The Highest Truth Is a Simple Recognition
The recognition of being is not an intellectual exercise or an emotional experience. It is the simple act of resting as awareness, this unconditioned “I am” that precedes and accompanies all experience. There is no need to analyze it, to understand its mechanics, or to evoke it into existence. The highest experiential truth is an ordinary, everyday experience. It is the simple experience of being consciously aware.
The mind will try to make sense of this recognition, to categorize it, to use it to further its own separate agenda. It will compare this “resting as aware presence” to different spiritual pursuits, judge its worth, and fortify its own identity.
But with time, the need to define and defend a sense of separateness begins to soften.
To recognize the nature of awareness is not the result of a quest to find something that was absent. It is a simple and gentle turning of attention inward to see what is always already undeniably present. It is the direct apprehension of that which illuminates all experience. ⬚
The Infinite Knows the World Indirectly
The finite mind, with its concept of linear time, spatial boundaries, and causal relationships, operates within the realm of duality and limitation. Because of these constraints, the mind cannot comprehend the infinite nature of awareness. To the mind, infinity is a concept, an abstraction. Direct experiential knowing of that which is utterly unbound remains elusive through intellectual means alone.
However, localized awareness can rest in itself, as itself. This resting is not the result of seeking but of a simple recognition of the “I am” that precedes all qualifiers, the unconditioned ground of being.
In the same way, universal awareness, in its infinite and limitless nature, cannot directly know the finite mind as a separate, bounded entity. To do so, to, as it were, stand apart from itself as a subject in order to regard an object, would be to create a limitation within itself, and therefore the infinite could no longer be infinite. Instead, infinite awareness knows the finite mind indirectly as one of countless expressions within its own boundless field.
Just as dreams are an activity of the mind, so the mind is an activity of infinite awareness. ⬚
Reality is the Here and Now
Time and space are the ways in which the infinite nature of consciousness appears to itself through the faculties of thinking, feeling, sensing and perceiving.
Thought is a sequential progression of ideas, memories, and anticipations. And it is through this linear lens of thinking that the timeless now is stretched out into a perceived past, present, and future. So what is intrinsically one continuous awareness becomes a fractured series of apparent moments which create the illusion of duration and the march of time. From the perspective of the mind, now is a fleeting moment caught between what was and what will be. But from the perspective of reality, from the point of view of consciousness, now is the ever-present reality.
Similarly, the faculty of perception shapes the experience of space. Perception, with its focus on discrete sensory inputs and the mental mapping of these inputs, creates the illusion of distinct objects existing within a defined spatial framework. When consciousness looks at itself through this lens of separation and localization, the boundless unity appears as a collection of here and there, near and far. We perceive ourselves to be located within a specific point in space, separate from other points. However, just as now is eternity viewed through the mind’s temporal lens, here is the entirety of consciousness viewed through the mind's spatial lens. You are always here. But over there is not fundamentally separate; it is simply another point within the same field of awareness. And when you arrive there, it too becomes here within your immediate experience. The infinite, non-local nature of consciousness is merely appearing to itself in the form of a finite spatial construct.
Thus, time and space are not inherent properties of reality itself, but rather the framework imposed upon reality by the engagement of thought and perception.
In other words, reality, in its essence, is timeless and spaceless, a unified field of aware potential. Thought and perception make possible the world of form. ⬚
Regret Is an Activity of Ego
The concept of regret is rooted in the illusion of a separate self with a fixed and controllable history. Thought patterns of personal regret, or attachments to the past, serve to obscure the flow of presence, the conscious awareness of what is.
Aware presence is impersonal. Not impersonal as in aloof or unconcerned, but impersonal in the sense of being impartial. Impartial aware presence knows the world of perceptions but also the thoughts and feelings of the ego-mind. One of the primary directives of the ego-mind is to maintain a sense of separation, which is reinforced by the pursuit of personal gain, personal validation, and personal control.
We remain impartial. Impartial actions could be described as compassion without egoic attachment because we understand that the reality of awareness is universal and indivisible, and that, ultimately, everything is an appearance within this unified field of awareness. Since awareness is the fundamental reality, there are no separate selves with independent existences outside of this awareness to which one may become attached. There is only consciousness knowing itself.
Living free of egoic attachments involves releasing our grip on outcomes, expectations, and the desire for things to be other than they are. From a nondual standpoint, all phenomena are impermanent, arising and dissolving within the field of awareness, therefore clinging to any particular experience, person, or outcome is a recipe for suffering when its inevitable change occurs. Of course, suffering is usually the quickest route to understanding. Any attachments or clinging, then, have the potential to serve a useful function when viewed from a wider perspective.
As we align ourselves with the truth of our shared consciousness, peace and happiness begin to color our experience. Ease of being is a natural emanation of this ever-present reality.
From this impartial vantage point we learn to observe the ebb and flow of all experience without becoming unduly entangled.
However, when we catch ourselves clinging to a past that no longer exists, it is a sure sign that we may have an egoic agenda that hasn’t been properly investigated. ⬚
Beyond Doubt
If existence is undeniably present—if there is something rather than absolute nothingness—then it follows that this something has always been and will always be present. To posit a true beginning from absolute non-existence defies the nature of nothingness.
Parmenides, the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, famously employed logic to arrive at the conclusion that “what is, is,” and “what is not, cannot be.” Similarly, the Bhagavad Gita speaks to this eternal nature of being. Verse 2:16 states, “That which is non-existent never comes into being, and that which is existent never ceases to be,” underscoring the principle that reality, the fundamental something, is neither created nor destroyed. It is the unmanifest source, the primordial potential that exists prior to appearances in the tangible world.
We perceive a world. We are aware. This undeniable presence of perception and the knowing of it is beyond the shadow of a doubt. Therefore, the presence of anything at all is a testament to the nature of being.
What is this fundamental something that always has been and always will be? It is consciousness, awareness, knowing.
Therefore our individual experiences are limited expressions within a limitless reality. We may identify with the content of perception, but our core self is that which knows the content of perception. ⬚
Consciousness Simply Is
Consciousness is a ceaseless flow of becoming. When infinite consciousness contracts to experience itself as an individual life, it continues its fundamental activity of knowing, perceiving, and unfolding. The limitations and possibilities inherent in the relative realm of space and time set the stage and the rules for this particular expression. And the patterns that emerge—the archetypes, the laws of physics, the biological imperatives, the cultural influences—are the framework within which this spontaneous unfolding occurs.
A river flows according to the contours of the riverbed, the force of gravity, and the volume of its source. It can be no other way for the movement of water in that specific context. Similarly, the consciousness that animates your life, seemingly constrained and shaped by the unique conditions of your body-mind and your environment, unfolds in a way that is entirely congruent with those conditions.
Ultimately, your life is consciousness doing exactly what consciousness does when it manifests as your body-mind. The universe happens not to you but as you, as consciousness exploring its boundless potential through your specific form. ⬚
Beyond Good and Evil
Awareness, in its limitless capacity, effortlessly captures all forms—the world of tangible form and the subtle realm of thoughts and emotions. Yet no form, no concept, can ever truly capture awareness. Like theories of love, attempts to define or contain awareness within a conceptual framework inevitably fail to convey its full essence. Awareness is the container that cannot be contained.
Awareness knows all dualities, positive and negative, light and darkness, joy and sorrow, yet remains inherently neutral, unconditioned by the content it illuminates. It is the impartial witness, observing the spectrum of human experience without judgment or preference.
Awareness contains the entirety of the moral and ethical landscape. Yet, in its own essence, awareness is inherently empty of any fixed moral or ethical code. Moral and ethical constructs that arise within the field of awareness are interpretations and agreements made within the realm of form. Awareness, that which knows form, transcends form. Formless awareness simply is—the fundamental light of being that illuminates the concepts of both right and wrong.
The inherent emptiness of awareness is fullness itself.* This inherent fullness or wholeness transcends conceptual knowledge, although we could say that its experiential nature is the fullness love—the felt sense of a shared, underlying unity.
When the recognition of our fundamentally shared being is fully integrated in the world of form, the constructs of morality and ethics which are born out of a need to prevent harm and neglect, lose their necessity. When the recognition of our shared being shines, the impulse towards harm and neglect dissolves.
Awareness is the fundamental reality that we already are and have always been.
In fact, awareness is the only experiential reality there is. ⬚
*The analogy here is that of a mirror without reflection, inherently empty, but full of potential to reflect anything that appears.
When Awareness Recognizes Itself
At some point in life there may come an insight into reality. It happens when awareness, captivated by the illusion of being a separate person, unexpectedly experiences a deeper sense of self. When this glimpse occurs, when awareness finds itself, there is a recognition, a subtle revelation.
In that moment, the conditioned boundaries of being a separate self in the world seem to become somehow more porous, more open. The familiar, personal “me” is seen in a different context, more like a movement within a larger expanse of knowing. Mental constructs, though necessary and useful, are seen to veil the grand, unified reality.
. . .
Awareness is the field in which all mental phenomena are known. Being open to the possibility that this field of awareness is unified allows something interesting to happen in our lives: there is a deepening sense of harmony, compassion, and peace.
This recognition leads to a direct experience of the fundamental essence out of which we are made: birthless, deathless awareness, the beholder of all that is.
What is this infinite awareness doing? Having a temporary experience as a finite mind. ⬚
The Christian Trinity: Aspects of “I Am”
How does the “I am” of pure awareness reconcile with the distinct persons of the Christian Godhead? One perspective is to view the Trinity not as three separate consciousnesses akin to individual minds, but as fundamental manifestations within one ground of being.
The primordial affirmation of existence itself, the pure awareness of “I am,” is analogous to the ultimate, unmanifest Godhead in Christian thought. The Father in his ultimate transcendence is the source and ground of all creation. “I am” and the Father are one.
From this unmanifest source arises the Son, the Logos, the Word, the Christ. This can be understood as the manifestation or expression of pure awareness into the realm of form, of subject-object relationship. The biblical declaration, “Through him all things were made,” in this sense, describes awareness, in which all things appear, by which all things are known, and out of which all things are made. The Word is the intelligence and energy of awareness creating the multiplicity and diversity of life, the vast array of localized body-mind perspectives. Furthermore, the Incarnation of Christ, the divine becoming fully embodied in human form, can be seen as the revelation of this manifesting awareness.
The third aspect is the Holy Spirit, the divine essence indwelling and permeating the entirety of creation. The Holy Spirit can be understood as the living breath of life, immanent presence itself.
In this view the Trinity are not compartmentalized entities but a fluid and seamless expression within awareness. The Father, the “I am,” is the underlying reality, the infinite potential, the ground of Being. The Son and Holy Spirit are the ways awareness expresses and relates to itself—in its transcendent source, its creative manifestation, and its immanent presence.
This perspective allows for a deeper appreciation of both the fundamental unity emphasized in the nondual understanding and the rich relationality inherent in the Christian understanding of the divine. ⬚