Thomas Razzeto

@BobbyLowell Yes, each and every person is a unique expression of the One Essence, this One Source-Awareness. That expression is in our world of form. Just think of the actor and the character. We make a distinction between the actor and the character because the actor is the transcendent source of the character while the character is the dependent construction. And yet, when the actor comes forward as the character, they are one. Source-Awareness is the One invisible Actor who is arising as each and every character, as each and every person. This is why I like to say: In form, we are many; in essence, we are One. There is both the One and (in this world of form), the many. This is why we use the word “nondual” rather than “oneness.” We acknowledge both the one actor and the many characters. The actor arises as the character through the act of pretending. The character is real as an act of pretending. (If it was not real for us as an experience, we could not watch the play.) But it is not fundamentally who the actor really is. Similarly, Source-Awareness arises as all of creation through the mysterious process of creation. (This will never be explained. We can only offer a sliver of a description.) All of creation is real as a construction which uses Source-Awareness as its One Essence. Creation is real as that which can be experienced. But all of creation is not fundamentally what Source-Awareness is. This is why I said what I said at the end of my second post on this thread. And I have expanded on all of this in other posts in this forum and also on my website. If you are inspired, you can check it out.

@Highest Your personal consciousness is your soul. I learned the phrase “personal consciousness” from my mentor, Timothy Conway, who is an expert in Buddhism and other nondual religions and philosophies. He offers the idea that the ancient word “jiva” means soul or personal consciousness. Most people equate the words “consciousness” and “awareness” but it is very importantly to make a distinction between them. There are many personal consciousnesses, many souls, but only One Awareness. Only this Awareness is sentient. This One Awareness looks through the window of each personal consciousness. This is how many personal experiences are presented to the One Awareness, which is your True Self. Each personal consciousness is ever-changing yet Source-Awareness is this unchanging capacity for experience which also has the capacity to create what it experiences, hence the name.

@BobbyLowell Say, Bobby, perhaps I can say a little more about this phrase “the authentic self.” This is a phrase that is commonly used by people when they are helping others with their personal development. The authentic self is kind, compassionate, and reasonably happy and peaceful most of the time. The authentic self is not fearful or constantly stressed out. The authentic self has the ability to give to and receive from loved ones, friends, coworkers and society in a way that is most beneficial for everyOne. So the phrase “the authentic self” refers to the person rather than to what a nondual teacher refers to when they talk about your True Self. More about your True Self in a minute. Now, let’s briefly talk about the person. I call the person your “functional self,” or your “functional identity,” since that is what it seems like. When the person is behaving in a way that brings out the best that it can, well, then it is being its “authentic self.” These words are merely describing what it looks like from the perspective of our ordinary world. Yet even that can be very helpful since it is a practical perspective and I like to be practical. Your True Self cannot be experienced since it is completely imperceptible in every way. Instead, it is the open capacity for experience; it is the power of sentient. It is also the Source of all of creation, which is why my mentor, Timothy Conway, and I call it Source-Awareness (God). Source-Awareness exists before time and outside of space. It is not a thing or an object and it therefore cannot change in any way. This is what you have always been. You will not become your True Self nor will your True Self develop as time goes on. It is the person that will have new beliefs about this subject integrated into its personal consciousness. It is the personal consciousness (soul) that changes and develops. But this does not happen by the will and power of the person since the person does not have any will or power of its own. What appears to be the will and power of the person is really the will and power of God. (Similarly, what appears to be the will and power of the character is really the will and power of the actor.) This is why the ancient texts talk about God polishing up everyOne’s soul. And this is why I like to say: Your fundamental identity is Source-Awareness, the one, uncreated, formless Divine Essence. Your nonfundamental identity is the totality of created reality. This is what you are through the process of creation. And your functional identity is the person you appear to be. All of this is thoroughly divine. God is infinitely intimate with all of creation. It is God who is arising as everyOne and it is God who is doing everything. How wondrous!

[All of this is just my opinion and I celebrate the fact that everyOne gets to choose what they want to believe and how they want to live their life. Hooray for that!] Hi Bobby, The translation of the word “anatta” as “no self” has caused, in my opinion, a fair amount of confusion and this has been going on for a very long time, perhaps over two thousand years! For example, you sometimes hear people say that “you do not exist” or that “the person does not exist.” But if you consider “anatta” in its original context of the process of disidentification from the five "skandhas" – the five components of the person or personality – and translate it as “not self,” you have a much clearer idea of the wisdom being offered. And most importantly, the process of reidentificaion as everyOne should not be overlooked since this is what opens up the loving heart of enlightenment. You can read more here in one of my essays: Anatta – “Not Self” Rather Than “No Self” https://infinitelymystical.com/essays/anatta.html I hope this helps clarify a few things for you. Have a great day! In truth, I honor your divine nature, Thomas Razzeto

Hi. Well, you are the only one who can receive the intuitive guidance as to what to do about focusing on spiritual growth for several months. Obviously, everOne’s path is different. Trust that you will receive clear insights about this (and everything else) when you need them. It might help if you take a look at my opinion as to what spiritual awakening actually is. I have an essay about this on my website and I also posted a little about that elsewhere on this forum. The Loving Heart of Enlightenment A summary overview of spiritual awakening in simple, clear English https://infinitelymystical.com/essays/the-loving-heart-of-enlightenment.html Best wishes, Thomas Razzeto

“You are not a thing that is sentient. You are not an object that is aware. You are not a sentient being. You are sentience itself.” - Thomas Razzeto https://infinitelymystical.com

What you truly are, this formless Source-Awareness, was never born and will never die. It exists without being a thing or an object and it exists before time and outside of space. All of creation is born “into” this Source-Awareness. This is why some ancient texts say that you are not in the world, but instead, the world is in you. In that creation, we find the person commonly known as “you.” This person is the combination of your body (which was obviously born into the physical world), and your soul, which existed before your body was born. Neither the body or soul are sentient in any way so where does this power of sentience come from? Well, your “personal sentience” is actually the One Source-Awareness looking through the window or viewpoint of your personal consciousness (soul). Since I have talked about this in other posts, I will keep this brief. Thanks for reading, Thomas Razzeto PS Here is one of my latest essays: In Nondual Wisdom, What Is Real and What Is Unreal? https://infinitelymystical.com/essays/real-and-unreal.html

Why we make a distinction between Awareness and consciousness The above post talks about my essay “The Loving Heart of Enlightenment.” In that essay, I talk about awareness a lot. I talk about how there is only One Awareness and how it spontaneously emanates as the totality of created reality. This is why my mentor, Timothy Conway, and I refer to this awareness as Source-Awareness. But in that particular essay, I never used the word “consciousness.” This is only because I did not want to go into the difference between the two in that particular essay. But I later clarified this subject in a comment I posted in a thread titled: Why we make a distinction between Awareness and consciousness Here is an overview of my comment: Awareness is the power of sentience, the capacity to perceive. Consciousness is the window through which the One Awareness looks. This Awareness is what you truly are, fundamentally. This Awareness perceives, but it cannot be perceived. Just as a window cannot see anything, consciousness is also completely blind; it is not sentient in any way. Yet consciousness serves as an instrument (a viewpoint) for the One Awareness (or God, if you are comfortable with that word). Your personal consciousness (soul) permeates your body and this combination provides a viewpoint through which the One Awareness experiences the world as the person you seem to be. The full comment is here: https://www.actualized.org/forum/topic/14555-difference-between-awareness-and-consciousness/#comment-149233

@AleksM Hi AleksM, Thanks for the picture “I have three eyes.” I like it. For me, this is pointing to the idea that you see intuitive truth with your third eye and this is very important. Logic is important, too, and they both have their own limitations, of course. Now, in the picture, it seems as if two eyes are directed downward towards an image of what might be the round world with a mountain range running across the top. So these two eyes see the physical world. So perhaps this is pointing to the value and usefulness of observation and logic. The other eye seems to be directed upwards towards what might be the sun, which could be a symbol for God or truth. The ray of that eye seems to be going to the area of the third eye. So perhaps this is pointing to the idea that you see intuitive truth with your third eye. So the use of all three eyes together points to the idea of using both logic and intuition in collaboration, as I often mention. Two hands, one hand washing the other. And since I often ask myself how things can be expressed more clearly, I might suggest that perhaps the following caption will work “better” for that picture: I have three eyes. Two see the world. One sees intuitive truth. Just a thought. There can be many other captions for that picture. I would want to expand it a bit more and specifically talk about logic and intuition working together, but that would be a pretty long caption, right? By the way, I don’t think this picture is trying to point to the idea that the one eye is a symbol for the One Awareness, but that doesn’t mean other people should not draw that conclusion. Of course we all express ourselves in our own unique way, both verbally and otherwise. All expressions are valid for the person expressing them and some expressions will even help other people. So now you see that I like to tweak the expressions of others – just for fun and just for myself. So how about this one: Beliefs are made out of meaning. Yes, beliefs can usually be expressed in words and those words do of course have meaning. And yet there could be more. I might suggest that your beliefs are what give meaning to the things and events that happen in the world around you and this leads to your experience. You have your own unique set of beliefs and they lead to your own unique experience. And finally (for this post, anyway), here’s another common statement that I like to tweak: We are all one. I like to open it up a bit more so that it is less confusing: In form, we are many; in essence, we are One. This allows people to more easily see that in order to function in the world as a person, it is okay to make distinctions between all things and everyOne. In the world of form, everything is different. And yet God is infinitely intimate with all of creation in a way that makes them One. Everything and everyOne is “constructed,” so to speak, from this One Substance, this formless Divine Essence, which is completely imperceptible in every way even though it is what has the capacity to perceive.

@AleksM I know about Bashar and like his work. My friends and I invited Darryl Anka (nice guy) come to our town and channel Bashar way back in 1986 or 1987. I talk about some of Bashar's work in my book. I also talk about Seth as channeled by Jane Roberts. I have been around quite a bit of channeling. My own personal spiritual growth took another step up when I started to attend the weekly meetings held by Timothy Conway, who never put himself "out there" as a spiritual teacher, so he is almost completely unknown. But boy, was he a good match for me. I attended every week for 11 years until he and his wife moved far away. I attended from summer 2005 until summer 2016. Anyway, regarding the diagram that you said you thought came from Bashar. Could be. Bashar clearly talks about "beliefs, emotions and actions" as the three things that work together to create your experience. But I suspect that this diagram does not come from Bashar directly and instead comes from someone that listens to him. I get what it is pointing to (I think) but I don't think I would draw it like that. But that is okay. If you are interested in Timothy Conway's work, here are some links: Timothy's website: http://www.enlightened-spirituality.org/ 75 hours of completely free audio recordings that I made of some of his satsangs: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/0B63GUZPUWajeUjdyZXgxa3hKV2s And have you read my essay, "The Loving Heart of Enlightenment?" Here is an earlier post on this forum about it:

@AleksM The other pics just did not resonate with me. But I am glad that we all get to pick what we like.

@AleksM Say AleksM, I am just wondering where you got that image of the circle, square and cylinder (true, true, truth). I only ask because I have been using a very similar metaphor for years. It is in my book. I talk about two people both viewing a soup can. One is above it and sees a perfect circle. The other is to the side and sees a perfect square. But they both understand the world as only two dimensional. And they wonder how they can resolve their differences. They are both looking at the same thing, but they are seeing it in ways that seem incompatible. Then a third person shows up and explains how the world is 3-D. But even with that, their experiences stay the same. It is only when they both adopt the same viewpoint that they see the same thing. Anyway, I just thought I would ask where that image came from. No biggie if you don't know. Oh, one more point. In my opinion, everyone's perspective is completely unique and it constructed, so to speak, out of their core beliefs. So when people talk about what they see in the world around them, and most especially what their experiences are like dealing with the things in the world around them, well, they are really talking about the core beliefs that they are holding within their personal consciousness (their soul). Your core beliefs are the DNA of your experience (but not the circumstances you see in the world around you.) Just my opinion.

@Nahm Hi Nahm, Say, I don’t know too much about the adventures of the personal consciousness (soul) outside of our ordinary reality, so to speak, but I did recently ask Timothy Conway about it. Yes, I do think it is meant to be taken literally, not metaphorically or poetically. But let me emphasis that by ”literally,” I only mean that it is experientially real. In my opinion, this is all we can say about any event or object we witness, in normal waking state or otherwise. And, by the way, one of the deepest paradoxes is that what you truly are cannot be experienced, even though it is what experiences every object and event. Anyway, here is a bit of what Timothy offered to me via an email: The ancient texts are clear as is our (humanity’s) experience over the millennia that there are different kinds of subtle worlds, from high to low, countless worlds, and all are differentiated like different programming on the hundreds of different channels of today’s tv sets with their cox cable tv / hulu / netflix streaming choices of different channels and programs.... So, in the case being discussed, OOBEs, NDEs, dreams, meditative reveries, etc. are all different “programs” on different “channels” of Reality. One could try to get real “particular” and map all of these out, but I don’t think it’s very edifying to do so.... [Nahm, that is my emphasis in bold - Thomas] As Chan/Zen would say, better to realize the Host for all these guests/phenomena. [Again, my emphasis.] [ --- end of Timothy’s email --- ] Much more from Timothy Conway can be found on his website: http://www.enlightened-spirituality.org/ If you like audio recordings, there are 75 hours of his satsangs that I recorded and put on my google drive, freely available to the public. The link is on both of our websites but here it is anyway: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/0B63GUZPUWajeUjdyZXgxa3hKV2s I hope this helps a bit, Thomas Razzeto https://infinitelymystical.com

@Heart of Space Hi Heart of Space, I am glad you are comfortable with both your mind and your intuition. The skillful use of the mind is very helpful. As false ideas are removed from your belief system and true ideas are integrated into it, your intuition will grow deeper. As your intuition deepens, your cognitive understanding becomes even clearer. And of course this continues, round and round. They are like two hands, each hand washing the other. This is very beautiful and quite profound. This is what I mean in my essay, “The Loving Heart of Enlightenment,” when I say that “these concepts are transformed into a living truth that burns within your soul.” But many people block this process by making the mind the enemy. I have literally heard people proclaim in front of a large group that "the mind is the enemy." Hmm. I don’t think God created you with a built-in enemy. And yet it still is important to use the mind skillfully and not let it run your life all by itself. Use everything; use your mind, use your intuition and use your heart. When you drive your car, you use the steering wheel, the throttle and the brakes. You can't drive very well with just one of those controls. When the personal consciousness (soul) has a purified mind coupled with the deep Intuitive recognition that each and every person is fully divine in both their form and their essence, the loving heart of enlightenment bursts open. This provides the strongest motivation for kindness and compassion. Any selfish or self-centered desires or tendencies are washed away. This will take some time (maybe lifetimes) but when it is complete, the personal consciousness (soul) will be completely free, completely liberated, and this is the second aspect of enlightenment. The first aspect of enlightenment is being fully awake to the correct understanding of your True Self as this One Divine Source-Awareness, the One Self that arises as all apparent selves. This also takes time to deepen, again, maybe lifetimes. You see how these two aspects work together. This is a very simple wisdom. Yet it is so much different from how things initially look. For example, the conventional understanding is that the biochemistry of the body and brain lead to the “emergent property” of what the scientists usually call “consciousness.” This word “consciousness” usually means (for the scientists) the ability to perceive the environment around the body and the ability to think logically, remember things and so forth. And that is a fine definition. We all know what they are talking about. But that is really the combination of what I call pure Awareness and your personal consciousness when the personal consciousness is permeating the physical body. OOBEs are just one way to clearly recognize that your power of sentience does not arise from the body at all. And yet, after experiencing an OOBE many people get stuck thinking that they are fundamentally their soul. But that is okay. Eventually they will move into the full understanding that they exist fundamentally as pure Awareness. Anyway, I hope this helps a bit. - Thomas Razzeto

@AleksM @Heart of Space [All of this is just my opinion and I celebrate the fact that everyOne gets to choose what they want to believe and how they want to live their life. Hooray for that!] Why we make a distinction between Awareness and consciousness Overview: Awareness is the power of sentience, the capacity to perceive. Consciousness is the window through which the One Awareness looks. This Awareness is what you truly are, fundamentally. This Awareness perceives, but it cannot be perceived. Just as a window cannot see anything, consciousness is also completely blind; it is not sentient in any way. Yet consciousness serves as an instrument (a viewpoint) for the One Awareness (or God, if you are comfortable with that word). Your personal consciousness (soul) permeates your body and this combination provides a viewpoint through which the One Awareness experiences the world as the person you seem to be. More expanded explanation: In my essay “The Loving Heart of Enlightenment,” I talk about awareness a lot. I talk about how there is only One Awareness and how it spontaneously emanates as the totality of created reality. This is why my mentor, Timothy Conway, and I refer to this awareness as Source-Awareness. But in that particular essay, I never used the word “consciousness” and I will now clarify why I make a distinction between the two. (I did not use the word “consciousness” in that essay simply because I did not want to go into the difference between the two in that essay.) Timothy taught me to make this distinction but we also find this distinction in the ancient texts. For example, in the Hindu tradition, we have Shiva (pure, formless Awareness) and Shakti (universal consciousness, which is the first “thing” that arises from pure Awareness via the process of creation). From this universal consciousness (also called the Word, the Logos, the primordial seed vibration and so forth), flows the rest of creation. So all of creation is made of consciousness, so to speak, and all of creation is rooted (or sourced) in pure, formless, unchanging Source-Awareness. Source-Awareness is what you are in the most fundamental way, and yet you are also the totality of created reality in a profound and yet nonfundamental way. In other words, God is arising as everyOne a lot like an actor arises as a (nonessential or nonfundamental) character. And finally, you have a functional identity as the person you appear to be. All of this is fully divine and seeing everyOne as a unique manifestation of God is what opens up the loving heart of enlightenment. Within creation we have what Timothy calls “personal consciousnesses” or souls. The ancient texts use the word “jiva” to point to this. Timothy also uses the word “viewpoint” and these four terms are synonymous. I sometimes us the word “window.” Each person has a personal body and a personal consciousness – a body and a soul. During your normal waking state, your personal consciousness permeates your body and together these provide a dynamic perspective through which the One Awareness (your True Self) experiences the life of the person we think of as “you.” During a nighttime dream, your personal consciousness permeates your dream body (not your physical body) and together these provide a perspective through which the One Awareness (your True Self) experiences the dream events and the dream objects. [The following is from my essay, What Is Enlightenment?] Imagine you are the One Awareness and that you are in a room with many windows. When you look out into the world through one of these windows, you see a certain view. In this way, you have all the experiences of one particular person. You see what they see, feel what they feel, think what they think, remember what they remember, dream what they dream and so forth. When you look through a different window, you have all the experiences of another person. But you are still the same Awareness; this has not changed in any way. If you experienced all of these perceptions altogether through one big window, it would be just a huge jumble of color, noise and so forth. Our individuated personal consciousnesses or windows are what allow the One Awareness to have all the experiences of billions of different people without it being one big, messy overlay. This is how the One becomes the many. By the way, drugs and alcohol affect the body and the brain but not the Awareness. If someone is drunk, this window becomes unclear or distorted but the Awareness still has perfect 20/20 vision, so to speak. So while this Awareness is not affected at all, the overall experience is much different. Although your personal consciousness (your soul) does not depend upon your body in any way, it uses the body to create that razor sharp feeling of being present in our physical world as a human being with a physical body. It feels like your body is an integral part of you because your personal consciousness permeates your body. Imagine a driver not only getting into a car but also infusing himself or herself into every single atom of the car. When you add to this the One Awareness looking out through the combined viewpoint of the body and soul, you get the extremely vivid experience that tricks you into falsely believing that you are a separate, mortal, sentient, physical being. You certainly do not appear to be divine in any way. [End of excerpt] Again, you exist fundamental as the One Awareness, this open capacity for experience. In the deepest way, this what you intuitively know yourself to be. And yet paradoxically, you also have a functional identity as the person you seem to be. Quite amazing. Thanks for reading this long post. Here are the links to those two essays I mentioned: The Loving Heart of Enlightenment A summary overview of spiritual awakening in simple, clear English https://infinitelymystical.com/essays/the-loving-heart-of-enlightenment.html 3 pages What Is Enlightenment? https://infinitelymystical.com/essays/what-is-enlightenment.html 8 pages In truth, I honor your divine nature, Thomas Razzeto https://infinitelymystical.com