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Question: Hi Leo, I've enjoyed your books with one caveat. It seems to me that the point that hasn't been addressed is that the ONE may well in fact be the absolutely brain based reticular activating system that also may be the source of awareness.
This process naturally precedes thought and therefore cannot be known by thought. It is also individually based. Identification with this pre-cortical awareness seems to me to be equivalent to the SOURCE that you describe. Perhaps its characteristics are sat/chit/Ananda. Is it not possible that all this spiritual searching is just plain silly? Response: An interesting question Joe. Spiritual searching may be called silly for many reasons, but for the seeker it probably is not. If I need my glasses and look for them, I don't consider this silly, but if you see them perched on top of my head, you probably do: It's a matter of perspective. We could say that the brain-based reticular activating system is instrumental to the functioning of human consciousness, but to conclude that this system is the One Source seems like declaring part of the radio to be the source of what we hear on it. We could remove a certain component of the radio and thereby silence it. This may then be taken as evidence that the music we heard, originated in the part we removed. Is it not just as unlikely that consciousness is the outcome of some random chemical interaction as it is that Bach's music originates in a transistor? Could it be that 'something' animates this manifestation just like the airwaves 'animate' the radio? We could call it 'intelligent energy', 'Life' or 'Beingness'. Without this 'force' even a fully intact body does not function; just like an intact light bulb will not produce light without the animating energy of electricity. Here, Life or Beingness and whatever appears are not seen as two, but for the sake of metaphor let's say that Beingness 'uses' the reticular activating system to express AS 'human-self-reflecting-consciousness' in the same way a musician may use an instrument to express his musicality. Seen in this light, the reticular activating system is the instrument 'played' by Life-It-Self and 'awareness' is the melody. There is no way I know of, to prove what I say here, yet there is now way I know of to disprove it. There are of course NDE's and OBE's, which are difficult to fit with awareness being purely brain based. To be sure, they do not prove anything conclusively, but neither have they been explained satisfactorily. Within the commonly accepted idea that time is real and humans and their brains have evolved through a lengthy process, it may indeed seem possible for dead matter to have sparked into brain based consciousness, just like it might be possible for a million monkeys pressing keys on a million typewriters to come up with the Encyclopedia Britannica. However this is not what is seen here: No past, no future, only THIS timeless presence appearing right now, including memories and theories. One Timeless Unborn Source - One Energy- expressing AS apparent diversity. To approach this mystery of 'Self Origination' through 'cause/effect reasoning' may lead to the idea that the reticular activating system is what has given rise to the idea of One Source. But could it not as well be the other way around? However, if we decide to use 'cause/effect reasoning' to get to the root (or source), then why stop there? If we really want to explain it, it seems we now have to come up with 'something' as the cause of this 'reticular activating system'. And so on…… It seems this chain of cause and effect ultimately requires a 'first cause.' This 'first cause' would have to be 'uncaused' for it to be the first. I only put this in to illustrate that from 'my' perspective 'cause/effect theory' merely provides answers within its own limited scope. Eventually it either seems to 'pitter out', or it gets pushed back forever and ever, or it leads back to the mystery of 'Self Origination.' Here splitting ONE in cause and effect is seen as a purely mind generated abstraction, very handy in day to day interaction, but an abstraction nevertheless. Such dividing logic may convincingly tell us of the cause -the brain based reticular activating system- and its effect of 'it being interpreted as Source.' Such reasoning wins on its own terms, but perhaps there is the option of an intuitive insight, a sudden 'seeing through' where this whole manifestation is perceived as nothing but 'the Single Source' appearing presently AS consciousness and its apparent objects -as a single, many faceted, self-shining diamond. As such IT may be re-cognized as the Timeless-Uncaused-Presence-You-Are. Newsletters 10, 9, and 33 may be relevant here.
If or when you have a question you'd like to see answered in this newsletter send it to:
author@awakeningtothedream.com Art by: Swami Sundarand Title: 'Source of the river Yamuna' From his book: Himalaya, through the lens of a Sadhu. 
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This is timeless, deathless, eternal.
This is without equal, this is never-to-be-repeated, this is utterly unique and totally new, in each and every moment, although there are no 'moments' at all. This is empty of all qualities, even the quality of being empty of all qualities. And yet, this is totality full, pregnant with infinite possibility, possibility that overflows again and again into a world. This is peace, but it is a volcanic peace, a peace which does not deny noise but embraces it fully, a peace which does not rest, an ecstatic peace that throws itself out of itself now, now and now. This is completely unknowable, and yet it is filled with the knowledge of things, filled with an apparent world 'out there', in its infinite guises. This is something that cannot be spoken of by anyone, and yet words are thrown out, day after day after day. This is not of this world, and yet it is nothing but this world. This is completely extraordinary, and yet it is as simple and as obvious as the sound of the rain splish-splashing on your rooftop. Splish-Splash!
From: Beyond Awakening by Jeff Foster
Art by: Ria Hills Title: 'The pleasure of Rain' Found at: http://www.riahills.com/main.html Fair Use Notice |
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Beside the Point The sky has never won a prize. The clouds have no careers. The rainbow doesn't say my work, thank goodness. The rock in the creek's not so productive. The mud on the bank's not too pragmatic. There's nothing useful in the noise the wind makes in the leaves. Buck up now, my fellow superfluity, and let's both be of that worthless ilk, self-indulgent as shooting stars, self-absorbed as sunsets. Who cares if we're inconsequential? At least we can revel, two good-for-nothings, in our irrelevance; at least come and make no difference with me. |
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The universe is made of stories, not atoms. (And by clicking here you'll find a tale, involving a drunken sailor, loneliness, Sufis, and a sudden realization. Just a story…) ~ Muriel Rukeyser ~
Art by: Tereza Title: 'The Storyteller.' Found at: http://www.tsartgallery.com/index.html Fair Use Notice |
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Cartoon by Jason Love Visit him at: http://www.jasonlove.com/ Fair Use Notice |
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