and as far as the mind is concerned it's as much a 'thing' as that thing your bum is on right now.

The question is, is consciousness conscious of being consciousness? The self needs the ego to have a sense of 'I am', otherwise there is no self either. The self's sense of itself is the ego.

And don't forget that to all intents and purposes you are your ego, which is everything you perceive yourself to be. Yeah me too. It's also the ego that decides what is real or not, what is illusion or not, what is Spiritual or not.

Perhaps it's the illusion that's real.

Very Interesting and yeah the "I am" is just a thought and feeling within consciousness.

To me pure consciousness is just the thing being conscious of itself and not objects. When really tapped into to me it's just a space like quality that everything arises and falls.

Like sounds come and go, you see a car and it goes but pure consciousness is the space these things come and go in.

Sometimes i get the feeling when contemplating these things The real me feels like a narrator like in the movie that talks like it can see and knows what is going on but it's not in the movie "my life."

Originally Posted by anthony c

The Absolute(The Dao or real nothingness) is outside consciousness and it has no attribute meaning it is Real nothingness(not a thing but consciousness is oneness and it's a thing, still 1 attribute.)

It seems to me when you use consciousness you are referring to its reflection in/illumination of mind and that is a thing that can be directly known by mind. When I use Consciousness I refer to That which is reflected in/illumines mind and That is no thing and cannot be directly known by mind.

The eye cannot directly see itself but by the virtue of seeing its existence is self-revealing and self-evident. Like Descartes said, "I think therefore I am" only take it one step deeper to That which is aware of thinking.

This is what Advaita Vedanta posits.

[inavalan]

Originally Posted by anthony c

See- Your ego is telling me it's a waist of time so you haven't even realised your ego is and illusion and yeah i know it's my ego telling you that but atleast i realise does not exist ;) If it goes over your head then i guess it's a waist of time. Your welcome..

My ego isn't an illusion. It is a state of consciousness of my personality.

"atleast i realise does not exist"? That's called a "nonsense". You exist. That's one of the few things you can be sure of. Whatever you perceive is a creation of your subconscious, but that's something else. Even that isn't an illusion, just a subjective perception.

[anthony c]

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

It seems to me when you use consciousness you are referring to its reflection in/illumination of mind and that is a thing that can be directly known by mind. When I use Consciousness I refer to That which is reflected in/illumines mind and That is no thing and cannot be directly known by mind.

The eye cannot directly see itself but by the virtue of seeing its existence is self-revealing and self-evident. Like Descartes said, "I think therefore I am" only take it one step deeper to That which is aware of thinking.

This is what Advaita Vedanta posits.

Yes you right the eye cannot see itself cause it's using the eye to see but one can be the eye by knowing/resting as the eye and be aware that your seeing it is what i am saying.

It's an example that you gave, i know it's just an example but if you substitute the eye with knowing/awareness you can only be that awareness and then there is an profound bliss(bliss and knowing of your true self becomes clear as day), just typing this i felt bliss as i remembered to do this and this is why i said bliss :)) but that is Pure being.

[inavalan]

Originally Posted by anthony c

...
Guess one has to experience it to really know if it's true.

When you experience something, that doesn't mean it's true.

Even when you take all the precautions and suspend all your beliefs and expectations, still what you experience is distorted, according to your personality's level of evolvement, which your being here on Earth means that it is quite low.

[anthony c]

Originally Posted by inavalan

My ego isn't an illusion. It is a state of consciousness of my personality.

"atleast i realise does not exist"? That's called a "nonsense". You exist. That's one of the few things you can be sure of. Whatever you perceive is a creation of your subconscious, but that's something else. Even that isn't an illusion, just a subjective perception.

Ego is like a rainbow you can see it but it is just an illusion of light and water.

Your ego is your personal awareness aware of your body, thoughts and feelings but they come and go but your awareness is always pressant even in deep sleep but there is nothing to be aware of. even your personal identity changes but consciousness remains.

It is always there so it's the only thing that never goes..

Originally Posted by anthony c

i know it's just an example but if you substitute the eye with knowing/awareness you can only be that awareness and then there is an profound bliss(bliss and knowing of your true self becomes clear as day), just typing this i felt bliss as i remembered to do this and this is why i said that but that is Pure being.

I think we agree on the main point and it's probably just semantics. I'm just saying Consciousness is Awareness is Pure Being is Atman is Brahman is Source, etc... We - and I mean Ahamkara/ego - tend to localize it. The illusion is "I am conscious" whereas I would say we are Consciousness itself. It's the aspect of experience that is our tether to the Divine. Right here and right now.

The way I see the presentation in the video you linked can be correlated with this talk. Two Steps to the Not-Two: Swami Sarvapriyananda https://youtu.be/kPdsAPlK2Js

Step 1 is the first view (relative - dual) in the video you linked and Step 2 is the second view (Absolute - nondual).

[inavalan]

Originally Posted by anthony c

...

Obviously we disagree. This goes nowhere.