Awareness and perceiving

[Chris365]

Listening to a satsang in the dark tonight, my train of thought:

I am aware of these sounds

These sounds appear in Awareness

I am Awareness

These sounds appear in ME

Are there sounds, AND being aware of the sounds?

Are there sounds, AND the perceiving of the sounds?

There is only hearing-knowing, there are NO separate sounds AND perceiving

Sounds ARE the hearing-knowing

I AM the hearing-knowing

Awareness/Consciousness is nothing

 

Awareness is not separate from the objects in Awareness

The world/microcosm appears in Awareness, but there is not-2, the perceiving-knowing of the world IS Awareness

Awareness exists as nothing if there is no perceiving 

 

 

Edited October 6, 2020 by Chris365
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[Chris365]

I should expand, perceiving includes the 5 senses, plus thinking.

So, what I am, is a stream of perceiving/thinking, which is also the Knowing/Awareness-ing of it

[Chris365]

22 minutes ago, neutralempty said:

@Chris365 "I should expand, perceiving includes the 5 senses, plus thinking." 

What about imagining and feeling and understanding?

I'd place imagining and understanding under thinking. If feeling is labelled, it's also thinking.  Although I don't mind adding feeling as one of the configurations Awareness takes, along with the other 6...

[Chris365]

I think I also accessed a 'direct hearing-knowing' state that made the words understood with no conceptual overlay and delay, as if a direct transmission through the medium of consciousness.

Although that's a conceptualization,  no need for a 'medium' or 'transmission', since it's the  One Consciousness the guru and I AM

[Chris365]

First non dual awareness state!

 

[No Self]

10 hours ago, Chris365 said:

I should expand, perceiving includes the 5 senses, plus thinking.

So, what I am, is a stream of perceiving/thinking, which is also the Knowing/Awareness-ing of it

The thinking is just a function of the brain/body - phenomena that comes and goes. The true consciousness is the same one even in the dream state and deep sleep (as well as any other altered states of consciousness you care to name).

[Chris365]

17 minutes ago, No Self said:

The thinking is just a function of the brain/body - phenomena that comes and goes. The true consciousness is the same one even in the dream state and deep sleep (as well as any other altered states of consciousness you care to name).

Sure, but what is the nature of thought? It is so categorically different to matter (body/brain), that it feels to me thought is just another configuration of consciousness (along with the 5 senses). The body and matter can also be said to be 'yet another configuration of consciousness', but at my level that's a step too far and I find it useful to differentiate between the world-of-matter and the experience of perceiving and thinking.

[No Self]

14 minutes ago, Chris365 said:

Sure, but what is the nature of thought? It is so categorically different to matter (body/brain), that it feels to me thought is just another configuration of consciousness (along with the 5 senses).

This is true in the sense that a thought that is believed in results in a lower state of consciousness than, say, a meditative state. Thought by itself is just a type of noise that is detected internally within the body. It can also create certain types of experiences when it seduces the consciousness to identify with it. If someone believes that the bogey man is hiding in their closet, they will experience life as if there really is a bogey man in the closet until they actually go and investigate by looking.

But the ultimate consciousness is that which simply observes without participating. Even the idea of being a spiritual seeker trying to find something is watched by a silent witness.

[Chris365]

3 hours ago, No Self said:

But the ultimate consciousness is that which simply observes without participating. Even the idea of being a spiritual seeker trying to find something is watched by a silent witness.

While everything can be said to be a vibration/modulation/instantiation of Consciousness, the body and the world are gross vibrations, while thoughts and perceptions are subtle.

'm not talking about what thoughts do, while being identified or not with them. I'm talking about the actual nature of thought, what IS a thought? It can't arise out of matter (brain/body). 

Thought IS Consciousness, same as Perceiving IS Consciousness.  

How does Consciousness makes itself known when there's nothing to observe/perceive? Consciousness itself is NoThing, so that everything else can exist and be known in and as Consciousness.

Edited October 6, 2020 by Chris365
more text

[Chris365]

15 hours ago, Chris365 said:

Listening to a satsang in the dark tonight, my train of thought:

I am aware of these sounds

These sounds appear in Awareness

I am Awareness

These sounds appear in ME

Are there sounds, AND being aware of the sounds?

Are there sounds, AND the perceiving of the sounds?

There is only hearing-knowing, there are NO separate sounds AND perceiving

Sounds ARE the hearing-knowing

I AM the hearing-knowing

Awareness/Consciousness is nothing

 

Awareness is not separate from the objects in Awareness

The world/microcosm appears in Awareness, but there is not-2, the perceiving-knowing of the world IS Awareness

Awareness exists as nothing if there is no perceiving 

 

 

Starting from:

   I am hearing sounds.

   I am Awareness.

Some clarifications:

  What we mean by sound, is the presence of sound in our perception.

  The presence of sound in our perception is also what we mean by 'hearing'.

Conclusion:

   There is only 'hearing', there are no sounds independent of hearing.

   If we expand 'hearing' to any other perception, we get Awareness(-ing) - Awareness is not a 'thing', it is the presence of hearing, seeing, feeling, thinking etc.

  

(inspired by Goran Backlund)

 

[Chris365]

Starting from @Leo Gura's 'become reality' meditation, I find this helps to expand one's sense of self:

(Focusing on sounds/hearing)

Notice the external sounds (sounds outside your skull, so if your tummy rumbles, that's external)

It helps if I find a video on youtube with distant construction sounds

Now, with these sounds, rather than allowing the projecting of the perceived ' sound source' into space (that's what 'the brain' wants to do automatically), try and 'flatten them out', focus on the raw experience of the sound, with no conceptualization, no 'what it is', no 'where it's coming from'.

With eyes closed, notice the raw sounds have no defined location where they appear. They appear in Consciousness.

Visualize the raw sounds appearing very close to you - if the sounds are low volume (which means they are distant, but do not focus on distance), they can be perceived as coming from small toys very close to you.

This makes it easier to visualize that the sounds appear in Consciousness, they appear in YOU, and your sense of self expands to encompass them.

Last step for non dual perception is to remove the idea of the self, of the 'Observer/Witness Consciousness' from the perception - et voila, YOU ARE the sounds, YOU ARE the hearing.

Will try the same 'flattening' process with visual images, I suspect it's a bit more difficult since the body-mind puts lots of energy into mapping the 3D world into a 3D model...

[Chris365]

There is no seer and no seen, there is only seeing

There is no hearer and no heard, there is only hearing

There is no feeler and no felt, there is only feeling

There is no taster and no tasted, there is only tasting

There is no smeller and no smelled, there is only smelling

There is no thinker and no thought, there is only thinking

 

I AM the seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, smelling, thinking

I AM the perceiving and thinking

 

There is no I

There is only perceiving and thinking

Perceiving and thinking just happens