Who Am I: The Many Faces of the One

"Only God and God alone."

What is this?

Who am I?

  The Many Face of the One: article 4 - the unpublished esoteric writings and works of an ageing yogi.

THE ONE AS THE MANY

"From the spiritual platform and Truth of pure transcendental knowing and knowledge, Pure Being, nothing need change and yet everything can change; nothing need happen and yet everything can and will happen. All reality, experience and identity is seen and known as one - untouched, unaffected, enduring, perfect, immaculate and absolute. 'I-am' alone is as all things, despite the appearance, change and disappearance of all things, events, creations, dramas, contradictions and phenomena. The Deathless Self alone is. For the genuine atman-yogi and truth-seeker this is the highest Self-realization, knowing and knowledge of Pure Being. All reality, experience and identity are one as the ever-present 'I-am'." 

       This is the unsurpassable esoteric and simple message of Atman-Yoga. The Deathless Self alone is.

                    "Only God and God alone."

    let us together continue from the esoteric unpublished collected writings and works of article 3

Obviously in our everyday lives we do not assume ourselves to be a chair or a table or a tree because these are worldly phenomena, creations, expressions and things that we experience as separate and individual from the individualized embodied feeling and mental impression and construct that we have of ourselves existing as 'I' and 'me' or 'mine'. The same can be said to be true with the individualized embodied experience of the ever-changing phenomenal and conceptual world; be it the sky, the ocean, the sun, the clouds, and all animate and inanimate objects and worldly phenomena, creations and forms. We ordinarily and mostly see and relate to ourselves as a separate 'I' and embodied independent individual.

The worldly feeling and mental impression of self, 'me' or 'I' for most of us feels very much confined, limited, individualized and identified to the mind/body experience, and everything else is very much seen or known as being separate and distinctive from that individual individualized embodied experience and the idea and feeling of a 'me' 'mine' or 'I'. And yet in some way we can also easily recognize how individualized experience is in some larger context connected and linked to everything else by the very act of self-awareness and the self-knowing of experience. Despite experience appearing as separate from us, the phenomenal world still seems to mostly affect or not affect how we think, feel and act. 

            - Figuring Out Who We Are

What we experience as a subject of experience and experiencing, as being 'me', 'mine' or 'I', is in some way dependent on an object that is being observed, known and experienced in relationship to it; and this also includes the knowing and knowledge of knowing. This knowing and knowledge of knowing being the very act of self-awareness and individualized knowing. There is the self-recognized act of knowing and the sense of an 'I' and 'me' in relationship to this self-knowing of knowing. What we can say is that knowing itself is known, and this awareness and knowing of knowing we would assume to be the 'I' and 'me' who is self-aware and knowing experience and the one who is actually self-knowing and aware. We assume it to be the one or 'I' who is knowing and having experience, and in this knowing and knowledge of knowing experience, the 'I' is known. 'I-am' is or we could say, Reality is. Certainly something or 'I' is experiencing, having and knowing experience, forms, constructs, expressions and reality.

     'I-am. Life is.' Surely we can all agree this is recognized, experienced and known, even now, otherwise what is this that is happening right now, in this moment and all moments of knowing?

What is this?

Who am I?

THE WORLD AS THE DREAM

In the normal individualized embodied waking state of' 'becoming' and 'being' there is the phenomenal world and all its ever-changing appearances, forms, events, situations, dramas, expressions and activities, and all the time the phenomenal world and its ever-changing appearances, forms, events, situations, dramas and activities are known to us, a 'me' or 'I' appears to experience and recognize an individualized subject of experience too. This we would see and view as being the individualized and embodied subject of experience and experiencing; the one who is knowing and is aware of self-knowing and has the self-recognition and knowledge of this phenomenal world and all its ever-changing activities, forms, dramas, situations, creations, expressions and appearances. The ever-changing phenomenal world and all its appearances, forms, dramas, events, expressions and activities being the object and objects of our day-to-day self-aware and individualized embodied 'I-am' experience. 

All the time the ever-changing sensory realms of experience and experiencing are present and have the experience of sensory objects, the 'I' appears to have the worldly feeling and embodied sense of there being an individualized embodied subject that I call 'me' or 'I' that is experiencing them. There is a feeling and idea of separation and individuality between the one who has experience and is experiencing and the things that are experienced, recognized and known.

So too in lucid dreaming, there too is present the unworldly individualized feeling, recognition and self-knowing of a conscious and self-aware subject who is now being fully self-aware and self-conscious of the acting and playing out of the dream state and all its dreamed appearances, forms, creations and activities whilst the body is physically in what we would recognize and know to be a normal everyday sleep state. Here the seemingly phenomenal world and all its appearances, forms, creations, expressions and activities are the dreaming reality that is being experienced rather than the normal individualized embodied waking reality. In both these states of consciousness, lucid dreaming or waking, an individualized feeling and sense of there being a subject of experience, the feeling, knowing and knowledge of 'I,' appears to be present to us. I-am. Experience is. Something or someone is self-aware and knowing this experience and knowing all the appearances and ever-changing conditions, forms, phenomena, events, expressions contradictions and activities that contribute to their existence. 

        The act of 'intelligence' is present, and the self-knowing of this act is identified and known.

                - Different States of Being

Obviously in a deep sleep state no subject of experience appears to be experienced and no phenomenal world appears to available to us, although in the normal waking state and lucid sleep state, the deep sleep is known to us to have ended. In the deep sleep state both the phenomenal world and the subject that experienced it become void to us; and yet we know the potential of 'I' is still temporarily dormant and apparently unaware of the conceptual and everyday world. The 'I-am' still is. In the deep sleep state the 'I' still retains the potential to have experience once the dream state or waking state returns. 

Most of us are confident that the individualized embodied feeling and knowing of 'I' or 'me' will still be there when we potentially return to the normal everyday waking state and conceptual world. We do not assume that in deep sleep we cease to exist. I'm confident that most of us would expect to wake up from deep sleep and to be the same 'I' that had gone to sleep, and most of us would assume to be the same 'I' that will wake up from sleep. The same would be true of the phenomenal world and all its ever-changing appearances, forms, creations, contradictions, expressions and activities. Most of us would happily and confidently assume it to be there when we wake from the dream or sleep state. We would not assume to wake up from sleep and there be no phenomenal world and no embodied subject that experiences it, unless the so-called individualized 'I' had for some unexpected or expected reason ceased to exist. What we would call death. The end of the individualized embodied self, construct and form.

And yet, who is this individualized embodied 'I' that has experience and experiencing? What is this 'I' that is present in the waking state, dream state and also is dormant and present in deep sleep state? Who is this 'I' when both the phenomenal world and all its appearances, forms, creations and activities are present or not present? And who is this 'I' when there is no individualized self-knowing or knowledge or feeling or self-awareness of 'I' or 'me' or 'mine'?

         - I put it to you; from where does this individualized 'I' arise? What is its true origin and source?

         

         - Who or what are we before the everyday conceptual world appears or disappears to us?

We can also ask; "who is the real subject of self-knowing and all that is known? Who is it that is self-aware of there being a subject of self-knowing and all that is known? Who or what is this knowing and what is it when the self-knowing of knowing is not known? Who or what is this embodied 'I' that exists and ceases to exist?" Again rather than just chasing, desiring and having experience, in esoteric self-inquiry into the nature and Truth of reality, experience and identity we look at experience directly, and inwardly examine in the stillness and silence of 'I-am' its nature, essence, source and true origin. Again asking, who am I before this world ever appeared to me? Who am I before I ever appeared to this world? And who am I when this world disappears to me and I disappear from this world?

What is this?

Who am I?

      'I-am. Life is'. And yet who or what is it that has this self-knowing and knowledge of 'I-am'?

ALL THINGS WILL COME TO PASS

         "in a minute of conceptual so-called time this body can end and cease to exist. In a matter of hours following its death this body can be taken away never to be seen again. In a matter of days it can be burnt and turned into ash, or simply buried, and in a space of a so-called week those same ashes can be scattered in a place that few souls would ever visit or know as existing. So, who are we when all this is done? What is left of 'me' or 'I' when all this has come to pass, end and ceased to exist? What is the true origin, nature, source and essence of 'I-am'? Who was I before this world even appeared o me? Who am I when this world disappears to me? And who was I before I unexpectedly or expectantly appeared to this so-called conceptual world of things, dramas, forms, phenomena, contradictions and creations?

                 Who am I? What is this? What is real?

I confidently think the majority of us would easily agree to mostly experience an individualized embodied continuum of subjective and objective experience in relationship to our everyday lives. 

We mostly don't wake up each day and find ourselves in a completely different body or with a completely different worldly identity. There appears to be for the most part an on-going individual and individualized embodied feeling, self-knowing and knowledge of an underlining or inner essence of 'me' or 'I' in some context that gives a sense of 'I-am' or 'I am awake to having and knowing experience'. It is very clear to us that in the everyday normal waking state, that the dream state and the deep sleep state are no longer experienced as part of our experience and in the dreaming state it is the deep sleep state and the waking state that are now not experienced. And it is also known to us that in the deep sleep state neither the dream state or the waking state are experienced. All phenomena in the dream state and the waking state have completely disappeared from our experience. And yet in all three states most of us would happily assume that the idea of 'I' and 'me' continues to exist in some context or form, unless it had ceased to exist. Again, what we would call death.

As a matter of self-inquiry into the idea and truth of 'who am I', the Truth of reality, experience and identity, we could potentially ask of ourselves, "who or what is ever-present in all these three states?" "And what, if anything, is beyond these three states?" Who or what has the self-recollection, recognition and knowing of all these different states? 

What is my true abiding and enduring essence and nature? What is the true nature, source and origin of 'I-am'? This is why I repeatedly inquire and state:

What is this?

Who am I?

This simple and instant meditation and contemplation into the true nature, source and essence of reality, experience and identity eventually brings us directly to the experiential Self-realization of transcendental knowing and knowledge - the 'I-am' of I am. Our true enduring identity with the Absolute. Is-ness.

                "Only God and God alone."

LOOKING WITHIN TO THE SELF OF SELF

In the worldly individualized embodied waking state, the phenomenal world and the subject of experience, the feeling and self-knowing of 'I' or 'me', appears and is present, and that now becomes the everyday reality and experience of 'self', 'I' and 'me' that is active in our experience in relationship to the phenomenal and conceptual waking world. In the same way in sleep when we are lucid dreaming that dreaming reality becomes active to our experience. So when so-called conditioned or phenomenal experience is known, it would appear that we experience an individual individualized subject that is having it; the subject of experience and the subject of the self-knowing of experience; even though in deep sleep there appears to be no subject, knowing or experience known. It would appear to us that out of no-thing we experience something and when there is no-thing there still seems to be the potential for something to come into existence as 'I' or 'me'. Therefore, the 'I-am' still is. 

We could further directly and intimately inquire and contemplate on this matter what is this 'something' when there is no-thing - the void of emptiness? What has happened to the 'I' or 'me' when no-thing is actually known or experienced? What is the nature or essence of 'no-thingness' from which 'I' arises and has its existence? From where does the individualized mind take form? I only continue to say this to potentially encourage other committed and genuine yogis or truth-seekers to further consider and examine the possibility that 'Only God is Real' as the ever present 'I-am' and that everything else is illusion. For me, all has its impersonal being and identity with the Absolute, and the Absolute, God-Reality, is the one reality, source, origin and essence of all that is. The fully realized and accomplished atman-yogi identifies with this and only this. 

I am the 'I-am' of I am. "Only God and God alone."

What is repeatedly presented and communicated to you here in these unpublished esoteric writings and works on Atman-Yoga is the ancient and perennial spiritual question and quest of spiritual self-inquiry and Self-realization into the one true nature and essence of reality, experience and identity, 'Who am I?' 'What is this?'

                - What is real?

I admit and acknowledge, what is here to view and read is nothing particularly new or revolutionary. My only indirect intention and motivation is to openly and freely communicate, share and put to you that 'Only God is Real' as 'I-am' and therefore there really is no-thing to really fear or avoid in life or death. The things and dramas of this ever-changing and fragile conceptual and conditioned world do not touch, threaten, hinder, limit, lessen, harm or affect that which we truly are, although it might appear as such. 

            "Only God and God alone."

'I-am' is one with all things and creation and all things and creation are one with 'I-am'. This Truth, through esoteric self-inquiry and contemplation into the true nature, source and essence of reality, experience and identity, you must evidently and purposely examine, investigate, question and discover for yourself in the effortless contemplative and meditative inward silence and stillness of 'I-am'. For the genuine and committed atman-yogi and truth-seeker this is the highest and direct esoteric Self-knowing and knowledge of God - pure 'Spirit'. 'I-am'. The Deathless Self alone is. This is the unsurpassable and ever-present Truth of reality, experience and identity. True self-reliance and immortality can only come to us from fully and intimately recognizing and knowing our true enduring and ever-present identity with the Absolute. What I refer to as 'I-am'. This is the eternal identity and essence of the Deathless Yogi.

            - All is transcendental. Transcendence is Is-ness.

I can assure you all that I am not personally trying to convince you or anyone of anything. I am simply putting to you the Truth of reality, experience and identity as I have come to experience and intimately know it. I simply want to openly and freely share my own realized, established and tested Truth of reality, experience and identity so it might too help other embodied souls and minds as it has continually and successfully helped me navigate the ups and downs of conventional living - the so-called embodied 'me'. Nothing special but highly valuable, worthy and reassuring. 

                        For me, it is simply the Self knowing the Self. Reality knowing itself.

       'I-am. Life is'. Not 'I am' this or 'I am' that. Simply 'I-am. Life is.' Only God is Real as 'I-am'.

Atman-Yoga Daily Mantra: "I am. Life is. 'I-am' is one with all life and all life is one with 'I-am'. Oneness in body. Oneness in mind. Oneness in all things."

Atman-Yoga Daily Meditation: 'Only God is Real' as the eternal 'I-am'.

Song of the Deathless Yogi:

                                        I am 'emptiness'. All is 'emptiness'. 'Emptiness' is all. 

                                    Form is 'emptiness'. Only 'emptiness'. 'Emptiness' is form'.

 

This esoteric blog is dedicated to my earthly mother 'Rita' who transitioned on the 12th December 2021. A truly selfless, kind, beautiful and loving embodied soul, friend and mother. 

Post article 2023 note: For me, it is really interesting how reading back on these compiled unpublished esoteric writings and works how much is simply and mostly voicing the same conclusion only from a variety of arranged angles. Having worked previously in music writing and production, in some ways I see this as my Atman-Gita. My song of the true Self. The only song that I really have left to sing of all my spiritual exploits and ventures in examining and knowing what it is to be a God-knowing person. A spiritual and philosophical path I have been truly blessed and fortunate to take and explore. 

It has helped the embodied self-aware 'me' make peace with all that life is and to fully recognize and know its true enduring identity with the Absolute. The Self and the universe are one and the same. Reality and the universe are one and the same. All One. We are the ocean and the waves. This is the God-Reality that I speak of and point to. I salute you all. "Only God and God alone."

Here ends this spiritual communication.

Hidden in Plain Sight: The Many Faces of the One

"Only God and God alone."

What is this?

Who am I?

   The Many Faces of the One: article 3  - the unpublished esoteric writings and works of an ageing yogi.

 FEARLESS REALITY

"What is unreal is mistaken to be real, and this keeps what is truly Real hidden from us. It is through the spiritual actualization and transcendental knowledge and knowing of that which is Real that we are free, whole, fulfilled, fearless and at peace with all that is unreal, selfless, empty, impersonal, fleeting and transitory. It is in this transcendental Truth, knowing and knowledge of pure 'Spirit', the Deathless Self, that we can love, release, accept and be at peace with all that life is and all that it will ever be; whether it be favorable or unfavorable, desirable or undesirable, easy or challenging, mundane or extraordinary. 

For all of conditioned and conceptual life is transitory, impersonal and empty of any real permanence. Only the 'I-am' is real. Of this I am certain. Of this I am very clear. 'I-am' alone is. Only God is Real as the eternal 'I-am'. In this esoteric knowing of knowing without knowing there is nothing left to fear in life or death. One who is fully awake has realized one's true identity with and as the Absolute."

I am the 'I-am' of I am.

       'I-am. Life is.' 'I-am' is one with all life and all life is one with 'I-am'. Only 'I-am' is.

 

                  let us continue from the collected unpublished esoteric writings and works of article 2:

What is put to us all here in these esoteric unpublished contemplative and meditative writings and works on Atman-Yoga is that we generally, as a temporary physical embodied form and creation of reality, mistake the unreal for being the real. We mistake the insubstantial for being the substantial, the impersonal for being personal and the transitory for being permanent. We assume and believe that lasting permanence and reliance can be found in that which is actually impermanent. And this includes how we think and feel. 

            "Only God and God alone."

We somehow forget, or should I say that the individualized 'mind' forgets, that what we experience is only a temporary mental projection and physical fleeting construct of pure 'Spirit'; a selfless, temporary, impersonal and empty expression of our true undying essence and nature and therefore only relative to our experience and our interpretation of it. It is simply the ever-changing playing out of the unmade, unborn and impersonal Deathless Self, pure 'Spirit' and nothing more. What we experience and know as being sensory phenomena, be it desirable or undesirable, is all one deathless and eternal Reality and identity, pure Spirit, experienced, known and played out in a myriad of transitory, empty, impersonal and ever-changing forms, worldly events, dramas, situations, creations, expressions and conditions. Nothing more than this. The reality, identity and essence of all phenomena, forms and creations is the Absolute. 

        "Only God and God alone."    

For me, this is the highest mystical realization, self-knowing and knowledge of reality, experience and identity. It is the eternal and ever-present light of Self. It is Is-ness. All is transcendental.

            - The Liberated Mind

Our true selfless, undying and formless identity, pure 'Spirit' or should I say 'essence' is changeless, eternal, at peace, loved, complete, fulfilled, plentiful and free of all the conceptual and phenomenal world of things, forms, dramas, creations, contradictions and phenomena, and yet it too is one with all things. 

It is an infinite, undying and abiding transcendental 'intelligence' beyond the definition and use of the conceptual word 'intelligence'. It is beyond the idea, use, language and label of the word 'intelligence' as we use and know it in a conceptual, mental and cognitive way. From this ultimate, selfless, causeless and undying 'intelligence' comes the ever-changing mind/body experience and the mind-consciousness of knowing and having experience; the conscious awareness and knowing of knowing. From this selfless, undying and formless 'intelligence' comes the whole diversity, multiplicity and complexity of phenomenal experience and the having and knowing of that experience including the phenomenal, conditioned, ever-changing and conceptual world of things, events, forms, constructs, phenomena, contradictions and dramas. And yet this formless and transcendental 'intelligence' remains forever as it is, limitless, unchanging, unmoved, untouched, eternal, at peace, unborn, whole, complete, plentiful and free of all things, dramas, forms, creations, expressions and events. 

I would go as far to say that this universal 'intelligence' is primarily what we and all things are; it is our true original essence, state, origin, identity and nature, this ever-present 'I-am' being unborn, deathless and causeless. And yet we mostly remain, or should I say the individualized 'mind' remains, in material ignorance and bondage due to the worldly false individualized identity of our mind-made persona and the attachment to the mind/body experience in relationship to the objective phenomena and experience we call 'world', and so too with the things, dramas, forms, situations and events of the this ever-changing sensory phenomenal world. For me, the highest knowing of reality and experience is fully realizing our true identity with the Absolute. What I state here as 'I-am' - the indestructible and inexhaustible enduring light of the Self.

The 'I-am' of I am.

KNOWING OUR TRUE HOME

Obviously I fully appreciate and acknowledge that for some of us given our personal and present individualized worldly identity, circumstances, challenges, ideas and conditions this can be a challenging spiritual endeavor and conclusion for us to realize, know and accept; as our worldly mind-made identity and persona is mostly constructed out of the limited identification and on-going relationship with the mind/body experience and the ever-changing phenomenal world of things, dramas, constructs, creations and forms. We in our everyday humanity ordinarily and daily think ourselves into existence as a separate individualized embodied individual and persona in relationship to everything else that appears to us, and we easily stand by who we perceive, reinforce, believe and confirm ourselves to be, as a limited and isolated embodied individual, persona and self in relationship to everything else. 

From this worldly individualized mind-made identity and persona, we hold strongly to our feeling and sense of individuality, neediness, self-importance and separateness, and our own self-image, which is strongly identified and associated with the mind/body experience and the conceptual and phenomenal world of things, events, constructs, conditions, creations, expressions and dramas. We primarily and mostly all have our individualized story, history, desires, ideas, beliefs and identity.

            - Exposing the illusion

As already stated, this is where the process and act of 'personalization' happens and is attached to. This too is true for our own experience of the phenomenal world and the myriad of things, dramas, constructs, expressions and events that it includes. 

Individuality and separateness is our present held to reality and identity. From the moment we wake from sleep state with the feeling and thought of 'I' or 'me' and to the moment we return to sleep state, we have some present held to conceptual and cognitive idea, belief, view or notion of 'self' or 'I' in relationship to the mind/body experience and the ever-changing phenomenal world of things, creations, dramas and forms. We have our personal and individualized story, history, desires, needs, regrets, ideas and identity. From the moment we are in the waking state with the feeling and thought of 'I' and have the mental impression and physical feeling of being self-conscious, self-aware and awake we mostly have a strong and reinforced feeling and sense of individualized individuality, I-am-the-body and separateness in relationship to the world of phenomena, forms, constructs, creations, expressions and things. 

There is 'me' and there is everything else. I am 'me' and 'you' are 'you'. This is 'yours' and this is 'mine'. I am here and everything else is there. We mostly have an internal mental dialogue and story of who we think we are, what our life is and what the world is. I think most of us at this stage of experience and consciousness would easily agree on this statement and view.

        - Peeling the Onion

What I have spoken of mostly comes from what we appear to experience as sense objects and the sensory world of sense objects - seeing, hearing touch, smell, taste, thinking, perception and awareness - mind-consciousness. With the added addition of conscious knowing - the impersonal and objectless knowing of being aware. For the most part of our individualized embodied mind/body experience, the phenomenal world is experienced as something personal and separate to us, and happening to other phenomena, people and forms outside, separate and external to ourselves. It is all seen or felt as something that is happening to us and others, and that we are in some small or large way participating in it. We are, to various degrees, acting and contributing to it; impacting and affecting it, or affected or unaffected by it. Separateness and individuality is our own held to reality, experience and identity. We mostly have our own individualized story, history, desires, regrets, ideas, beliefs and identity that we are acting and playing out from day to day and moment to moment. This is 'me' and that is everything else. 

     This is my story, my history, my past, present and future. These are my desires, wants and needs.

Again I think at this level of mind-consciousness and knowing most of us would easily agree with this. So even though this feeling and thought of our individual identification and separateness in relationship to sensory objects and the sensory world of things, creations, phenomena, expressions and forms has come into being out of there being no idea, belief or notion of self, we somehow immediately become easily identified with it as being who and what we are in relationship to everything else as being separate, substantial and real. I experience a body, therefore I am the body or at least the 'I' that is aware of having a so-called form called 'body'. I experience a mind therefore I am the mind or I am what the mind thinks and knows to be me or I am that, that has the awareness and knowing of mind and body. We experience a sense of 'I' in relationship to the mind/body experience and now this 'I' is me. All that 'I' experience becomes personal to me, and therefore I become emotionally invested in it. It is all happening to 'me' and 'I' am the one who is having and knowing experience. There is this objective and ever-changing phenomenal world of things, creations, expressions and forms and I am the 'I' that is experiencing it. 

This is 'me' or 'I' who is having and knowing experience whether I am affected or unaffected by it. There is an ever-changing mental drama and story of the individualized embodied self that is being acted and played out as 'me' in the mind, with the body and in relationship to all expressions.

What is this?

Who am I?

                                                               KNOWING THE REAL

           'I-am. Life is'. If we deny this fact then who or what is it that denies it?

Nothing particular new or special here of course in this basic understanding and knowing of experience and the ever-changing worldly conditions, needs, constructs and demands of our ever-changing limited and vulnerable embodied humanity. It essentially feels this way for most of us who have a feeling and sense of self-awareness and self-image in relationship to worldly experience and the ever-changing phenomenal world of things, forms, constructs, expressions, contradictions and dramas; despite it all being transitory, empty, uncertain, unreliable, impersonal and selfless. Our individualized self-image and persona can largely be dictated and played out by our physical appearance, experiences, thoughts, moods, beliefs and feelings; how we think, feel, perceive, interpret ,believe and act.

Basically, what we tell ourselves and what we emotionally invest in and buy into becomes our held to reality, drama or story, which we reinforce and support with beliefs, ideas, views, notions and opinions. The same is true with the phenomenal world. The phenomenal world is seen and felt as something that is distinct and existing separate and apart from ourselves and others. And from this on-going and ever-changing relationship with phenomena and creations we create our identity and our story about experience and the world of experience. We mentally create, manufacture and build with beliefs, ideas, views and opinions, how we see ourselves and the world we temporarily inhabit. All the time experience is a kind of fiction played out in the workings of the individualized mind and in the self-awareness and self-image of knowing. Even the mind when directly investigated and examined is not an absolute thing in and of itself. It is simply seen and realized to be an ever-changing bundle of thoughts, mental impressions, opinions, impulses, memories and ideas, which too are transitory, empty, unreal, impersonal, fleeting and insubstantial. And yet most of us are completely unaware of this. We are asleep so to speak.

            - Paying Attention

Most of our day-to-day experience happens in an unconscious and non-investigated or non-examined way. We mostly spend our time craving, avoiding and chasing after experience, urges and things rather than actually stopping, investigating, questioning and examining what experience, identity and reality actually are. We rarely recognize and know in the act of thinking that a thought is simply that, a thought. We completely assume it all to be real, reliable and permanent despite most of it being relative only to our interpretations, beliefs and ideas of experience. We rarely consider what it is that we are expecting to gain and keep by chasing, avoiding and acquiring experiences and things that are impermanent, unreliable, uncertain, impersonal and transitory. We are mostly ignorant and blind to the fact that 'Only God is Real' as the eternal 'I-am', and everything else is illusion, or should I say completely lacking permanence. Most of us are completely unaware of our true abiding identity with the Absolute and therefore we have no knowledge of our true boundless nature, origin and essence which is untouched, unthreatened, unlimited and unchanged by the coming and going of all phenomenal things, events, forms, expressions, creations, contradictions and dramas - pure 'Spirit'.

               Let me put it to you another way -

The inner workings and contents of the mind are like the idea and concept of 'Tuesday'. When we directly investigate and examine the idea and concept of 'Tuesday', we realize that it doesn't really exist in and of itself. We didn't suddenly discover and come across an individualized thing or object called 'Tuesday'. It has no real independent existence other than us creating the very mind-made idea and concept of 'Tuesday'. In fact, there really is no 'Tuesday'. It exists as an idea, as a mind-made created construct and notion and yet it doesn't really exist. It is simply made up and agreed on as a social construct in the convenience and conceptual needs of time, space and form. 'Tuesday' is just something we all choose to agree on and yet in reality there really is no 'Tuesday'. It is simply made up, agreed on and held to as a way to organize and plan our lives. And yet in our daily lives we so easily forget this. We are asleep whilst awake.

And so too with the individualized conceptual mind. When closely investigated and examined the mind is simply an ever-changing and transitory bundle of thoughts, mental impressions, perceptions, impulses, memories and ideas, which have no lasting and substantial existence other than the importance we place on them. We simply mistake what is unreal for being real. We so easily buy into what is insubstantial as being substantial. We assume what is impermanent to be permanent. We make personal what is impersonal. We mostly remain ignorant and blind to the fact that 'Only God is Real' as the undying 'I-am' and everything else is illusion.

            "Only God and God alone."

What is this?

Who am I?

            - Buddha-Nature and Is-ness

In truth, there is only ever now, or should I say 'I-am' and this 'I-am' requires no actual name, idea, opinion, belief, location, construct, definition, form, name or label. Of course names and labels are useful as a necessary convenience for social interaction and social structure, but they are only mind-made constructs, so we can act in a mostly organized and coherent way to support and play out our humanity with some level of sanity and structure for however long that might last. So to conclude, 'Tuesday' is not real. It is simply made up and agreed on. This is stated here to purely demonstrate how easily we buy into ideas, beliefs, opinions, constructs and concepts of reality, experience and identity without ever stopping, questioning or investigating and examining them for what they really are. We easily forget that 'Tuesday' is not real. It exist as a shared idea and concept and yet it does not really exist as a real thing in itself.

To simply clarify again, we so easily mistake the unreal for being the real, the impermanent for being permanent and the impersonal for being personal. 

We so easily forget that all conditioned life and phenomena are transitory, empty, unreal, impersonal and impermanent. That, as a consequence of change nothing is really permanent in our lives. Nothing truly belongs to us indefinitely. This is the very nature of things. It is simply the way things are. What is here and now today, could be easily gone tomorrow. Nothing, however small or seemingly insignificant can be taken for granted. It is all empty of any real lasting permanence. Only God is Real as the undying and ever-present 'I-am'. I do not say any this to be pessimistic or down on life. Life is a beautiful, sacred and miraculous thing and yet it is also unreliable, vulnerable and uncertain. 

            "Only God and God alone."

Of course, we can still be in the world, and yet not of the world, and everything else will be all the better for it, with the pure being of 'I-am'. No-thing need happen and yet everything can happen. No-thing need change and yet everything can change. No-thing need be done and yet all things will and can be done. This is the peace, love, freedom, beauty, plenitude, simplicity and fulfilment of pure 'Spirit'. Only God is Real as the eternal  'I-am'. The Deathless Self alone is. For me, this is the highest truth for the one who has genuinely realized their true abiding identity with the Absolute. All is the Deathless Self alone. Is-ness.

I am the 'I-am' of I am.

           This is the esoteric message and truth of Atman-Yoga. The Deathless Self alone is.

Atman-Yoga Daily Mantra: "I am. Life is. I am one with all life and all life is one with me. Oneness in body. Oneness in mind. Oneness in all things."

Atman-Yoga Daily Meditation: 'Only God is real' as the eternal 'I-am'.

Song of the Deathless Yogi:

                                        I am 'emptiness'. All is 'emptiness'. 'Emptiness' is all. 

                                    Form is 'emptiness'. Only 'emptiness'. 'Emptiness' is form'.

 

This esoteric blog is dedicated to my earthly mother 'Rita' who transitioned on the 12th December 2021. A truly selfless, kind, beautiful and loving embodied soul, friend and mother. 

Here ends this spiritual communication.

Reality As It Is: The Many Faces of the One

"Only God and God alone."

What is this?

Who am I?

The Many Faces of the One: article 2  - the unpublished esoteric writings and works of an aging yogi.

THE NOTHINGNESS OF THINGS

"All worldly and unworldly challenges, contradictions and disappointments come from the spontaneous and selfless act of 'becoming' and 'being'; they come from our own temporary, ever-changing and conditioned humanity and the attachment, self-identification and self-importance that gets added to it.

All to love. No one to hate. No one to fix. No one who is broken. No one who is in bondage. No one who needs to be freed. Nothing to approve or disapprove of. No real path. No destination. No actual teaching. No teacher and no one to teach. For we are all truly love, peace, perfection, beauty, immortality, unity, plenitude, bliss and freedom itself - unconditioned, unborn, unchanging, ageless, formless, timeless and deathless. All is transcendental. All is 'emptiness'. 

                "Only God and God alone."

We have simply forgotten that the Deathless Self alone is, and all is this - no exceptions. 'Only God is Real' as the eternal, immaculate, ever-present and indestructible 'I-am'. For me, this is the highest spiritual and philosophical knowing and knowledge of reality, experience and identity. 'I-am that I am.' Sat-Chit-Ananda. That, alone is. Only God and God alone."

I am the 'I-am' of I am.

All is 'I-am'. The unchanging 'Deathless Self' alone is. Of this, I am certain. Of this, I am very clear.
                       
            This is the absolute and simple truth and message of Atman-Yoga. The simple truth I point to."

'I-am. Life is'. Anything beyond this, I am 'this' or I am 'that'; life is 'this' or life is 'that', is the sole root of all suffering. I alone am, as the eternal 'I-am'. The Deathless Self alone is. 'Only God is Real'.

                        "Only God and God alone."

         let us continue together from the unpublished esoteric collected writings and works of article 1:-

The continued and essential spiritual message and esoteric communication of Atman-Yoga is that we can all fully awaken and return to the true unborn, unchanging, undying, ever-present and unmoving Deathless Self, pure 'Spirit', which is always unlimited, at peace, loving, eternal, fulfilled, whole, plentiful and free of all material and physical conditioning and constructs, and free of the ever-changing phenomenal world of things, space, creations, dramas, expressions, contradictions and forms. 

            "Only God and God alone."

It is unborn, formless, ageless, ever-present, eternal, timeless and deathless. This I can say with certainty and transcendental knowing and knowledge, as it is our true original selfless, unborn, formless, ageless, boundless, immaculate and deathless state, origin, nature and essence. Pure 'Spirit' or should I say, God-Reality, is the one universal intelligence, identity and reality that gives life and substance to all things, existence, creation and life and reality itself. Its unchanging and inexhaustible essence and God-Reality is all things, constructs and expressions. It is the one true boundless and indestructible Reality and identity, ever-present as 'I-am'. It is the one 'I-am' of the embodied I am.

                Only with God's grace do we all exist. "Only God and God alone."

 

All we have to fully self-realize, remember and awaken to as an aspiring and committed atman-yogi and truth-seeker in the genuine and authentic esoteric quest for Self-realization and Spiritual-awakening is that bondage, lack, individuality, limitation, difference and separateness are the real illusions of this so-called ever-changing conceptual and conditioned life. 

            - what is real?

We can all remember and fully realize with the contemplation of 'I-am' or 'Only God is Real' that the lack of peace, love, fulfilment, oneness, wholeness, perfection, plenitude, bliss and freedom in our all lives at any given moment is but an illusion of the senses and their ever-changing sense objects. 

We are already that which we seek in the fulfilment of love, beauty, plenitude, freedom, happiness, wholeness, bliss, immortality and peace. It is only the self-importance and attachment that we place on that which is unreal, ever-changing, conditioned, temporary and transitory to satisfy our desire and need for permanent happiness, love, peace, immortality, reward, plenitude, wholeness and fulfilment that we are left dissatisfied, frustrated, restless, unfulfilled and confused. 

                "Only God and God alone."

Birth, old age, sickness, decay, pain, loss, grief, lack, misery and death all belong to the ever-changing conditions, limitations and changes of the mind/body experience. Their appearance, change and disappearance doesn't not affect, alter, lessen, threaten, hinder, limit, harm or change what pure 'Spirit' essentially is. Pure 'Spirit' forever remains untouched, unaltered, unthreaten, ceaseless, unlimited, free and unmoved by all that is or is not. For the aspiring and committed atman-yogi and truth-seeker this is the highest spiritual Self-realization, knowing and knowledge of reality, experience and identity - all is 'emptiness' alone. Only 'emptiness'. Only 'emptiness' is real, ever-present, boundless, enduring, timeless and eternal. This is our true immaculate abiding essence, source, origin and nature. 

                        It is the 'I-am' of I am. That, alone is.

 

With the direct and intimate intention of esoteric self-inquiry and essentially seeing things for what they really are, we can all stop placing so much self-importance, reliance and self-identification on that which is nothing more than a temporary projection and worldly mental construct of our own making and creation. This 100% includes the mind/body experience and the self-made image and mind-made persona that we burden, limit and fool ourselves with. 

This is not to say that we have to give it all up, but by fully recognizing and knowing how empty of permanence conceptual things, phenomena and creations truly are we can stop placing and attaching so much self-importance, reliance and neediness on them to permanently reward, satisfy, complete and fulfil us. True immortality and the end of suffering comes from the direct and intimate experience and experiencing of the esoteric knowing of knowing without knowing; the esoteric knowledge of Pure Being, 'Spirit' and this knowing of knowing without knowing is untouched, unthreatened, unmoved, unhindered and unaltered by all that is in the ever-changing conceptual and conditioned world of things, dramas, forms, creations, contradictions and phenomena. Otherwise, we, as a temporary and individualized mind-body experience and construct, will always be setting ourselves up for disappointment and confusion by continuously placing so much self-importance, reliance and neediness on that which is ever-changing, transitory, insubstantial, selfless, empty, impersonal, indifferent and unreal.

                "Only God and God alone."

 

Worldly things and sensory experiences as they truly are, are always in transition and empty of any real permanence, security or reliance. This is what continuously frustrates us and leaves us confused and unhappy. The so-called individualized mind is continuously chasing permanence and reliance in that which is always changing. It tries to attach and hold on to things that are always changing, especially if they are pleasant and pleasing to us. And yet, sensory things and experiences are always appearing, ever-changing and disappearing. All sensory experience and experiencing is in a constant and on-going state of flux, change and transition. Our clinging and grasping to things, creations and phenomena can only give us temporary relief from the dissatisfaction and so-called imperfections of life. True fulfilment is untouched, unthreatened, unhindered, unlimited and unaltered by all that is, and yet it is ultimately one with all things, forms, dramas, creations, contradictions and events. 

For the aspiring and committed atman-yogi and truth-seeker it is directly and intimately recognizing and knowing that which is not bound or identified with all that is and is not. It is completely and fully realizing and knowing the real from the unreal and tangible. It is fully abiding in the spiritual and philosophical embodied knowing and knowledge of the unchanging and immaculate Self as the true essence, source, identity and origin of all that is. It is the 'I-am' of I am. All is nothing but That. 

                    "Only God and God alone."

 

What is this?

Who am I?

                                               SEEING THINGS FOR WHAT THEY ARE

Essentially what is being openly and fully communicated here in these contemplative and meditative esoteric unpublished writings and works on Atman-Yoga, is that we at our deepest core truly are pure 'Spirit' first and everything else is secondary to us. All is transcendental.

                "Only God and God alone."

On a mundane level what seems to happen is that what is secondary, impersonal and insubstantial to us becomes our held to reality and identity rather than seeing that which is known' as only temporary selfless, impersonal and empty conditions, constructs and projections of an unified and boundless reality, essence and Truth. Their true unborn and undying essence and origin is God-Reality itself but they are not reality in and of themselves. The appearance, change and disappearance of worldly phenomena, dramas, forms, events, creations and things does not actually affect, alter, lessen, threaten, hinder, limit or change what God-Reality, pure 'Spirit', essentially and truly is; but nevertheless we still experience change, worldly conditions, multiplicity and diversity. We all experience the one, Pure Being (Spirit), as the worldly and ever-changing sensory and illusion playing out and dance of being the so-called many and this is why I say and repeat with all certainty that 'Only God is Real' as the eternal and ever-present 'I-am'. The 'Deathless Self' alone is. Of this I am certain. Of this I am very clear. Hence the working title of these unpublished esoteric and contemplative writings and works, 'The Many Faces of the One'. 

The embodied soul who is genuinely and fully awake to the truth of reality, experience and identity sees all as the Deathless Self alone. They are everywhere, everyone and everything at all times. For the aspiring and committed atman-yogi and truth-seeker this is the highest esoteric perception, knowing and knowledge of reality, experience and identity. This is the truth of God-Reality for the Deathless Yogi. I am That. All is That. That, alone is.

I am the 'I-am' of I am.

        All is 'I-am'. 'I-am' is the one abiding and undying essence, origin and nature of all that is.

 

           - let me put it to you this way:

Due to the temporary material ignorance of our true unborn, impersonal, undying and selfless-identity, pure 'Spirit', we all mistakenly place the feeling, belief and idea of self-importance, individuality, reliance and neediness on what is secondary to us and therefore we have the appearance of 'becoming' and 'being' entrapped, imprisoned, fearful and limited by our own mental projections, expectations, dramas, ideas and demands on conceptual and conditioned reality and experience. Our worldly identity and mind-made persona appears to be what we are in relationship to the conceptual and cognitive world, and how we view and interpret the world is relating to us. This very act of 'becoming' and 'being' results in us objectifying and attaching our feelings, beliefs, ideas, desires and needs of permanent happiness, love, belonging, peace, pleasure, beauty, reliance, wholeness, abundance and fulfilment on to the temporary and ever-changing worldly dramas, creations and appearances of time, space and form; be it physical objects or people to determine and satisfy how we will think, feel and act from day-to-day and from moment-to-moment. On a mundane level, we as an individualized embodied mind, become strongly attached and identified with all that is unreal, ever-changing, empty, unreliable, vulnerable and transient.

                - Is-ness

 

We, in our temporary individualized embodied state of humanity, are strongly and mistakenly identified as a physical and mental individualized construct of space, time and form, and therefore how we think, feel and act becomes largely dependent of how things, events and creations are in our experience at any given time, situation or moment. If things favor us, then we are mostly happy. If things disfavor us, then we are mostly unhappy. If people like or love us then we are great, but if they don't then we can be hurt, frustrated and upset. How we think, feel and act becomes and is very attached and self-reliant to how things and people are at any given time or moment in our lives. It all becomes personal to us, and how things are in the world is what decides and determines our level of happiness, peace, love, well-being and security or our lack of it. And yet we all know that things and people can change and disappear at any given moment or time in our lives, and so too with us. Even how we think, feel and act towards ourselves and our lives can change numerous times in a single day. Thoughts, feelings, mind-states and moods are all vulnerable and impacted by change.

Life itself is continuously conditioned and shaped by change, transition and impermanence. The ever-changing world of the senses and their sense objects are always changing and how we think, feel and act is also subject to change. We are easily identified and swayed by our ever-changing thoughts, mind-states, moods and feelings. As we awaken and loosen the grip and reliance on the individualized mind, we come to realize and know that there is no real permanence in that which is impermanent and this includes our ever-changing impersonal thoughts, feelings, opinions and moods, and the vicissitudes of pleasure and pain, gain and loss, elation and sorrow. We become less and less identified, reliant and swayed by the ever-changing sensory world of things, creations, phenomena and sense objects. 

In the spiritual awakening and knowing of Atman-Yoga we fully realize that, 'Only God is Real' as the unchanging and eternal 'I-am'.- the 'Deathless Self' alone is. This is the unbroken bliss of transcendental Self-knowing. One Reality is all. That, alone is.

                "Only God and God alone."

 

In this transcendental bliss of Self-knowing life can still be what it is. We can still accept, play, celebrate and love life for what it is, and we can certainly be fully at peace and in love with what life is or is not. And yet we directly and intimately see things clearly for what they really are and therefore we can act with the genuine wisdom and freedom of spiritual insight into the true nature, source, origin and essence of reality, experience and identity. We fully realize and know that we can only really place any true reliance and trust on that which is unborn, unchanging, formless, boundless and deathless - the eternal and untouched state of 'I-am'. For the genuine aspiring and committed atman-yogi and truth-seeker, all is the Self as the Self, filled by the Self, and forever remaining as the Self. 

For the fully realized and accomplished atman-yogi and truth-seeker, the Deathless Yogi, the Self alone is all there is. All alone is this one unified and undying Deathless Self. For me, this is the highest esoteric perception, knowing and knowledge of reality, identity and freedom - Sat-Chit-Ananda. It is the 'I-am' of I am. This is the embodied unbroken palpable state of the Deathless Yogi.

 

What is this?

Who am I?

                                                              THE WAY THINGS ARE 

 

Of course I completely realize, acknowledge and accept that this spiritual awareness and transcendental knowing of knowing without knowing and knowledge of the material, conceptual and phenomenal world might for some of us be very challenging and confusing in itself to agree with or to accept; as we are always approaching conceptual and conditioned experience from the individualized mind/body experience in relationship to the ever-changing sensory phenomenal world. For many of us the phenomenal world strongly appears to be very real, substantial, rewarding, personal, reliant and self-important. For many of us it is the phenomenal world and our experience of it that validates and confirms our very existence as well as our given and believed purpose. It gives us the strong personal impression and feeling of a separate embodied individual and individualized personality and persona who exists in relationship to worldly experience and all phenomena, dramas, creations, contradictions and forms. It has the appearance and impression of being personal to us and personal to others. 

This view of reality, experience and identity I can fully understand and know from my own individualized sensory embodied experience of reality, experience and identity. If I was to say to you, 'by giving up the self, you find the real Self, this being the unborn, formless, selfless, ever-present, enduring, immaculate and deathless Self', you might be a little confused, dismissive and unimpressed by this statement. Many people think and are even afraid and fearful that by giving up the self-importance and self-reliance placed on the mind-made individualized self and persona, we are simply left with a lifeless nothingness, an empty and dark void; but what we are actually giving up wasn't even fully real in the first place. It is a mind-made, put together and held to idea and persona that only continues to live itself out in the individualized mind that created and made it. What it is, is a mere shadow and construct of our true unborn, boundless and deathless Self. This temporary shadow or reality is 'ignorance'. It is not the esoteric knowledge of 'I-am'. And yet this presence of 'ignorance' does not alter, threaten, hinder, limit, lessen, harm or affect what 'I-am' essentially is. 

All still remains as 'emptiness'. Always 'emptiness' and only 'emptiness'. In fact our essential nature and essence being 'emptiness' remains unchanged, unmoved, untainted, unlimited and untouched. It is the 'I-am' of I am. This is what I mean by 'emptiness'. All is as it is. All is transcendental.

I am That. You are That. All is nothing but That. That, alone is. "Only God and God alone."

             - Mindfulness and Transcendence

What if we were to stop listening to the mental chatter, demands and noise of the individualized mind, who or what would we be left with then? What is the real truth, source, origin and essence of identity? Who or what is this unmoving, unchanging and silent 'I-am' that knows and experiences life in all its fullness and diversity and yet is not changed, moved, affected, threatened, hindered, limited or diminished by it? This is the direct intention and purpose of the spiritual self-inquiry into the nature, source and essence of 'who am I?' It is the genuine and fulfilling spiritual search for the Truth of reality, identity, experience and its true abiding, enduring and ever-present essence. The That of all that is and will ever be. Reality as it is.

               'I-am. Life is.' Can this really be denied?

As a consequence and result of the process of what I will call 'personalization' what we experience in relationship to worldly phenomena and earthly conditions, creations and constructs appears personal to us and therefore we become attached, fearful or burdened by whatever worldly experience is or is not. There is for most of us a strong and continual feeling, belief and idea of separateness and individuality in relationship to the ever-changing phenomenal and conditioned world. Our identity and the measure of what makes us whole, complete, rewarded, happy, calm, peaceful, loved and fulfilled is heavily dependent and invested in the demands, wants, expectations, beliefs, views and promises of an ever-changing and temporary worldly experience, drama and phenomena. Basically how we view, think, interpret and feel about ourselves and the world is objectified on to what is always appearing, ever-changing and disappearing; and this includes our ever-changing feelings, moods, ideas, opinions, beliefs and thoughts. We mistakenly and foolishly attempt to seek and have permanence and reliance in that which is impermanent, ever-changing and unreliable, and therefore our feeling and sense of happiness, reward, security and contentment is always dependent on what our life looks like and feels like at any given moment. And yet this too is always changing. By their very nature it is impossible for us to cling, grasp and hold on to things and events as we always want them to be and the same is true of the mind/body experience. The unexpected will happen purely due to the way things are. Physical death will happen, whether we choose to invite it or not. This is simply the way things are. The body is of the very nature to die due to the fact it was born and it is a temporary embodied construct. The so-called body is of the very nature to grow old due to the fact it was born. What is with beginning has an end. What is new and fresh will decay and become old. What is renewed will still age, decay and become old and worn-out again. This simply is the way of things. No one is to blame. No one did anything wrong. It is simply the way things are, whether we like it or not. Plain and simple. This is why the genuine and committed atman-yogi and truth-seeker seeks to directly experience and know the very essence, origin and truth of reality, experience and identity and what it is to transcend all their limitations. It is to truly realize and know the deathless. The That of all that is and will ever be.

 

All our embodied lives, despite our differences and sameness in appearance, ideas, beliefs, opinions, views and behaviour, are governed, marked and shaped by conditionality, consequence and impermanence. There is no birth without death; no beginning without end. These worldly dual concepts, conditions and constructs are inseparable. No one is to blame. No one did anything wrong. It is simply the way things are. Therefore we can't help to eventually seek and know that which is permanent and enduring in all that is impermanent, changing and transitory. It is a natural innate, direct and intimate calling for us to return back to our true undying Self - the ever-present and abiding 'I-AM'. A calling back to God-head.

We are Eternity seeing, recognizing, realizing and knowing Eternity.

LETTING GO OF THE UNREAL

  

What we are essentially being asked to do in the spiritual-awakening and Self-realization of the highest truth, reality and identity is to transcend the material confines, trappings, beliefs and limitations of the mind/body experience and the phenomenal and conditioned world of the senses and their sense objects. As an atman-yogi and truth-seeker we are being directly asked to not allow the phenomenal and conceptual world and our ever-changing experience of it to define, trap, hinder or limit us in any concrete or false way. 

We can finally stop being fooled by that which is always changing. We finally and completely realize that 'Only God is Real' as 'I-am' and everything else is illusion. All is God-Reality. All is transcendental. 

                "Only God and God alone."

We stop wanting and expecting to find permanence, reliance, security, contentment and certainty in that which is impermanent, insubstantial and unreal. Only the 'Deathless Self' is eternal, enduring and ever-present. All alone is this. All experience and the knowing of experience belong to Pure Being. Only God is Real as 'I-am'. Everything else is illusion and unreal. All sensory experience is change. This is why we inwardly and directly seek the true light and essence of the Self. The one true indestructible and enduring essence of reality, experience and identity. This being the 'I-am' of I am. This enduring and ever-present 'I-am' is self-sufficient, perfect, immaculate, indestructible and inexhaustible. All is this 'I-am'.

What is this?

Who am I?

            - The God-Self

The truth is, however much we might use the phenomenal and conditioned world to define and affirm ourselves, it is only a temporary appearance and projection of pure 'Spirit'. It is a self-made and transitory mental construct that we falsely become emotionally invested in and attached to as being permanent, reliant, concrete and real and see as being substantial, personal and separate, when in truth it has no true substantial or personal existence other than what we give it. It is illusory, selfless, impersonal and unreal in the way it is only a temporary and limited projection of our true Deathless Self, our true undying essence and nature, pure 'Spirit'. It is all 'emptiness' taking form, playing out and dancing. 

The same is true with our self-made image, persona and worldly identity. These too are temporary, selfless and false constructs held together as an idea or self-made image of embodied selves when they have no real or separate and reliable reality of their own. 

"The waves and the ocean are one and the same."

Yes, we experience the appearance, knowing and disappearance of worldly phenomena, dramas, creations, contradictions and forms but essentially they are all secondary to that which we truly are - pure 'Spirit'. This is simply how it is. Whether we agree with it or not, doesn't change it. Atman-Yoga fully communicates and concludes that 'Only God is Real' as 'I-am'. The 'Deathless Self' alone is. Everything else will cease to exist. This we must know as the knowing of knowing without knowing. In this spiritual knowing of knowing without knowing all can be as it is. Plain and simple. All is 'emptiness'. Only 'emptiness'. We can fully appreciate and celebrate all of life and creation is this transcendental knowing and knowledge.

         'I am. Life is.' To deny this is to deny existence, and yet who is it that would deny this?

THE TRUTH of NO-HOUSE

 

Personally I would compare the concept of our individualized self-image or persona to the idea of a 'house'. Of course we can say a house exists in our experience and experiencing of it, but when we closely investigate and examine the idea and concept of 'house' and the parts that make up what a 'house' is, we soon come to realize and know that in fact there is actually no house. 'No house' is what actually exists. There is both 'house' and 'no house'. And yet there is really 'no house'.

"The waves and the ocean are one and the same."

 

What appears to us to be a so-called house has no real independent existence other than the interconnected parts that hold this idea and concept of 'house' together. It is simply made up of non-house elements and parts. It is both there and not there. In the same way, we are both here and not here, and we are nothing and yet we are everything. As soon as we begin to closely investigate and examine the very idea of who we think we are, we soon begin to realize and know that it is very much, that, an idea. What appears as an individualized embodied 'self' is made up of 'selfless' and 'empty' interconnected and insubstantial elements and parts and those elements and parts when also closely investigated and examine reveal themselves to be illusory, insubstantial, unreal. impersonal and empty too. 

What if we were to put aside those ideas and interconnected elements and parts and remain in the silence and stillness of 'I-am', who are we now? Who am I?

       'I-am. Life is.' Not 'I-am' this or 'I-am' that. Not 'life is' this or 'life is' that. Simply "I-am. Life is."

                    - Letting Go

I fully realize, accept and know that what is openly and carefully written and communicated here might challenge and unsettle any held to perception and belief of who or what we think we are and rightly so, because this is the very intention and purpose of these esoteric contemplative and meditative unpublished writings and works on reality, experience and identity, and the spiritual message of Atman-Yoga, that 'Only God is Real' as 'I-am'. Everything else is illusion. And yet I am not personally asking or expecting anyone to blindly or foolishly take on or follow what is presented here on this esoteric blog without their own personal self-inquiry in directly and closely examining and investigating the nature, essence and Truth of reality, experience and identity. If we do not feel genuinely more rewarded, free, at peace, loved, whole, forgiving, loving, accepting, tolerant, inclusive and fulfilled as a result of spiritual self-inquiry then what is its use? It should enable us to see, love, share and celebrate Reality and all creation in its multiplicity and diversity despite the passing and ending of all creations, phenomena and forms.

 

Self-inquiry into the true nature, essence and truth of reality, experience and identity is simply asking us to directly and closely examine and investigate our own mind/body experience and the cause and end of suffering, and to potentially awaken from the material ignorance and sleep of our false identity and our ideas about who and what we think we are; and to potentially come into the true knowing possession and identity of our real undying and unchanging essence and selfless nature, pure 'Spirit'. By giving up the false self, we find the true selfless and unborn Self. By giving up and letting go of that which is unreal and impermanent we discover that which is real, eternal, plentiful, boundless and deathless. The 'I' comes to fully realize and know, I am no one and yet I am also everyone and everything. Simply this. Is-ness.

I am the 'I-am' of I am.

 

To fully do and fulfil this spiritual endeavor we must transcend and let go of all that is unreal, selfless and transitory, and this includes the idea of 'me', 'mine' and 'I' and the attachment to the mind/body experience. We must come into the true spiritual possession, ownership and transcendental knowing and knowledge of that which is real, permanent and enduring -  pure 'Spirit'. Then despite whatever form life takes or doesn't take, be it favorable or unfavorable, welcomed or not welcomed, we are forever free, eternal fulfilled, complete, loved and at peace. We are free of suffering and the end of suffering; of ignorance and liberation. Nothing needs to happen and yet everything can happen. Nothing needs to change and yet everything can and will change. Nothing needs to be done and yet all things can be done. We are always fulfilled and complete in all things because our absolute identity abides in and with the Deathless Self, as it always did. All is identified and known as the Deathless Self. Our everyday embodied life is still played and acted out with all its changes, dramas, creations, contradictions and challenges but we are not held captive, limited or imprisoned by these temporary and changing things and events. This is the Is-ness of all creation.

        This is the essential realization and simple message of Atman-Yoga. The Deathless Self alone is.

I am the 'I-am' of I am. "Only God and God alone."

Atman-Yoga Daily Mantra: "I-am. Life is. I am one with all life and all life is one with me. Oneness in body. Oneness in mind. Oneness in all things."

Atman-Yoga Daily Meditation: 'Only God is real' as 'I-am'.

 

Song of the Deathless Yogi:

                                        I am 'emptiness'. All is 'emptiness'. 'Emptiness' is all. 

                                    Form is 'emptiness'. Only 'emptiness'. 'Emptiness' is form'.

This esoteric blog is dedicated to my earthly mother 'Rita' who transitioned on the 12th December 2021. A truly selfless, kind, beautiful and loving embodied soul, friend and mother. 

Here ends this spiritual communication.