Musings on non-duality

[Hemera]

'life is but a dream' as the song goes.

I absolutely believe that this is all a dream. I don't know exactly how non duality works, but I think each human being has a soul that goes back into spirit after 'death' and that spirit is formless but can take various forms. Ultimately, all is one.

I had a random experience the other day when I was coming out of my bathroom and suddenly knew in the depth of my being that I was in the midst of a dream. Everything felt weird and unreal. I knew none of this was the true reality. I can't say if it was comforting or I had any kind of emotion or feeling attached, just the sense of everything being a dream.

[hazada guess]

I can assure you Hemera,Life is not a dream.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Hemera

'life is but a dream' as the song goes.
I absolutely believe that this is all a dream.

Hi Hemera, Yes, I was shown this at 8 years old...and many times later ...hahaha,
not on any drugs, either....as I have been accused of.
Always a wonderful and awesome experience.

Not one thing we see with our eyes open is what it seems to be.
A mountain? Nope. A rock? Nope. A building? Nope. The one we love? Nope;
nor our enemy.

All actors on a stage, surrounded by props.
Why, the stage isn't even real...nor the audience.
From my personal experience, not a belief or something I read, if others are wondering.
And no one has to believe a word I'm saying...but I do hope one day everyone experiences this.

In my case, I’ve ceased speculating, .....Let us look into direct experience to recognise the truth.

Thank you, Unseeking, for saying this. :)

[Michael K.]

Blessings Unseeking seeker, and yes I fully agree with your thought about
direct experience to recognise the truth. here is my response to your request.

My first experience with the SELF was in 1974 when I was seriously ill with an
addictive illness and was given only three months to live by my doctor.
I was gripped in terror and panic , thoughts were racing away at warp speed
like my mind was shooting the rapids. I fell to the floor in utter despair and
desolation and cried out to GOD for help.

There was an immediate response, a loud inner voice said "WHAT DO YOU KNOW"? Followed by an enormous weight pushing me into the floor . It was
like gravity had become localized around my body and was crushing and
creaking my bones. It later reminded me of the experience that the prophet
Ezekiel in the Bible had where he said he felt the hand of the LORD heavy upon me I cried out I know nothing, and immediately the weight vanished and the voice said now go to bed and be healed.

Since then up to 2024 I have had many other direct experiences within SELF
gradually realizing through many experiences that I AM SELF Absolute
having a relative experience in a vehicle called Michael.

This acceptance came when i I was taken to a placeless place which was
before this universe was born, there was no thing there whatsoever no light
no darkness, no consciousness, no thing present anywhere only PURE
AWARENESS of BEING I AM zero else existed.

I also had a direct experience much like that which SHIVA had where he
chose to forget who he really was, and plunge in into motional life. I had
the experience of surrendering my identity to what seemed to be an
universal computer and instructing it to awaken me in my 29th year on
Earth. This happened in 1974 when I was 29 years old. and inner voice
the SELF said that certain chromosomes had been activated within my DNA
and that my identity will now become fully awakened as instructed.

Now I am 79 years young, and through having direct experience of SELF
There is no more speculation or wondering what is, I just know beyond any
shadow of doubt that I AM.

blessings michael.

[Unseeking Seeker]

Wow, Michael, thank you for sharing.

You said

I was taken to a placeless place which was
before this universe was born, there was no thing there whatsoever no light
no darkness, no consciousness, no thing present anywhere only PURE
AWARENESS of BEING I AM zero else existed.

Could you elaborate a bit on this? It is obviously something different from the way I have seen Self in a singularity. In my case, all that was that I alone was (minus identity) as awareness, self-aware, living light, soft white, yet bright, renewing itself within itself, feeling complete and in ineffable peace.

Let’s go into your experience and subsequent understanding a bit deeper, if you wish to share. Also, how about embodying the offering here now in the waking state in as assimilated as a transformation, not merely thought about or affirmed?

[Unseeking Seeker]

Hello Miss H!

You said

Yes, I was shown this at 8 years old...and many times later ...hahaha

Interesting! I recall when I was in school, one day, everything (that means the entire manifest universe) fell away in a blink of an eye and I found myself in a different reality, wherefrom the manifest world has been projected. However, I could not hold onto that revelation and was back almost immediately in body.

Now, five decades later, I have seen light of Self in slow motion for a considerable time span, as described on this thread but in my view, there remains a veil to be penetrated yet.

[Michael K.]

Blessings Unseeking seeker, here are is my response to your question.

Unseeking seeker it is difficult to put into that which transcends all language.
The placeless place was where my relative astral body became SELF Absolute.
You say that the SELF has no attribute, that is fine so far as it goes. ONE
SINGULARITY from the saying , there is but ONE singularity SELF, rang
hollow in the Intelligence of the SELF, ONE is a number , it is a beginning of
a sequence of numbers, SELF has no beginning therefore to me SELF is 0
NO-THING.

All that was evident was Absolute intelligence, no-thing else, no consciousness
no thing even AWARENESS seemed UNREAL,BECAUSE there was NO THING
in existence or anywhere else to be AWARE OF!! Absolute intelligence, absolute
innocence, no space, no light, no darkness, only Absolute eternal Intelligent
PRESENCE.

On reflection of that experience, I have concluded that instead of saying
I AM, rather meant to say AM HERE minus any "I".

blessings michael

[Unseeking Seeker]

@ Michael ~ all right. The common point we have is that Self has no attribute.

Now, let’s take a few direct recognitions or experiences I had:

First there was the dark void experience, inky black, where initially I thought that I as formless awareness alone was but then there was a communication between my presence and another* (*we may call it God, a master, the universe or whatever). Hence duality. I was there and something else was there.

Second, samadhi, wherein identity disappeared and awareness became the bliss flame in space and time dissolved existence. The awareness became the flame instead of merely experiencing it. So singularity but without freedom, since it is impossible to exit samadhi simply because there is no one there. Yet we return through an inexplicable mechanism.

Next, living light of Self in a singularity with full freedom.

In your case, it would appear that what you are pointing out to is something else altogether then, beyond the self-existent light of Self I’m talking about. Perhaps this is why I said that the Self, complete as it is, is bereft of love, wisdom and power, even though it is luminous, self-aware, in incessant renewal, regenerating itself within itself and in ineffable time dissolved peace. So yes, we may say the Self as I term it is no-thing, in as it is not a thing or an object but the cognition of Self seems to be impressed upon mind differently in your case vs my case.

Let’s wait and watch

[Michael K.]

Blessings Unseeking seeker.

I fell into the trap of also saying that the SELF had no attribute , then went
on to say that it was Absolute Intelligence which I quickly realized was also
an attribute!

So now I say that "IT" or "IS" is an unknowable quality that far transcends
our ability to comprehend. The ancient wisdom understood this clearly
thousands of years ago when they wrote "THE ONE WHOM NOUGHT CAN BE
SAID" It just "IS"

You mentioned that you perceived that there was still a veil yet to be known
to you, I understand that as I feel that this veil will reveal NO-THING.

IS JUST "IS" understanding that even pure absolute awareness is an
attribute ,it reveals that IS as I mentioned yesterday What could IS ever
become AWARE OF? NO=THING?

I think seeker that we both look into no-thing with the echo's of our own
experiences which colour our vision accordingly.

Writing this has brought up a feeling within me of great regret, that I stopped the sequence of me going home within the SELF where I said to
SELF I want to come home, and a great voice said COME. I was vanishing
before my eyes my legs were rotating at warp speed becoming a blur, then
I had a thought that I had not said goodbye to my mother. this thought
then ended this ascension sequence, Now I wish I had not done this , Oh
well.
blessings michael.

[Unseeking Seeker]

@ Michael ~

I stopped the sequence of me going home within the SELF where I said to
SELF I want to come home, and a great voice said COME.

if God is there and we are there too, it is still duality then, is it not?

Yoga, it is said, is the journey of self to self through self. So, we’re looking at three ‘selves’ here if we accept this definition, which of course we needn’t. For discussion, let’s say, the first of the selves is our true Self, inside the second self, the ego in body and the third Self then is God. In that case, the Self in singularity, works its way through ego in duality to merge with or realise God. If this be so, the Self recognised, which I allude to, is only the first step, waking up or declutching from ego identity. Work then remains to reunite with the Absolute Self, which is why I feel a veil yet remains to be pierced.

Idle musings … the brain tends to do that. Let it.