Now for the second point, as to: Why does the phenomenal (mental) ‘world’ appear the way it does? Why does it seem to involve such things as mathematical precision, scientific laws, and so on? Again, having no background in formal science, it is difficult to comment from within that framework—for it would be speculation at best. However, from the standpoint of Present Awareness, such things can be seen in an entirely new light.
From the standpoint of Absolute Present Awareness being ALL, and which does not change, there is ONLY Present-ness. Period. The Present-ness being spoken of is the presently alive Awareness, aware here, now. To this utter Present-ness, time does not occur. There has been no past. Absolutely nothing has happened before, because where the Present is changelessly all-present, there is no “before”—only Present-ness!
If one were to refer to time, all of what seems to have happened “before” or seems to be a “past” actually would be found only in the thought that seems to be thought now. All so-called history or a long past would be found ONLY in what seems to be this current thought—nowhere else. (There is not space here to go into a full explanation of this, but it is discussed in detail in CIA chaps 21 and 22, and also in a previous post here titled, “As the Present, You have no history.” If this point is not clear, it is suggested that you read those chapters and post—otherwise the following simply will not make sense.)
What the foregoing means is that, to this Present Awareness, there has been absolutely nothing prior. Not even the Present has been before because It is present only. So there has been no accumulation of time. To Present Awareness, there has been no long continuity of time. There is absolutely NO prior state of “things having been a certain way down through history”—for there hasn’t been any history!
It means that there has been no historical backdrop in which mathematical precision and scientific laws operated a certain way before—because there has been no before! There equally has been no past in which a “mystery” developed as to why math and science “continue” to operate in this way. No! There being only Changeless NOW-AS-ALL, there is no such thing as a continuity or sequence of time. There has been zero prior time. None.
See for yourself. If one ignores NOW-Awareness and begins to think, that’s when all so-called time “kicks in”–and for the first time ever! All of what the thinking mind would try to say was a “past back there” in which math and science developed over a long period—where is all of that? It’s not back there in time—it’s found entirely and only in this current thought. Again, Consciousness is all—there is no physical world in which prior events could have been experienced. And Consciousness is unchangingly all-present, leaving no such thing as a prior “time” in which there were prior events or even prior thoughts!
A passage from chap. 22, p. 231 says it:
Mistaken human belief would try to say there are both that current thinking of a past and the other “real” past—the one that occurred in a physical world at a previous time. Why is that not true? Because, again, absolutely all there is, is Consciousness—which precludes there being any physical world. And the fact that Consciousness, All, is changelessly Present only, precludes there being any previous time.
The would-be ignorant “sense-mind” doesn’t realize that its “world” never is a separate physical world, but just its own dream-like thought. So all that the entire so-called past ever could have been “made out of” is thought. And when you examine it closely, you see the shocking truth—that dream-thought never is something that occurred “way back then”—for the entirety of it is being mentally projected just now!
Go ahead, try as hard as you can to come up with a little bit of a “past,” or a whole lot of it, in some place other than the current thought of it. It’s impossible.
No matter how far one tries to mentally shove a “past” back there—it actually has had no prior existence. The only place all of it would appear to be found is in the very thinking-dreaming of it starting now. That’s all there would be to all of the so-called “past”—just that one big mental “panorama” or “thought-collage”—all of which begins now.
This is clear only from the vantage point of the Absolute Present, wherein no time has been. Otherwise one mistakenly assumes time has some other, prior beginning. It doesn’t.
In response to this, conditioned thinking may try to screech, “This is crazy! I studied math for years in grade school and at the university—and math always worked precisely the same way. I’ve been balancing my checkbook for years, and math always has worked the same. And what about the scientific law of gravity? It has been holding my body on this earth for years!”
Oh? All of this only seems strange to a state of thinking that seems to have been conditioned to think in terms of continuity—but only to thinking would there seem to be continuity—not to NOW-Awareness. And to NOW-Awarenes, not even any conditioned thinking has gone on before!
Look at it again. Where is all the so-called evidence, the only evidence, that there was a “past” in which years of math, checkbooks and gravity seem to have operated? Where is all the so-called evidence that dreams have been researched for years by neuroscientists? Only in this current thought. It can’t be found anywhere else. And one has to first ignore NOW-Awareness to entertain that thought. Even when thinking would try to say there were many prior thoughts had “over the years”—they, too, actually are not prior, but would all be found only in this thought.
This seems to operate similar to a “sleeping dream.” One might have been asleep for only a few minutes, yet in the dream there are characters that appear to be very old. How old could they be if the dream just began? It is as if dreaming seems to instantly project this entire picture or background in an attempt to give its story credibility and make it seem plausible–yet it has no long background at all. And to whom only would it seem plausible? Only to its own sleep-state, only to dream itself.
What’s more, to Present-Awareness-As-All, there actually hasn’t even been a past in which a single prior “sleeping dream” occurred!
What this all means is that, as Pure Present Awareness, You have no history—and You leave no history having occurred. As this Pure Present-ness You are so WITHOUT any kind of limitation it’s indescribable!! Any would-be limitation would have to be a result of some prior condition—but there haven’t been any prior conditions! This history-less Life alive here, now, is unconditional–and literally is what Unconditional Love is, if one uses such a term.
This also means that there is nothing, repeat NOTHING to say that even the “everyday world” has to continue appearing a certain way (with wars, disease, financial problems, environmental problems, etc.) because to this Utterly Present Awareness there have been NO prior appearances! None! How could a so-called pattern continue–when no such pattern ever got started in the first place? In Pure Open Present-ness there has been NO prior pattern saying that because things have been this way “up until now,” then they must continue. As NOW ITSELF IS ALL, It leaves no room for any “up until” Its NOW.
There hasn’t even been a past in which a “you” didn’t see this!
By being clear on this fact–by LIVING AS IT–you are “giving” yourself and the entirety of Existence the most valuable, priceless thing possible. And it’s not really a thing, but is Pristine New Life incapable of age or decay, unopposed Harmony, disease-free Presence, Unlimited Intelligence–as the very “Stuff” or Substance of all Existence!