Good morning, everyone. I thought today I’d clear something up that is often a misunderstanding and confusion and also really leads people to miss the point somehow or expect something unrealistic. That being the idea that I am just awareness or something, I am not the body, and that the world is just the play of maya and an illusion. And so that’s not really that important. The only important thing is the source, the absolute. I am awareness. This kind of idea. I’ve said since the beginning that that’s halfway around the circle. That’s getting stuck in the absolute or being awareness or something. I never say I’m awareness. I say, I am also the body as well, and also form. I’m all of it. So to deny this form, this body, this world, it’s understandable because there’s a lot of pain, confusion, suffering. So then we hear about an idea that you can just be awareness and then the body and the form doesn’t matter. It sounds very appealing, doesn’t it? Oh, I don’t have to suffer life. Well, okay, so that’s not really how it works, you know. Even Ramana Maharshi cried out in pain when he had cancer because it was very painful. So let’s be on holiday for a moment.] Let’s recognize some things here. Another misunderstanding is that there’s no self. Well, yes, that’s true, but let’s find out what it really means. So let’s be on holiday. Blown wide open. I know myself as pure aware being. ««»» Pure aware being is, as I often say, prior to the arising of name and form. I never say there is no name and form. I say prior to the arising of name and form is pure aware being, what I am in essence. Let’s have a look. ««»» I understand, even in my work, why people might get the idea that what I’m pointing to is only awareness or something. And that’s because at the beginning of our work together, I stress very much for you to recognize pure aware being, what you are prior to form. The reason I do that is because we’ve gone through our whole life not knowing that aspect of ourselves and only knowing ourselves as form, the body. And that’s why we’ve gotten ourselves in trouble and had a lot of suffering that much of it is unnecessary. So at the beginning of our work together, I stress over and over again to recognize that which you are prior to all of that. And that’s how it is on my open meetings. That’s what a holiday is, is to recognize that. That’s the beginning of the work that I do. On intensives we see much more than that. We begin there and then we come full circle. And then we find something out. What we find out is that I’m not only awareness and I’m not only the body. I’m all of it. ««»» It’s a huge difference from our normal experience of coming to have believed that we are only the body. That’s what I am. And then we get on the spiritual path and we hear we’re only awareness and then we make that mistake as well. I am only awareness. Well, I don’t agree with that. I say it’s crucial to recognize that aspect of what I am, pure being, knowing, and to recognize that out of pure being, knowing, I rise as this being called Sal. Not separate from that, I rise as that. ««»» And this recognition, when it’s clear and doubtless, is a big change in one’s life, in one’s experience. of course. We still, you can say metaphorically, play the character of ourselves, of course, fully, even more fully than before, with no argument. With no condemnation or judgment, self-blame, all of that kind of thing, thinking we need to fix ourselves, improve ourselves, get over something, transcend something, all of these ideas we get on the path. ««»» Now in knowing that I am at the root pure aware being, which has no name, no form, no color, no texture, and yet simultaneously at the same time I appear as this full of color and texture and experience, and I am both. ««»» Well, this is a big change in a human life. ««»» Otherwise, we get on this idea that I still feel like a person here, the body and thoughts are coming in. Of course, because that’s what the body is. The body is, as I say, the experiencing entity. It’s that which experiences. And it experiences everything - pleasure, pain, thoughts, silence, emotions, happy, sad. It experiences everything. That’s what it is, the experiencing entity. It’s the experiencing aspect of what I am, the formless, non-experiential aspect. Like a wave is the experiencing aspect of the formless ocean. ««»» This is how I speak about non-duality. There isn’t two. There isn’t awareness and form. There isn’t Shiva and Shakti. It’s all one. It’s two aspects of the same thing. ««»» And so, the truth is, yes, this personal self is a fleeting, ephemeral phantom that doesn’t actually have an existence. It appears. So instead of saying, just as just the way I speak, instead of saying there’s no self, I say there’s only the Self. And I am all of it. When I am the Self is all of it - awareness and form, the absolute and manifestation, the Shiva and the Shakti. I am that. ««»» It’s important to see what this personal self is. That in fact, as I said, it’s not an actual thing. it’s a movement coming and going. It has no substance to it. It’s an idea, basically. One that we’ve come to believe is who we are exclusively and then we suffer because of that. ««»» So, for a moment we’ll come out into the sun, pure knowing, pure being, pure aware. ««»» Nothing is denied here. There’s still the body. There’s still the sensory appearances. There are still thoughts coming and going. Nothing’s denied. But through all of it, I am blasting through permeating, like the sun permeates everything. ««»» Pure being permeates all of it. And I see in that, that this form, which has seemed so solid, is very transparent actually. ««»» And that there’s no inside and outside to it also. I am ubiquitous. Like ocean is ubiquitous and still appearing as wave intermittently in a particular place in time. That’s what this body-mind is called Sal. But not to deny it and say, I am only awareness. ««»» Just see in the course of your day, pure being knowing, this knowing permeates all through the transparency of form. Without denying form at all, no reason for that at all. This is coming full circle. On intensives, we go through all of this. We go through the beginning, like I said earlier, which is recognizing what I am prior to the rising of form. And then we go through what I call Bhakti, which is really being devoted to this aspect of myself more and more and more, so that really this is my fundament. This is the root. It doesn’t deny anything, but this is really the root. That’s love of Self there in the real way. That’s bhakti. We also go through in a very deep way the idea of free will and doership and self-creation and all of that. This way we dismantle the belief that ego is the doer. And again, we don’t deny any action, we don’t deny doing, we just recognize that there’s no one here doing any of that. That is just life moving as me in this particular moment. And also, again, so no need to deny it. But that’s a huge thing right there, part of the intensive. And then finally, and really throughout the whole intensive, we come full circle as I was just sharing on this holiday meditation here. Full circle. There’s only the self. And I am that. ««»» It’s good to be with you. I’ll be back again tomorrow. Peace. THERE ARE TWO UPCOMING INTENSIVESDETAILS: www.liberationis.com Salvadore Poe - Liberation IS is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Salvadore Poe - Liberation IS at salvadorepoe.substack.com/subscribe
