My experience, or knowing of whom I
am, is not exclusively as a center of awareness, located in this body. While
there is clearly a vantage point from this body—which is based on the five senses
as known by the function of personal consciousness, the fundamental function of
this body—that is not the whole story.
Simultaneous to that personal
vantage point of knowing or experiencing from here, there is the experience, or
more accurately, knowing of who I am, as center-less. These occur at the same
time.
Some people claim to have come to a
point where there is no sense of self, or personal vantage point, it having
somehow vanished completely. While I don't deny their experience because I don't
know their experience, so I don't say they are being untruthful, in my own
experience, that is not the case. The so-called personal sense of self—which is
based on the fundamental experience of personal consciousness, which then knows
thoughts, emotions and the five sensory mechanisms of experience—is an
appearance that comes and goes, like a wave in the ocean, never the same, appearing and then vanishing completely. While simultaneously,
the knowing that I am aware and center-less, not centered anywhere, and
includes and knows all of those personal functions, is obvious and present at all times, unchanging.
This is an all-inclusive view and does not deny the appearance of an ephemeral, personal self, nor does it insist
on the necessity to get rid of any personal self. All is included—essential
being, which is aware and has no qualities whatsoever, and is center-less,
being timeless and dimensionless, and the so-called personal appearances of
consciousness, thoughts, emotions and the five sensory mechanisms, which create
the personal vantage/experience.
So this does not deny our humanity or
find a need to transcend our humanity. It does not need to transcend
self or kill the ego or anything like that.
Essential being is prior to—meaning
it is, before, during and after all of the personal experiences—and knows the
fleeting personal experience as well as itself and includes everything,
unconditionally.
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