This is in reply to the comments/questions on 10/5 and 6 from “Anonymous.”
The question is not considered impudent or disrespectful. But it is indicative of a difference in this “Perspective” and Advaita/Vedanta and other teachings (or how they sometimes seem to be misconstrued and mistakenly “practiced”). This does not imply it is “your” practice, but what seems to be a general tendency.
When such issues are debated, the “focus” is not the simple Immediacy of the Present Itself–One’s OWN Being. Rather, attention becomes concerned with thought–thought about a personal “me,” or an “us,” or a Jivanmukta–and what each of “their” experiences is in relation to the Present. It is about how “far along” someone is; how good a job “they” are doing of being Self.
The Present Itself (the Only One Conscious) never is evaluating Its progress (It cannot progress). It never compares Itself to others, or to an appearance. IT does not consider “the end of breathing” as having “attained the goal.”
The Absoluteness of the Present Itself precludes any of this ever occurring–so the Present can’t be concerned with such–and THERE IS NO OTHER.
The Present simply is 100% consciously present, being thought-less, as Un-thinking Pure Alive Being.
The words “HAS TO” were used because, at that point, it was speaking of an example, a mere illustration.
Now for some double-talk…As far as “my” actual experience, there seem to be “times” when there is little or no sense of body at all (so who is to say whether it is still breathing or not?). Or, while there may be little or no sense of body to the One being conscious, body still “appears” to be there–there just isn’t any conscious attention diverted to it.
I (speaking as “Peter” now) do not pretend to have “fully arrived. ” Actually no one ever “left”–THAT’S the point! If “I” were FULLY being the Present I AM (Divine I)–there would be no sense of time, or of a body appearing–ever. To Infinity there is no finity. So there would be no possibility of typing anything on a computer, no sense of a blog, no eating, etc.
Actually this “issue” is of no importance. If you’ve read CIA, please look again at chap 22, especially the sections starting on p. 230. If you do not have the book, this excerpt can be found at www.advaita.org.uk (under Discourses, Other Teacher/Writers, then Author). This same point is the subject of upcoming posts in Reality Check.
The point, the TRUTH, is: All that is present, “ever” is the Present Itself. In the Present, there is only Present-ness. (You really have to “hold yourself” to this–there is no deviation. Yet it doesn’t mean being strict or stiff, for the presence of the Present is effortless…nothing is easier!)
In the Pure Present, no time ever occurs; there has been no history of anything. No history occurred before, because where the Present Itself is everywhere present (and IT IS), there is no “before”–there is ONLY Present-ness.
In fact, NOT EVEN THE PRESENT ITSELF HAS BEEN BEFORE, because the Present is only Present NOW. This is not a theory of some “body” called Peter–It is present Conscious Living Fact–the ONLY “stuff” existent.
To this One, the ONLY One, as there has been no history, there has been no history of a “sense of a separate body that breathes”–so there is no thought given to such a topic. There has been no history in which religious traditions or practices arose (Advaita or anything else)! There is no history of books called Consciousness Is All, or of writings about the Present, or of anyone “seeing” anything.
The Present Itself is not in bondage to any such thing–and there is no other!!
There is only the ease and simplicity or Pure Present-ness.
It is THIS very Present being aware here, now. BE FREE! Do not get sucked into a would-be hypnotic “mental whirlpool” that something besides the Present Itself can be present, requiring a need for “more seeing,” progression, attaining. BE FREE!! Your PRESENT FREEDOM is Infinitely available to You, or AS YOU, NOW!
There is ONLY the simplicity and effortlessness of the Free Present Itself, joying in the care-free Life It is! This Present One cannot have cares–there’s been no history in which cares could have arisen!
There is no “way” in which the Present is “supposed” to be, nor any other to worry about how “they” should be. Why? Absolutely nothing has existed before! There is only Life being freshly, freely present NOW! Not even the Present Itself has any history of existing–so how could there be a pre-established “way” in which It should be? There isn’t.
This utterly simple, unstoppable Present-ness is the only You that ever can be. And as there is ONLY THIS, there isn’t even another to be ignore-ant, to resist, or to disagree.
It is this simple: Present-ness, Present-ness, Present-ness—not as a repetition over “time,” but always NEW NOW, for there is only Present-ness, Present-ness, Present-ness…