First the questions (edited slightly) are repeated here:
Request: I am currently investigating stillness and mind watching, and seem to be comprehending but obviously there is no way to know if I am. Owing to cannabis misuse and flawed, excessive meditation of sorts I have caused some energy blockages that are severe and can be felt most of the time. One symptom is a tension in the stomach itself which is present during some of the time I have possibly been in stillness for. That said however, there are very brief periods where there is an all over easing, disappearance and lightness where all blockages are, including the stomach. The question is, can I be still and have the feeling of stomach tension and co. (as these blockages are now physical), or is it only when the rush of lightness and energy comes that I am being still?
Just in case I can’t come to grips with stillness and presence another means to realisation attracts me. Sri Nisargaddata Maharaj advised a man, who didn’t feel up to other sadhanas, to trust him when he said, “You are the Supreme Reality, beyond the world and its creator, beyond consciousness and its witness, and beyond all assetions and denials… Remember it, think on it, act on it… Abandon all sense of separation, see yourself in all and act accordingly… With action bliss will come with bliss conviction…”
Now, I believe I understand abandoning separation and seeing myself in all, because I have experienced bliss upon doing these two things. But I don’t feel I understand the three “beyonds.” My attempts include making no assertions or denials, behaving as if the concerns of consciousness and its witness don’t matter, and some vague notion of being beyond the world and its creator. My question is, do you think the abandoning of separation and the “seeing myself in all” is a paraphrase, or an elucidating of the thinking and action he indicated with the three “beyonds”? Or is there something that you can point out with the said “beyonds” that I have missed, for example just mulling over the assertion that I am the Supreme, paying no attention to the fact that I’m not still?
Thank you very much if you can help.
Thank you for these very honest comments and questions, Oscar. Since there are several questions, there are several replies. Your inquiry has touched on many important points; in fact, too many to go into here in one post.
First of all, the “perspective” of Consciousness Is All and this website is entirely and only that of the Infinite. This alone is the “starting point” and “ending point.”
In other words, it is a matter of looking out from the Infinite (the Divine, Self, One, etc. if those terms are preferable)—rather than looking up to the Infinite by starting as a “separate personal me.”
In response, the thought may come, “Fine. It’s all well and good to say that. But how does one do that?”
Fortunately, this is not something that has to be done. It is what is unavoidably, unstoppably already being present here, now, as Infinite Presence, pure un-thinking Consciousness, formless alive Being.
Again, the perspective here is such a “reversal” of what seems to be the typical viewpoint, it does take some familiarizing. For that reason, I strongly suggest you get the book Consciousness Is All. If you’d like to sample it first, there are five chapters free here on the website on the Writings page. Please start with Chapter 1 because it is basic and essential in conveying where this is all coming from.
After reading the free chapters, you may wish to get the book. Then you could come back here to the website to read many of the posts here on the blog, and also the “Replies to Questions” on the Writings page, or watch/listen to the videos and audios. But I would strongly suggest starting with the book, chap 1, because the rest will then have much more significance.
Because this appears to be a complete “reversal” of the typical human, personal “viewpoint” and its way of experiencing itself and its world, naturally it seems to take some “getting used to” to turn the viewpoint around. Yet, even this is not something that Infinite Presence has to do.
What is “done” is just a matter of “becoming fascinated” with what Infinite Presence is to Its pure aliveness, and no longer identifying with all of the human thoughts, emotions, sensations, and energy-feelings which, seemingly, have up to now been identified as “Oscar.” After all, Infinite Life Itself is solely “interested in” Itself, not in Oscar or Peter–and who else, honestly, is being alive?
The pure Aliveness that Infinite Presence is, is not an energy blockage—and staying wholly alive to, or AS, pure Presence will seem to “dissolve” such blockages because they no longer are being “fed” or “resonated with.” No blockage can sustain itself on its own for it has no genuine presence of its own.
The only Life, Self, Presence that is alive and present is that of Life Itself, the Divine Itself—so it is a matter of “starting” here and beholding what is true of IT. It is not a matter of, “How can I, Peter, or Oscar, get a better grip on the Infinite, the Divine.” The only one that can be the Infinite is the Infinite Itself—and as It is already fully being Itself, It leaves no Infinity left over for another to be!
But this doesn’t leave out a “you”—for that Infinite Itself is the very One being conscious, present here, now—because the Infinite Consciousness that is present right here is not something that Peter or Oscar personally activates or knows how to do.
Just as a “heads up” for example—the perspective here does not even recognize a Supreme Being as mentioned in Nisargadatta’s quote. As Being is Infinite, Utter, ALL—It means exactly that—ALL! ALL being truly ALL leaves nothing besides Its Allness over which It could be Supreme! It leaves no seekers, nothing separate, no otherness whatsoever having occurred.
Being ALL, ALL is not “beyond” anything, for its own ALLNESS leaves nothing that ALL could be beyond. If there were something else, All wouldn’t be ALL! The Infinite wouldn’t be truly Infinite! It may seem as if there is a human world of time and form that the Infinite is “beyond” but we are not starting from the seeming. The Infinite doesn’t start from a seeming, but only from Its Actuality.
Admittedly, some of this may make for head-scratching at first, and leave a feeling of “How can this be so?” and that’s why I suggest getting the book, where it is all clearly, slowly laid out. (And I’m not trying to sell books!)
One more: NEVER can “you” see yourself as All. The only One that can “see” Itself as ALL is ALL Itself. All’s ALLNESS leaves no other to even attempt to also see itself as All! But that is not “an” ALL that is afar off. It is the very boundless Infinite Consciousness alive here, now, as it appears these words are being read.
(By the way, be alert that when Nisargadatta used the word “consciousness” it usually referred to “human sensory consciousness”—not the Infinite, the Divine, which he sometimes referred to as the Absolute.) Here, the capitalized Consciousness (and also Awareness) refer entirely and only to the Infinite. The book Consciousness Is All is very clear on this distinction—and it’s also discussed extensively in free Chaps 4 and 5 in the Writings section.
I will email you some excerpts from Chapter 6, “Whose Life Is It Anyway?” which is not on the website—because the points are in line with what we’ve been discussing. However, chap 6 will be much clearer if you “save” it until after reading Chaps 1, 4 and 5.
Thanks so much for your sincerity and comments, Oscar! Please let us know how it’s going with the reading.