EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS--INQUIRY
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From: Joann K.
Date: Sunday, March 11, 2007, 7:32 AM
Subject: Evolutionary Process--Inquiry
Reply to: 258884
ID: 256382

Ram, quoting Sri NM: 1. Sri Nisaragodatta Maharaj has said: " I see that in the ocean of pure awareness, on the surface of the universal consciousness, the numberless waves of the phenomenal worlds arise and subside beginninglessly and endlessly. As consciousness, they are all me. As events they are all mine"

Ram's inquiry: What is the difference between awareness and consciousness? From a universal infinite landscape to the individual landscape (my/your/others) as is? What does it truly mean that as consciousness all the phenomenal worlds are me? Similarly, what does it mean that as events they are all mine?

JoAnn: Good questions, dear Ram, very good questions, ones which go right to the One heart of the matter. That One Consciousness – all me, as Sri Maharaj says – is able to be seen by all of us, is meant to be experienced by all of us.

There is no division in ultimate consciousness. We can see this very easily, I think, in the structure of a living eco-system. When I enter the forest, I see little sparks and bits of consciousness everywhere – birds flitting, worms burrowing, animals skipping across the trails, trees dreaming their lives forth, me climbing over rocks. Each of us in the forest is adequately and functionally ‘aware’ of our surroundings. Even the little ant and bee busily living their lives is ‘aware’ of that which it needs to be aware of in order to survive and thrive. Everything in the forest is an aware individual, from the tiny leaf cell opening its borders to let in the sunshine, to the doe licking her fawn with motherly concern, to the hawk perched proud in his nest watching for dinner – each of these is aware and conscious in exactly the way they need to be in order to survive and thrive the Life-flow forward in the forest……

……so, what Is it that coordinates all this individual intelligence….what Is it that providentially oversees and ‘through-sees’ this living process which we call a forest? It Is, of course, the One Consciousness which comes forth from and within each of the individual intelligences, who is each doing what they do quite naturally, spontaneously, perfectly, in their own little individual Way….

…….now when you pause long enough in the forest to think of these things – or when you are anywhere, for that matter, and open your heart to see how each little individual consciousness – from the hangnail that heals itself on our finger – to the paramedics who gather around a fire or accident – when you take some time to reflect on all of this spectacular coordination – the one for the many, and the many for the one – you begin to see that you yourself have no beginning or end in this process, but that you are an integral part of the entire Process, from beginning to end…and everything in between. You begin to see that even the very atoms of your body are not really ‘yours’ but are shared and exchanged and ‘gifted’ to all others on the planet. And not only your atoms, but even your very thoughts, cannot be put in arbitrary bounds of ownership, but that you are a very real part of every thought that’s ever been thought or ever will be thought. You begin to see how your individual awareness contributes to the overall Awareness of the Web in which you are woven…how others contribute to you….how synchronicities and providences and ‘chance’ miracles thread their Way through your life until you can’t remember what it’s like to feel separate from all this Intelligent, Purposeful coordination and choreographing of your life with all others.

Ram, quoting Sri NM: Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: " After freeing from the names and the forms and of the desires and fears they create, what remains is nothingness/void. But the void is full to the brim. It is the eternal potential as consciousness is the eternal actual"

Ram's inquiry: What does it mean that the void is full to the brim? Is experiencing/being the void the ultimate human development potential? If so, in what sense and how to go about it? And what is consciousness and awareness role/relationship in being that ultimate human potential?

JoAnn: If we let go of our fears, desires, names and forms, what is left? All these things – fears, desires, etc. – come from only our most shallow intellectual waters. That is, these personal emotions and misperceptions are only on the surface of our consciousness. In order to swim deeper, we need to realize this and refuse to be fascinated by them and determine to see just exactly what we Are underneath all this outward perturbation.

Sri NM’s feelings on this matter echo exactly many of our mystical traditions on this matter. Once we can quiet our minds and hearts long enough to see past these turbid fears and desires, we can see into the depths of ourSelves, and we begin to realize that, in ultimate Essence, we are the emptiness, the void, which holds the One, which contains the One, which births forth only and ever the One. We are the vessels of Divinity, but vessels must be empty of all dross and foreign material before they are clean enough to hold this Oneness in its pristine purity…..we are vessels of the One, pure and simple. The void does indeed become full to the brim when we become Aware of this.

Ram, quoting Sri NM: 3. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: " Awareness is not of time (in relation to life and death), time exist in consciousness only. Beyond consciousness where are times and space?

Ram' inquiry: Does it mean than when a person dies there is No consciousness, however, there is underlying awareness? And this awareness a person carries alongwith him/her into the next journey...right?

JoAnn: Right. We absolutely never lose the level of consciousness we have attained. And in fact, we are even now this very moment living in the One eternity and carrying this very real eternity along with us during every moment of time. Many of the quotes I’ve gathered in the ‘Immortality’ category state this Truth in very clear and beautiful language, in a way that can awaken our own natural intuitions and knowings of this ever-present One Eternity.

Ram: Thank you very kindly, JoAnn, et all.

JoAnn: And thank you, dear Ram, for your ever-interesting and pertinent questions and insights, and for your open, friendly communication.

Loving you all in the One,

JoAnn