I-AM-ness & the Sponge analogy

[graded24]

Hi @Leo Gura    I really liked the Sponge analogy in your most recent video. It seems to combine  many other analogies i had previously heard into one. 

I am trying to integrate  your stuff with what I usually hear from other Advaita Teachers.  I have two questions:
1- You said that awareness is 'technically nothing'. It is kind of that background in which the Sponge, the substance of perception is immersed. And ego is nothing but the negative space, the bubble. But does this background space (and hence the bubble) has an "I-AM-ness" to it? And is that I-AMness of the bubble that gets mistakenly identified with a perception (like body-mind) and becomes ego? Is I-Am-ness the same as self-awareness? 
Or are you saying that the background space is 'more nothing' than that. It doesn't even have an IAMness. Could you please comment on the IAMness of the awareness/background. It would complete the analogy! 
2- To understand the analogy by a concrete example.. are you saying that the colors--the walls of one particular bubble and hence piece of the sponge-- are self aware? If the 
3- If the space that separates the walls of the holes is absolutely nothing, then why is there a hole at all? Doesnt a 'nothing space' between two objects mean no-space at all? 

Edited November 12, 2018 by graded24

[now is forever]

@graded24 you are going to deep into the picture of the sponge. it is more about the properties of a sponge and how the properties of bubble and sponge are interchangeable.

[Leo Gura]

@graded24

1) I-AM-ness is nothing. Which is why the mind cannot grasp it. Yes, I-AM-ness is awareness. Nothingness is self-aware. But don't think of awareness as a thing or a substance. It is nothing. The reason you struggle to get this is because you assume that nothing cannot be self-aware. This is a false assumption.

2) There is only one "substance" in reality, period. That substance is nothing. Everything is it. No exceptions. Everything is self-aware because it is nothing. The entire sponge is nothing. The sponge is not distinct from the empty space it occupies. This cannot really be conveyed by the analogy because it would require you to already have nondual awareness. You see the sponge as distinct from the empty space because you're looking at it dualistically. If you were awake, you'd realize the sponge is nothing, as are all physical objects. This does not mean that sponge disappears or changes shape or color. It just means that you realize that shapes and colors ARE nothing.

3) Again, you are making the mistake of thinking of nothing as the opposite of something. This is the ultimate duality. You're expecting nothing to be a blank -- the opposite of something. And it is that. But it is also all the non-blank stuff as well! Form and formlessness are actually identical. This won't make much sense without a deep awakening.

You have to deeply question all dualities like:

• Something vs nothing
• Form vs formlessness
• Dual vs nondual
• Me vs you
• Inner vs outer
• God vs not-God
• Life vs death
• Existence vs non-existence
• Awareness vs non-awareness
• Material vs immaterial
• Mind vs body
• Self vs world
• Good vs bad
• Sentient vs non-sentient
• Life vs non-life
• Matter vs empty space

All of those distinctions will ultimately collapse into unity if you question them deeply enough.

Everything you've experienced in your entire life was nothing. It's like the entire universe never even happened.

In the beginning, there was nothing. The end. It's like the universe was never even born.

This is an utterly shocking realization which requires super-human levels of consciousness to realize. If you ever get this far, it's as though you broke all of existence. And then again, this is already true right this second in your experience. You just overlooking the obvious.

[Preetom]

On 11/12/2018 at 10:14 AM, graded24 said:

1- You said that awareness is 'technically nothing'. It is kind of that background in which the Sponge, the substance of perception is immersed. And ego is nothing but the negative space, the bubble. But does this background space (and hence the bubble) has an "I-AM-ness" to it? And is that I-AMness of the bubble that gets mistakenly identified with a perception (like body-mind) and becomes ego? Is I-Am-ness the same as self-awareness? 
Or are you saying that the background space is 'more nothing' than that. It doesn't even have an IAMness. Could you please comment on the IAMness of the awareness/background. It would complete the analogy! 

Leo already gave a purely nondual answer. I'll share something intermediate. Hope it helps with your investigation. I think I came across this in a Ramana Maharshi Book first.

I AM is like a Hybrid. Between the Absolute Awareness and dead insentient stuff called body, arises this I AM (A seemingly personal Consciousness). That's why this I AM seems to possess the quality of both, I AM is aware and also it seems to be identified with body or objects of perception, which makes it appear like a subtle sense/sensation located in the body.

So the teaching says, investigate and grab hold of this I AM, divest all it's identifications and limits. Thus it loses all 'physical' qualities and revert back to shining as the pure Self(Awareness). More accurately, it is the realization that there never was a personal consciousness or I AM located in the body to begin with.

I AM is really like that negative space Leo showed. It is pure space, but it also simultaneously appears like a located, square object. When all it's objectivity is subtracted through clear seeing, that negative space reverts back to infinite space. It was never a separate entity out of infinite space anyway.

Edited November 16, 2018 by Preetom

[Samra]

I can't relate easily to nothingness. Void however I have experienced. Void is infinite and bottomless, and goes both ways. Void engulfs, but also is engulfed. I know I am made of voidness. Would you say void and nothingness are one and same thing?

[now is forever]

@Samra that’s a very difficult question. how do they feel for you? maybe they just describe different relations you have to nothingness, voidness emptiness or however you want to call it. like the inuit have different words for white.

if you look long enough you’ll see there is not much difference.

Edited November 17, 2018 by now is forever

[Samra]

@now is forever yes.they are the same. I just don't experience it that way yet.

[now is forever]

@Samra do you need to? if you can acknowledge them more and more as made of the same like white is made of snow and clouds, can you accept how they are the same and still can feel so different?