I have always been interested in creative arts. I even briefly attended art school, but events in my life drove me toward writing as the best way for me to create something. Among a few other things, I chose to write about some common words and their unusual meanings.
This post is a collection of ideas from the book, Reality and Being, that are specifically related to awakening and remembering — in my mind these two are the same thing. To awaken is to remember something that you never really forgot but that you simply ignored; awakening is the again-and-again realization of something you have always known. That is how I understood these words and ideas while I was writing, although I do not think I specifically stated that in the book.
Reading this post is no substitute for reading the book from the beginning. This post and the book have different purposes. The book is designed specifically as a journey “from beliefs that seem not quite true, to a single obvious truth that is unimaginable,” and even I have some trouble reading it when I skip around too much or try to read too quickly. The natural progression of meanings gets lost that way. The purpose of this post is simply to introduce the theme of awakening and remembering; and with that purpose the ideas below are presented in a different progression.
It is easy to read the book from front to back if you just read carefully enough that the language makes sense to you even when you disagree with what it says. Of course, if you disagree often, then you might want to reconsider how the meanings of key words might be different in different contexts. Keep in mind that meanings can change from chapter to chapter. I provide brief explanations of some key words at the bottom of this post, along with simplified guidance on how to approach the book as a whole.
In spite of the way I worded most of the text, I do not want to convince you of any particular ideas; I try to counter that tone by regularly reminding you not to trust mere words over your own intuition and insight. Instead, I invite you just to experience the language as the journey unfolds. It is intuition that matters, and intuition is beyond words. So, the real work is not to learn some more ideas, but to set illusions aside in order to remember once again what is truly real.
Awareness
We habitually focus on appearances, which are neither more nor less than an experience of something that is not real. Experiences come and go within awareness. Individuals come and go within being. Illusions come and go within reality.
One day Debbie wearily closed her eyes to try again. When she popped her eyes open again, she was not really looking for anything at all. She was just looking to see what was there. And there it was. There was the flowing color and silver, all in its original brilliance and mystery, and this time it was very different. This time it was Debbie’s own mind that painted the light with her own memories of trees and earth and sky and all else that she could see. It happened inside her, that the memories of colors and forms of things flowed out into the light to lay down in her mind’s eye the simple perception of this one tree beneath this one sky. [Here and Here]
Being
Observe the world of things as it truly is: the illusion of separate, individually existing things. It arises clearly and distinctly within being—even the unclarity and indistinctness of things has its own clarity and distinctness. Just be, with the image of separate existences all around and through you.
Each awakening is a complete and absolute reawakening to reality. The joy of this is in no way diminished by the problems of life. It is perfect awareness of the reality of being this being, of being limitless reality. This being, self-aware and self-knowing, recalls every moment of every dream, not as a troubling recollection of miseries but as a wondrous journey home. [Here and Here]
Ideas
We become entranced by our experiences, and we ignore the significance of our reality; but because reality underlies unreality, we do know and understand reality at the deepest level of our being whether we recognize it or not.
When someone asked him where does he live, he said, “I don’t seem to live anywhere at all.” Then, when asked where is his home, he said, “It is inside me, of course.” Oh? “Yes. If it were outside of me, how would I ever know what it really was?” When asked if home were perhaps both inside him as ideas and outside him as the world, he said, “If it were both inside and outside, how would I ever know which is which?” When asked if he was sure about that, the man said, “No, of course I am not sure about it; it’s just a lot clearer this way.” When asked if he knew what ideas were, he said, “Yes. I think I do; ideas are what the world is made of.” [Here]
Remembering
Do you believe that in some way you sense the reality of other beings and these other beings possess their own awareness? This is like looking into a magical mirror wherein you are made to experience your life as only one among others. In the mirror, you cling to the idea that you are a separate living thing who senses being. To do so, you ignore the reality of your own being and cling to the unreality of separate existences. But reality is undivided. So, being and awareness are undivided. It is only from within illusion that we can imagine reality as somehow divided.
Prakriti (the dancer) stopped dancing and revealed to Purusha (the seer) her true appearance. Prakriti’s true appearance is known today as Kind Prakriti to distinguish it from the many forms she assumes as she dances. There was no sign anywhere of the dance, no movement, no music, no forms, no substance. Kind Prakriti revealed herself, and Purusha recognized her instantly. [Here]
Paths
Seek direct knowledge of reality, not indirect experience of mere ideas about such things. Know the truth directly. See though the endless puzzles of unreality. Depend upon words only to help you grasp the failure of all words in the light of your reality—even these words, here, in this text.
Without form, without thought, letting go. An image that is not standing still, yet there is nothing in it that moves. Not silent. Not distant. Like a stained-glass window too near to touch. Like a mirror seeing itself. The potter finishes the pot and takes his hands away from the clay; he must let the wheel spin down on its own or the pot will be ruined. Sitting quietly and at peace, immersed in the stream, becoming the stream. [Here]
Death
Reality is intrinsically valuable, and reality is absolutely good. Being and awareness are also intrinsically valuable, and being and awareness are absolutely good. Because reality is intrinsically valuable and absolutely good, evil cannot be real. The idea of evil arises from habitual judgement, and all suffering arises from judgement. In reality, all judgement is illusion.
For a few seconds Hana thought nothing at all, recognized nothing in particular, and just understood everything altogether as one. After those few seconds a thought returned to her: “Now I remember; I’ve always known.” She remembered when her thoughts returned that this moment, this clear awareness, had returned to her just as it always had before, more times than can ever be counted. Each time, again and again, always to remember, “I am this.” [Here]
Self-Realization
It is like looking into a clear magic jewel of infinitely many facets. The universe is this jewel. Every facet of this jewel is a different experience, a different idea, a different world-view, or a different individual life. Each experience, no matter how simple or complex, is a single facet of this jewel. This jewel is entirely composed of only these facets, each of which exists only relatively in relation to all other facets endlessly reflected in each other all throughout this clear jewel. Each facet is a different way of experiencing, in part, the entirety of all these reflections.
Nothing is created or destroyed. Nothing is corrupt or pure. Nothing is gained or lost. There is no knowledge and no attainment, because there is nothing at all to attain. All who are aware of this are freed from illusion and fear, and they are aware of this reality. All who are awake to reality, regardless of when or how they awakened, know they are this reality. [Here]
Birth
To know universal truth, you must directly know reality. To directly know reality, you must be reality itself. Universal truth is reality, reality is being, and being is aware of itself. Universal truth cannot be expressed in statements; it can only be known directly. It is self-knowledge.
Then an explosion all though me of brilliant pins and needles piercing every part of me with a prickling light as I drew my first breath and the air lit me up completely! The first awareness on that breath was a shocking ecstasy of sparkling light and streaming energy; I could not tell these things apart. If I cried at that moment, as babies will, it was a cry of release. I realized immediately that through all that had happened to me from the beginning—if there ever was a beginning—I was only in the middle of it all. I had never changed. Nothing changed me at all; nothing about me could change. I saw I was the place where this happened and I was none of the things that happened, and whatever happens now could never harm this place. Nothing had really happened for or against me, it just happened all around and inside of me, and I was there with it all. Nothing could ever change this certainty. No experience, no matter the power of it, could ever do me harm. It is too simple, too obvious, too close to me to put into words. Every word I write about this always means something else, never what I know and what I remember. I can’t write it the way it was. [Here and Here]
What Would You Do In This Situation ....
We are aware of what we experience, but we habitually confuse awareness with the experiences that arise within awareness. We habitually project an idea of awareness onto unreal objects that we experience, and we think there must be some real awareness within these objects. This is habitual confusion born of word-repetitions learned from childhood. The illusion of an awareness arising within the object is an attractive illusion. The reality is that all objects arise within experience, experience arises within awareness, and awareness is reality.
How does a teacher teach other beings that each of them is exactly the same being as the teacher who is teaching them? [Here and Here]
Brief Guidance on How to Read This Text
The meanings of these words can never be precisely the same for you as they were for me when I wrote them, because meaning exists within us and not within the words.
Meaning is essentially private. The word, “tree,” always means something different to different people. To think otherwise is just wishful thinking.
The meanings of some words will seem to change from topic to topic; sometimes this change will be slight, but sometimes it will be significant.
It is the nature of writing that it is linear—one word at a time, one idea at a time—even though the ideas themselves are not linear.
If an idea seems too difficult to follow, just take note of it and read on. Revisit it later when something reminds you of it.
I can give you words and ideas, but I cannot give you your own knowledge of reality. No one can. You must experience for yourself what the words suggest.
Practice “what if.” Ask yourself, “Does the world really look and feel like this?”
- - [Here]
Key Words to Remember
REALITY is not subject to coming and going, nor to existing or not existing, nor to birth and death. But individual things are all subject to those limits. Reality is where everything happens; it is where time and space appear; it is like a theater wherein ILLUSION and UNREALITY appears.
BEING is the self-knowledge of reality; it is both the reality of knowing and the way that reality knows. EXISTENCE and NON-EXISTENCE refer to all the unreal things being perceives, feels, thinks, and imagines. This allows us to talk about being as the subjective knowledge of things like sensations, perceptions, dreams, ideas, and self-awareness.
AWARENESS is the direct knowledge of EXPERIENCE and INTUITION. Being is aware of and knows experience; although in reality, experiences are only made of countless other experiences from other places and other times. Through intuition, being is aware of its limitless reality. [Here]
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So much amazing information! Thanks for writing it and posting.
Thank you.