Q&A #1: Concepts, Objects, and What Knows Them
1.
“As seekers, we want to experience Oneness objectively.” [Quote from an ACN post, and used here by the questioner as a set-up to their query.]
Q: Since the mind is an object, and the concept of knowing is an object, the idea that we can “know in this moment” that we are awake might warrant some more pointing.
A: The concept of knowing something may be an object, but no concept can arise prior to I Am. This I Am is neither a concept nor an object, and what knows it is not mind. Mind itself is a concept appearing within I Amness.
When consciousness comes to consciously know itself–through the light of I Am and the sense of being–we call that “awakening.” It is this to which we are referring when we speak of enlightenment. This is where nearly all nondual teachings point, including most of what is said in this one. It’s enough, it’s plenty, and finding both clarity and stability within nondual awakening is what leads to “embodiment,” which is generally considered to be the “end game,” or the “point” of authentic nondual awakening.
However, beyond imagination, neither awakening, nor embodiment has anything to do with a so-called individual. It does not occur to or for an imaginary character. All presently awakened beings know this. If we have had an awakening experience and experienced brightness, but we have since had that brightness subside and are back to being cloudy, then we will have likely forgotten this fact.
Let us understand that the term embodiment does not mean that a so-called individual has now, at last, been cleared up. There’s no one there to clear up. Thus it means that our erroneous belief in a so-called individual has been cleared out–or that this belief is at least well along in the apparent thinning process.
We can say without fault that I Am is everything, including you-the-imaginary-character, and You-Conscious-Awakeness. I Am can also be called Oneness, or for the fussy, Not-twoness. I have taught this for years, and I don’t now need to take any of that back. It is so.
And…
Those of us who move from unit to witness to Oneness may have a sense that Oneness is the end of the line. It certainly feels like that. It felt like that here for years. And for the great majority of us, that’s going to be the truth–which is just fine. Nothing is being missed. Nothing is lacking. Nonetheless, while Oneness may be the end of “our” line, let us not become convinced that it is the end of the line. It is unless it isn’t.
For some, for what has historically been a very small number within an already infinitesimal percentage of units, Oneness will simply be the end until it isn’t. I suspect those numbers will start to climb significantly in the next few years, but I can’t know this.
