I AM THAT: CHAPTER 11: CONSCIOUSNESS AND AWARENESS

[Guest guest]

11 AWARENESS AND CONSCIOUSNESS Pg25

 

Q: What do you do when asleep?

M: I am aware of being asleep.

 

Q: Is not sleep a state of unconsciousness.

M: Yes, I am aware of being unconscious.

 

Q: And when awake, or dreaming?

M: I am aware of being awake, or dreaming.

 

Q: I do not catch you. What exactly do you mean? Let me make my terms

clear: by being asleep, I mean unconscious, by being awake I mean

conscious, by dreaming I mean conscious of one's mind, but not of the

surroundings.

M: Well, it is about the same with me. Yet, there seems to be a

difference. In each state you forge the other two, while to me there

is but one state of being, including and transcending the three

mental states of waking, dreaming, and sleeping.

 

Q: Do you see in the world a direction and a purpose?

M: The world is but a reflection of my imagination. Whatever I want

to see. But why should I invent patterns of creation, evolution and

destruction? I do not need them. The world is in me, the world is

myself. I am not afraid of it and have no desire to lock it up in a

mental picture.

 

Q: Coming back to sleep. Do you dream?

M: Of course.

 

Q: What are your dreams?

M: Echoes of the waking state.

 

Q: And your deep sleep?

M: The brain consciousness is suspended.

 

Q: Are you then unconscious?

M: Unconscious of my surroundings – yes.

 

Q: Not quite unconscious?

M: I remain aware that I am unconscious.

 

Q: You use the words `aware' and `conscious'. Are they not the same?

M: Awareness is primordial; it is the original state, beginningless,

endless, uncaused, unsupported, without parts, without change.

Consciousness is on contact, a reflection against a surface, a state

of duality. There can be no consciousness without awareness, but

there can be no consciousness without consciousness, as in deep

sleep. Awareness is absolute, consciousness is relative to its

content; consciousness is always of something. Consciousness is

partial and changeful, awareness is total, changeless, calm and

silent. And it is the common matrix of every experience.

 

Q: How does one go beyond consciousness into awareness?

M: Since it is awareness that makes consciousness possible, there is

awareness in every state of consciousness. Therefore, the very

consciousness of being conscious is already a movement in awareness.

It is not new state. It is at once recognized as the original, basic

existence, which is life itself, and also love and joy.

 

Q: Since reality is all the time with us, what does self-realization

consist of?

M: Realization is but the opposite of ignorance. To take the world as

real and one's self as unreal is ignorance, the cause of sorrow. To

know the self as the only reality and all else as temporal and

transient is freedom, peace and joy. It is all very simple. Instead

of seeing things as imagined, learn to see them as they are. When you

can see everything as it is, you will also see yourself as you are.

It is like cleansing a mirror. The same mirror that shows you the

world as it is, will also show you your own face. The thought `I am'

is the polishing cloth. Use it.