Hi everyone—it’s good to finally be back in action here on Reality Check.
Zack has posed some great questions, which are repeated here:
Zack: If I am “eventually successful” in “fully abiding as Consciousness”, where I won’t experience anything finite whatsoever, what would happen if I were to seemingly ignore Consciousness “again”? Would the dream “continue where it left off”? Or would a completely new dream appear?
Peter: Notice Zack’s use of quote marks, because they are indicating that, from the standpoint of Self, this is referring to things that cannot really happen, but may “seem” to. Also, this is a hypothetical question, meaning “what if”—and it’s a huge “if.”
The key is that, from the standpoint of pure Consciousness, pure IS, there is no possibility of “if.”
Reality Check: To the pure Infinity that Consciousness Itself is, there is only Its utter unchanging Reality, with no possibility of deviation or change. There is only Actual Infinity, not a conceptual Infinity derived from thinking. Infinity does not co-exist with states other than Itself to which Its attention could wander off. There is nothing besides Infinity that Infinity could ignore Itself for.
Infinity, being infinite, precludes there being any finity (this is clear only when “starting” as Infinity Itself, which is what pure Consciousness here, now is being). Thus Infinity never has left a finite state, to which It might at some point return. It isn’t the case that there is also finity, and Infinity isn’t wandering off to it—there is ONLY Infinity and no finity ever has occurred. So…this really is not possible even as a hypothetical because to Infinite Self, finity isn’t existent anywhere to wander off to.
From CIA p. 178:
Here, no time passes in which any finite experience could occur, thus there is no memory of such a thing. There are no worries of, “What about my former world?” because to this Infinite Being, there is no former world. There is no desire or impulse to leave, because there is no sense of a prior state at all; one can’t return to what never was. This Infinite can’t leave Itself; there is no place besides Itself to leave for.
Notice also that the very questions still subtly imply that there has been a progression in time. They subtly imply there has been a past in which dream was experienced and which might be reverted to in a “future” when Consciousness might be ignored “again.”
As said above, the questions imply something that is not really true or possible—thus cannot be answered on the terms in which they were asked.
These questions also are a good “heads up” as to the difference between merely thinking about Consciousness, the Infinite, and consciously being It, as pure Now-Aliveness. (This is not meant to imply that “Zack” is doing this kind of thinking because “he” asked these very good questions; this is just said as a general statement). As long as there is thinking (even if seemingly more “advanced” thinking from the standpoint of timeless Consciousness such as this is), that thinking will come up with endless new possible scenarios and speculations.
Yet the Fact remains that Infinite Consciousness Itself is timeless, event-less, scenario-less, possibility-less. Infinity does not think. And Consciousness actually leaves no lesser Self to be thinking about all the “what ifs” that might happen “if” Consciousness were not changelessly, timelessly All. But It is.
I don’t know how many here had a chance to look in on the Open Awareness Study Group last March, but the main “theme” of the month was the fact that Awareness, All, is history-less. (You can still view the posts, but have to join the group to do so: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OAStudyGroup/). The point that kept coming up (and which has been emphasized heavily here) is that this very Present Awareness aware here, now, is absolutely history-less. All so-called “prior times” would consist only of mere thought seemingly arising in the current moment for the first time ever.
What this means is that even the notion that there was a past in which a “me” has achieved some success in fully abiding as Consciousness—is just a current thought. The notion that this “me” can be more successful in a future, and will eventually “not experience any finity whatsoever”—all of this, too, is just a current thought. The notion that there has been even a microsecond of prior dream experience, to which this “me” might revert by ignoring Consciousness again—this too, would be just a current thought.
Also, to wonder if the dream would “continue where it left off” implies there has been prior dreaming—and to history-less Now-Awareness, there really hasn’t been!
To wonder if a new dream would appear also implies there was an old dream—but there wasn’t! So there really is nothing to say that a prior dream pattern has appeared, and that it will keep appearing in that way.
Awareness never unwittingly accepts a thought that may try to say, “Well, this dream has been going on and on—yet there is no past, so why does it continue to appear in the same old way?” To accept that type of thought would be to instantly deny true pure Present-ness as Awareness–and Awareness aware here, now simply cannot do that. Pure Awareness Itself has no expectation that a change should occur because It has not experienced any prior state that should be changed. Not even Awareness Itself has been before this NOW that is NOW.
When taking the stance as pure Consciousness, pure Presence, there are no such thoughts arising. Now for the double talk…to the extent one is being pure Consciousness (and this Present Self is 100% being It!) it seems as if there is less functioning on the level of thought…there is less “resonation” with, or as, thought. And this may appear or seem to change the very nature of thoughts themselves if they continue to arise.
What seems to happen is that many “old” thoughts have been “seen through” as totally invalid, untrue assumptions from the standpoint of Present Awareness–so such thoughts are no longer entertained unwittingly. This seems to make room for new “higher” types of thoughts, such as those posed in Zack’s questions—but they’re still thought, still imply time, still imply there is not ONE unchanging Now-Presence.
This is still a matter of flitting between pure Being and thought. Don’t misunderstand—there is nothing “wrong” with this—and thought still seems to be an essential part of daily experience. As long as one appears to have a body that moves about in the world, thought will seem to occur. The point is that Awareness is not fooled into assuming there have been any prior thoughts or any prior experience (or future experience either, for that matter!) On the level of thought, all there ever is, is this one seeming current thought.
Far more important is the clarity (which is Awareness’ clarity) that all that is truly present is Awareness alone, and all It “experiences” is history-less Presentness. Awareness is not thinking this, but is being It, alive as It, as this NOW that unfailingly is consciously present NOW.
Zack also asked, “…Is it possible that as part of the “lifting of limitations” that happens as there is less and less ignoring of Awareness, that I could appear to have control of the dream?”
Hard to say about that one—it seems likely, but that’s just speculation. The main point is that pure Awareness, Infinity Itself (THIS ONE aware here, now), is not hoping to gain control over a dream, and has no expectations or speculations about a dream—because It doesn’t co-exist with a dream.
Yet, right now, you can see the idea Mickey Mouse in thought—and all there is to Mickey is just that—thought. There’s nothing weighty, material or physical there. You can see Mickey floating up on the ceiling if you wish, or standing sideways on the wall—because all there is to Mickey is thought.
Well, what seems to be the “body” as it now appears to be sitting in front of this computer actually has no more materiality or weight to it than Mickey.
It’s only an assumption, or belief, that says “body” is heavier and more dense or material. All there would be to it is a false sense of weight—for there is no separate object there to be weighty or material in and of itself. But who is entertaining that assumption? Is it Awareness? No. Is there another? No. So, as Zack says, there is no reason why, as there is “continued” abidance as weightless Awareness-which-is-all, that even this weighty sense of “body” will seem to fade—for there is no weight to Pure NOW, and NOW is absolutely all that is present, eternally.
This drives home the point as to how much we still seem to merely think about the Allness of Awareness, or pay lip service, instead of actually fully being IT.
That being said, if there is a “goal” of getting a dream to be less weighty, one will only seem to be stuck with more of that weighty dream—because Awareness Itself, THIS Awareness, being dream-less, has no such goal. It is 100% “interested in” only Its history-less weightlessness.
Just stop and ask (and be brutally blunt and honest), “Is there any thought, hope, or expectation right here that Awareness should be improving or uplifting something?” Such thoughts or expectations might even seem “justified” in light of the fact that there really is only Awareness! But if there are such thoughts, know that those are not YOUR thoughts or expectations as Awareness–they are just more thoughts.
Does pure Awareness-Itself-As-All have any such thought or expectation? To this Awareness, has there been a past in which something besides pure Awareness occurred, a weighty material state that must now be let go of, or risen out of, or thrown off? No. Is there another being aware? No. And this is where One effortlessly “stands” no matter how often such thoughts may arise or try to gain acceptance.
It sounds funny, or paradoxical, but from the seeming (emphasis on seeming) finite or apparent side of the fence, it seems there are two states, two sides. It seems there are both the apparent and un-appearing Awareness. From the so-called apparent or finite (dualistic) side, it seems there are both time and Timelessness; both the finite and the Infinite—and that it’s possible to go back and forth between the two.
Yet starting from the “Infinite view” (which is what Awareness is doing or being) there is only un-appearing Infinity. There are not two states, two sides, and there is no fence. There is nothing besides Infinity to go back and forth to. To the Timeless, there is no time in which attention could wander to and from Itself.
All there is to “do” is to “effortlessly persist” as unchanging Present Awareness. Nothing need be done to make Awareness be present, be history-less. It’s just a matter of not accepting would-be thoughts that something besides history-less Awareness IS. The entire “job” of being this pure Awareness is up to Awareness Itself, and It cannot fail to be Itself, THIS Self.