*  ATTD News Letter Number 106   Sunday, May 20, 2007  *
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Table of Contents.
Q & A.
Question: I have just read your wonderful book "Awakening to the dream", it has so much clarity compared to other similar works. Everything resonates with me as I read each page, but I still think, are we accepting this as just another concept, which we want to be true, because it FEELS so right?. You use the word unequivocal when stating what we truly are, how can you be sure it's not the mind saying YES, this is the ONE simply because you want it to be.

Answer: I had to look it up and found I used the word 'unequivocal' once and not exactly in a context that the 'I' might find comforting. It was about the 'I' seeking for 'enlightenment.'

"Logic dictates that we should gain something here instead of merely hearing that we don't exist. From this perspective, it gets even worse. 'Enlightenment' not only shows that your separate identity is an illusion, it reveals that sheer purposelessness is at the heart of this whole creation. This sounds absurd to the goal-and-future-oriented mind; yet I will tell you unequivocally that the whole point of this manifestation is nothing other than this manifestation."

Back to your question. Yes this is just another concept, as the book mentions several times. Here is a 'warning' from the chapter "All you read here is NOT the truth!"

You are advised to read carefully before swallowing any of the concepts contained in this book. They do not contain the truth, in the same way that the concept of water will not quench your thirst. Furthermore, they may be hazardous to your ego, your convictions, and your current values. Caution is advised in cases of extreme rigidity, since reading this book may lead to uncomfortable bending, stretching, or even to the annihilation of one's model of reality. Of course, you have to take even this disclaimer with a pinch of salt, as it is one of the concepts it warns you about.

Another one:

…It is not, however, intended to be a new concept to hold on to. Ramana Maharshi compared a false concept to a thorn in your flesh. You can use another thorn (concept) to remove the first one; but afterward you throw both away. Holding onto the second one will, in time, result in your 'pricking' yourself again. The thorn in these very words is that they seem to suggest the existence of a 'you' that should let go of both thorns, while there is, in fact, no one to hold on to anything.

And I dare say, suggestions like, 'there being no 'you' in charge' and 'an independent entity with free will is a fiction' or 'THIS as IT IS, is IT' usually aren't received as 'good news'. Typically it is NOT what people want to hear.

You say "…how can you be sure it's not the mind saying YES, this is the ONE simply because you want it to be." Nothing that appears is certain, it can all be hallucination, imagination or illusion as our nightly dreams show. All that is certain, is this Being/Consciousness, present in the knowing of our dreams and present now in the reading of these words. It is self-evident and its own proof. Isn't there the certainty of being right now? And if there are doubts about this, aren't they known as doubts beyond a shadow of doubt?

Where does anything appear; objects, bodies, thoughts, feelings, space, doubt, certainty, and so on? Does it not all appear in Consciousness?

Imagine this whole universe as a holographic illusion created by a race of 'super beings' for their entertainment. The characters in it are as devoid of feelings and thoughts as the apparent characters on a movie screen. Those 'super beings' activated this hologram and then -millions of years ago- they became extinct. Now this whole show keeps running on autopilot and there is no 'awareness' of it at all.

In what sense could it be said to exist, even if only as an illusion? Without Consciousness it simply isn't there at all. This Consciousness can of course be doubted to, but it has to Be for this doubting to be known as doubt.

There is no getting closer to this Being/Consciousness and there's no getting away from IT either. All appearances are only Consciousness appearing to ItSelf. There is only Consciousness. Therefore, wherever 'you' are, there IT IS, and wherever IT IS, there you are. Suddenly, the picture -like an optical illusion- may flip inside out and instead of just 'you' appearing in the universe, all universes appear in YOU.


If or when you have a question you'd like to see answered in this newsletter send it to:
author@awakeningtothedream.com

Art by: David MacDonald Title: 'The Terrace'
Found at: http://216.25.11.234/davidmac/
Fair Use Notice

That which appears
Does any appearance (thought, feeling, sensation, object, state or experience) exist independent or separate from presence-awareness?

Comment: Everything that we ever know or experience appears within presence-awareness. You have never had a single thought, feeling, sensation or any other experience outside of awareness. In other words this presence-awareness is the necessary precondition for anything else to be. Without this conscious presence nothing else is. Because objects of experience and the presence of awareness are never known independently of each other, they must be, in essence, the same undivided substance or principle. Just as waves are nothing but water or gold ornaments are nothing but gold, so are all appearances nothing but that one undeniable beingawareness. All that appears, including the seeker himself, is only that.

What about the nature of the world, the universe that presents itself to us?

Comment: All that we can know is what appears to us in immediate experience. And that which appears (whether it be a thought, feeling, perception or any other experience) has no separate and independent existence apart from the awareness which cognizes it. Since awareness and objects always appear together, they must be the same in essence. How many thoughts, feelings or perceptions can you have outside of awareness? They are inseparable. Everything that appears arises from, exists upon and returns into awareness. Even time, space and seeming external objects are present experiences contained in your knowing presence. There is nothing separate and apart from this—ever. In fact, there is just this—only this inescapable presence-awareness. You are that.


Unmani in Amsterdam
Meetings with Unmani in Amsterdam.

22nd - 24th June, 2007.

22nd - FRIDAY EVENING 7.30-9.30pm at 'Jan's house'.
Vogelenzang - straat 39-11, Amsterdam.
Please call 00-31-612405026 to book a place.

23rd and 24th - SATURDAY AND SUNDAY AFTERNOONS, 2-5pm
De Roos, Centrum voor Creatieve & Spirituele Groei,
P.C. Hooftstraat 183, 1071 BW Amsterdam.
tel: 020 - 689 00 81 No need to book.

For more information or advanced bookings you can email Unmani at:
unmanicool@yahoo.co.uk Or call her in the UK on 0044-20-89618471.

Recognition of Life as it is, is recognition of what is already and has always been: not-knowing. This is what I am. Absolutely innocent not knowing. In not-knowing there is no doubt. In notknowing there is absolute clarity. Simply the direct recognition of what is. This is what I am. I am Life itself.

From Unmani's book 'I am Life Itself'


Awakened Poetry


To show you all,
On the first morning of the year

A thousand thousand worlds,
a single breath,
one turn of the Great Potter's Wheel.
The withered tree blossoms

In a spring beyond illusion.
Plop!
The firecrackers bring me back:

the laugh is on me.
This year's man
is last year's man.

Quote of the Moment!



Is that all there is... is that all there is?
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing.
Let's break out the booze and have a ball
If that's all there is



~ Peggy Lee ~

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Smile of the Moment!





Sent to me by email: Artist unkown.

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