Assorted Vidyas #23

1.

Meditation is consciousness being conscious of itself.

2.

Consciousness and the human body are two different things. Consciousness has no identity but things in duality do. Consciousness has no anthropomorphic qualities such as physical form, thoughts, gender, color, etc., like the human body has. When we experience the difference between consciousness and what it's conscious of (i.e., the body), we can attain the deepest, most profound implications of detachment and The Presence. Consciousness is where The Grand Eternal Truth lies.

3.

Consciousness never changes. It's immutable. It's timeless. It's permanent. It's neither born nor dies. Everything else in the universe changes. Everything else comes and goes. Everything else has a limited existence. It is consciousness that moves through the limitations of duality. It moves through all the "stuff" (including thoughts) of physicality which is constantly in motion. Consciousness is still. 

4.

We are all part of the One, Universal Divine Consciousness. We humans are localized consciousness. to be a human is to be consciousness encased in physicality. We perceive separation only through the error of aligning with what Consciousness is conscious of, rather than Consciousness Itself. It's all so simple but it takes perseverance in both desire and effort to attain the correct alignment. Thus, the importance of practicing meditation.

5.

The stillness of consciousness is not only just present but it also experiences. It's like a neutral awareness that is present without itself changing. The presence that is consciousness does not excuse us from experiencing. But consciousness is aware that all experiences are just that: experiences. Experiences are things consciousness moves through.

6.

It's as if consciousness says, "I'm in this place called my writing desk having this experience of typing words right now." Then, later, "Now I'm over here in this place called the kitchen having the experience of making tea." To consciousness, they are the same thing only different. Dramas, emotions, thoughts, attachments, excitement, fears, thrills, etc. are totally manufactured in our brains. Consciousness is just the observer/experiencer of it all and is independent of it all.

7.

Is duality happening to consciousness or is consciousness happening to duality?  Is this a conundrum or a paradox or what? Is this an unanswerable question? Does it really matter? 

Asking questions is part of being human. We always assume that there will be an answer even it takes a long time to find one. On the other hand, answer-less questions are a part of mysticism. We will never get an answer no matter how long the wait. Answer-less questions expose the difference between duality and non-duality and ultimately between creator and created. Without an answer, the question becomes open-ended because there's no response, no closure, just an unchanging state of unrealized potential for an answer. One would expect that somewhere in the entire Universe there's potential for an answer yet nothing comes forth. Thus, one realizes that the answer-less question is, in fact, the answer itself because on cannot go any further. That's it. An answer-less question brings silence, even stillness. And in that stillness lies The Eternal Mystery. If you go outside on a clear, starry night and ask The Universe, "why?" or "how?" or "what?", The Universe responds with silence, the only answer there can ever be. That silence is The Truth of The Divine Presence.

Since there is no answer, one must remain silent in the mystery. How Zen. And that's a good thing. One realizes that what we have been searching for all along was right in front of us. The human ego/brain cannot function in such a context. So don't try to figure things out because you won't. By focusing on that which shuts down the ego/brain, we realize what's really going on. Silence is more than just silence. We can then expand from localized consciousness to realize the pervading Divine Consciousness. Same thing. Not different.