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compassion
87 Posts |
 Posted - Jan 11 2014 : 01:51:20 AM
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This is an issue I have often thought about, long before any study or practise, and is more thought experiment than any other. I guess the question boils down to 'Is awareness only awareness, or is it more than that?'
Some people think of our awareness as being limited to just that: awareness. That it doesn't influence our day-to-day activities, that we are just watching things unfold.
However there must be some feedback from awareness to ego, or we wouldn't be able to discuss our awareness; we wouldn't be able to understand that our ego and awareness are different. So there must also be a flow of information back from awareness to the ego and rest of the world.
If so, then what is flowing back exactly? |
Edited by - AYPforum on Jan 11 2014 02:48:11 AM |
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AYPforum
351 Posts |
Posted - Jan 11 2014 : 02:48:11 AM
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| Moderator note: Topic moved for better placement |
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tonightsthenight
846 Posts |
Posted - Jan 11 2014 : 04:59:07 AM
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The flow back and forth is information. Data. Whatever.
In the case of the Self, pure conscious awareness, its unlimited. With the ego, its limited. The ego doesn't exist outside of creation, its a manifestation of the temporary form we take. Its temporary too. Its temporal things, like the body and mind, forming identity and assuming lifehood. Only its not really alive, it only thinks it is.
Of course, it can gather data of this world we live in and that data is useful in this world, even as the Self takes its seat as the master of our minds and bodies. So that feedback is really only relevant here in the three dimensional temporal world.
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Edited by - tonightsthenight on Jan 11 2014 05:10:36 AM |
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compassion
87 Posts |
Posted - Jan 11 2014 : 07:09:57 AM
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Thank you tonightsthenight!
If I understand you correctly, then you are saying the Self takes very much an active role in its position, which is what I have believed also. I wasn't sure if perhaps there was a contradiction, because when we talk about pure awareness, it seems to only describe half the story (without the action part). |
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tonightsthenight
846 Posts |
Posted - Jan 11 2014 : 4:54:08 PM
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With respect, you're talking about two separate ideas.
There is the Siva component of duality manifested as the witness. There is also sakti, manifested as form (and action). So there is the interplay of the perceiver and the perceived. And yet these two aspects are at their roots the same thing. It is all pure unbounded awareness.
In the end, there is no doer and nothing to be done. In nondual samadhi, things get done but we don't do them. We are them. Things unfold as they do, and we are the witness to it but also the thing being done.
But here it is, there is no understanding of this without the experience. The answer to your questions lie within. Keep practicing daily with great bhakti and you will find your way. The secret to effective practice outside of the methods Yogani lays out here is bhakti. Everything starts with the spark of desire and devotion. So practice and in time experience the answers to your questions. |
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compassion
87 Posts |
Posted - Jan 12 2014 : 03:24:56 AM
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The contradiction in my mind starts to unravel some more with your explanation. I understand it is necessary to experience for myself and I look forward to pondering this some more.
Thank you again. |
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