What we point to in all these discussions and apparent exchanges is the self evident fact of your own being.  This simple, obvious and yet profound fact of your very own being; this presence of awareness that you cannot under any circumstance negate, and at the very same time you cannot grasp with any thought, word, or concept, or as any apparent object.

If it is closely looked into, THIS presence of awareness or awareness of presence is not your personal presence.  It is not your presence or my presence, rather it is self-existing, self-knowing, without the need of any god there to create it.  Have you ever looked into yourself in this way?  Did you as the apparent entity, Mr or Mrs So and So, have any hand in creating the body-mind vehicle that you seem to inhabit, or did it arise spontaneously without your wanting it to?

How did all this happen without your permission or without your wanting it to happen or appear?  Have you ever looked along these lines or considered this apparent mystery?  This sense of presence, I am, that is what was born, and it wasn’t until the age of 2 or 3 years that you became aware of your existence as someone or something  seemingly separate or apart from THIS ever present awareness-consciousness.  The concept “I am”, and no one can grasp “I” as it is only a thought or concept; and so aided by the parents and society in general, one adds to that concept ‘I am’ all the events and experiences that occur from that early age onwards, and so takes on the false face or identity, I am So and So.

Because of this false identity with the body-mind vehicle which has arisen spontaneously, there comes with that the fear that I am going to die and disappear.  Now this consciousness, “I am” that has arisen spontaneously and will depart in the same way, how has it come about, and what exactly is the cause of it?  Because of what has all this come about?  This is the riddle or koan that has to be solved.  How did you come to be – I am So and So, and because of what are you?  Unless this riddle is solved and utterly resolved, you will never know peace – the peace that passes all understanding – self-realization, the genuine, authentic, knowing of who and what you truly and ever are.

No one else can do this for you, because there is on other apart from this impersonal presence of all-knowing awareness which, up until this point; you as the imaginary entity So and So have been ignoring or taking for granted, so to speak.  You could not even lift a finger or move a muscle if that animating life essence or impersonal presence of awareness was not there, yet you don’t seem to be aware of it, or to acknowledge it in any way.  Isn’t this ignorance or spiritual blindness?

You are firmly in the grip of this “I” conceit or arrogance of doer ship and yet, you have never done a single thing or action of your own accord; you are not the doer of your actions, so where exactly does the question of karma come in?  Karma for who exactly?  Have you ever considered any of this?  Isn’t it high time that you did, or is this constant psychological suffering something that you relish and enjoy?  Ask yourself these questions and see for yourself, no guru or priest is going to do this inner work for you, as in your ignorance you may have somehow hoped.

Stop ignoring this naked awareness that is ever present, Omnipresent. Stop pretending to be what you are not – a limited separate human being looking out of “two” little peep holes in a stale meat-ball like head, and instead be this boundless space-like awareness that you are truly seeing out of – this space or no face that everything is appearing in.  Isn’t the seeing taking place from “space” there where you are instead of out of two eyes?  Isn’t the very first thing that you are seeing actually space?  Can you find any center or circumference to that space of knowing where the actual seeing is taking place from?

Drop all your preconceived ideas and acquired knowledge and simply LOOK. On present evidence, without resorting to memory, words, or concepts, how many eyes are you looking out of?  I suggest that you are looking out of a single edgeless eye – the Christ eye or the Buddha eye.  Looking out of this single edgeless eye then your whole body if full of light – the self-evident light of awareness or naked knowing.  THIS is the light that lights up every man and woman who seemingly comes into the apparent world.  Know for certain, don’t think – I am the light of the world and let your light so shine before men that they will rejoice and glorify this heavenly light of naked all-knowing awareness.  Wouldn’t you then rejoice and say quite confidently – I am THAT I am, that is prior to and utterly suffuses consciousness and the manifest world?

- End.

“The Absolute Cannot Be Remembered Because It Cannot Be Forgotten.”

Without remembering that, and without putting in any efforts, the experience of the world happens.

Now, for those who have identification with the body, this knowledge has no meaning  -  it cannot act.  Despite this fact, the visits these people make will not be totally in vain; they will bear fruit at some future time.  The effects of these visits will be like the aftermath of the rains: grass and plants will be seen coming out automatically, sprouting.”

These above words of Nisargadatta Maharaj are extremely profound and poignant, for I am one of those so called people he is referring to who visited him in the final years of his earthly existence.  What he said and the seeds of consciousness that he planted at the time have come to fruition and born fruit here, so to speak.  What he said, his powerful words penetrated into me, lay dormant and finally germinated and bore fruit many years later, and seemingly after the fact,

They worked in spite of me, not because of me.  The “me” that I am referring to is the identification with the body-mind that I had taken myself to be at that time.  This identification has now resolved itself and disappeared and left me with what I truly and ever am – THIS impersonal awake or aware nothing, the no thing that I always and ever am.  I never existed as that entity or body-mind appearance that I took myself to be – I only appeared to, and even the appearance(reflection) would not have been possible without this empty, colorless, formless space of all knowing awareness or infinite intelligence.

Just as the reflections are not apart from or independent of the spotless mirror and are in the final analysis nothing but the mirror, even so whatever seems to appear or disappear in the so called manifestation is nothing but THIS impersonal non dual essence or Absolute.  Without this impersonal empty space of knowing awareness, prior to, during, and after the appearance of consciousness, which is time-bound mind; nothing could be seen to appear or disappear ( apparent birth and death ) for that matter.
This is what needs to be seen or re-cognized and that is that Reality or simply “what is”, pure being, Non duality, does not change.  How could it if it is Reality or what we call THAT, in Advaita – even in the Biblical injunction “I am THAT I am.  You can call THAT Tao, Christ, Krishna, or Allah, any of these terms will serve equally as well.  Aren’t you THAT, right here and now, presently?  Can you say I am not existing?  If so, who would be saying that?  Isn’t it THAT or the Reality of Non Duality itself that enables the expression through the time-bound mind of the thought or concept I am?

Is there any duality in non duality?  You may say, there certainly appears to be, however the ‘fact’ is that there is no duality in THIS non dual Absolute that you truly and ever are; therefore there is no relationship in THIS that you truly and ever are.  Relationship is dualism, me and the so called other, and there is no other now or ever.  You , as that non dual essence alone exist, there ‘are’ no others.  Nothing ever happened, reality never changed and you are THAT whether you know it or not.  The most important thing is  the very ‘fact’ of your own being; start from the fact that you already are THAT, the very First Person Singular – I am, infinitely and eternally.

So, all this time, and I should not be even using that word(time), you have simply been duped by illusion, because in spite of all the apparent movements and changes, reality or “what is” has remained unchanged.  Now is the time to stop ignoring THIS and simply be what you truly are.  There is no becoming in this timeless being or Omnipresence.  Acknowledge it, re-cognize it and be – I am THAT by which I ‘know’ I am.