PRIME POST! Before the Beginning
Hello, everybody. I was trying to write a post on an entirely different topic, when the opening line to this post popped into my head. It wouldn’t leave me alone, so I went ahead and wrote it down to look at it later, but it wouldn’t let me walk away. It beckoned to the point where I abandoned the other post and spent the next three days working on this.
There is a lot here. I hope you find it helpful—it was an amazing process for me, like nothing I’ve written since The Looking Glass: Language as Mirror. (Use the search feature to find that post if you haven’t read it. I re-publish it annually.)
Quick News:
1) I am writing a new book, and so I will not be doing much in the way of new videos for at least a little while. It’s been made clear that I’m not supposed to do video just now, and I always fare better when I pay careful attention to my Employer.
2) I will be undergoing some minor surgery to my elbow on January 7, so I will not be able to respond to comments for a while, but I’ll certainly read them, so send me some good thoughts!
Before the Beginning
IT tells Its Story
Before the beginning, It Is.
After the ending, It Is.
Between the beginning and the ending, between the ending and the beginning, always, It Is, offering infinite potentiality.
Prior to the arising of I Amness, It does not know Itself. It is beyond existing, or not existing. There is neither a presence, nor an absence of I Amness.
Presence or absence do not apply. No opposites apply.
Birth and death are opposites, but there is no opposite to Life.
Before the beginning, before any appearance arises, It Is. After all appearances go, It Is.
It neither comes, nor goes. It is the Source of all that comes and goes. It is the Source of Beingness.
Prior to the arising of Beingness, It does not feel Itself. There is neither a presence, nor an absence of Beingness. Even so, It Is. It neither rises, nor falls, never lives or dies. It is Beyond. Presence or absence do not apply. Even so, It Is.
It never is not. It Is That Which Has No Name.
In the beginning, at the birth of a human, there immediately arises Universal Amness. Joy, gratitude, elation, awe and wonder abound.
Universal Amness is without center or boundary, name or form, size or weight, duration or volume; without preference or personality. It is the ever-flowing, boiling, booming verbness of Life.
It is always in movement, metamorphosing, growing without expanding, shrinking without diminishing, as perfectly harmonized as an atomic clock, while appearing chaotic and unstable.
Freshly born from the Unborn, space and time appear on it, within it, and upon their mating infinite combinations of yin and yang are birthed. Endless zeroes, endless ones. Endless blacks and whites, sunrises and sunsets, males and females, and on and on and on.
Dreaming without a dreamer.
Soon, within Universal Amness, the I-sense arises, initially so furtive and hidden that it is like a cloud within a mist. Yet slowly, steadily, spontaneously, inexorably it knits itself from sensations, perceptions.
Universal Beingness is coming to sense Itself, but as yet this sensing is pure. The Tree of Knowledge has not yet been discovered, and its dangerous fruit has not yet been eaten.
Perfection reigns briefly, while thought lies ready in the shadows.
Two years beyond birth—within the light of the false dawn of apparent individual self-awareness—comes the energetic blast of an enormous, instantaneous contraction. Much like the Big Bang, only rushing inward instead of outward, all things and all attention, are sucked into a center, surrounding a miniscule pinhead of a human unit, until finally, with excited elation and utter confusion, comes to believe, “I Am this human being.”
Personal I Amness has arisen.
Indra’s Net, that infinite, alive, divine mesh thrown across the universe by the King of the Hindu Gods, forgets its true nature, forgets its own divinity, and comes to believe it is a single jewel in a single intersection, and not the net itself.
Notions of either/or do not apply. I Amness is both the jewel, and the net. The tendency is to remember the one while excluding the other. We transfer identification from one ghost to the other.
Oscillation. Misidentification.
In the beginning, I Am the primary arising. I come first. Then, as I come to know Myself through the hands and eyes of conditioned space, I get lost in the appearance of multiplicity within my Unity. I forget that I Am the singular arising. I Am.
Whether I remember myself or not, I Am.
Although personal I Amness appears to arise, it does not. It is just a thought. When this thought is seen through, we call it awakening, but there is no awakening for the personal I Amness, because it never arose to begin with. A thought bubble pops.
When the personal I Amness appears to fall, as all arisings do, there is no death. That which does not live to begin with cannot die.
A light flickers out.
Whence the light?
Wax does not know itself, but that does not mean that it is dead, or that it is not there. It forms many shapes and sizes of candle. It is the Source of all candles, and thus it is the Source of all light.
Each being is a wick for Universal Amness. Each human being is a wick for Personal I Amness. When Life, the divine energy, meets a human unit, the offspring of that meeting is consciousness.
So long as that wick burns, It knows Itself truly, while pretending to not know itself. Even so, It Is.
When a wick has burned itself out, the light from that candle goes out. Nothing less, nothing more. The inexhaustible wax is unaffected. It Is, but It does not know Itself.
What to say about wax? Nothing. What to think about wax? Nothing. It is prior to consciousness and consciousness cannot touch it, cannot know it.
We can know of It. We can be It. We can’t not be it. Universal I Amness is an arising, a shadow of the Real.
What to say about wicks? Not much. They are empty arisings. They are neither conscious, nor unconscious. They are mechanisms for transporting fuel. They are the tools that transform Potential into Beingness—so long as they burn.
What to say about flame? The nature of flame is to cast light, to cast the light of Beingness from the Source of all Beingness, which is prior to, and beyond this world.
Flame!
I Am!
I Am the primary arising. I do not need this world, for I Am with or without this world. I know Myself, and then I don’t, but I never diminish or disappear.
I Am Everything.
I Am Nothing.
Source is beyond either.
I do not need this world, but this world desperately needs Me.
Without the sense of Being, nothing can exist, for it can’t be known without Me. I Am First.
I Am the only Power in the universe. I Am Omnipotence.
I do not need this world, but nothing can exist here unless I presently know it. The entire universe is contingent upon my Being. I have to know, and do know, everything everywhere at all times. Objects, beings and arisings endure only for so long as I know them. At my briefest inattention they immediately wither.
I Am the only Knowing in the universe. I Am Omniscience.
I do not need this world, but I am its Keeper. I have to know everything everywhere at all times, or it cannot be. In order to know everything everywhere at all times, I have to Be everywhere at all times.
I Am the only Being. I Am Omnipresent.
And finally,
of course,
I am you.
You Are It.
.
.
All love,
Fredness January 6, 2015
January 6, 2015 @ 3:40 am
Great as always, Fred. Thanks.
January 6, 2015 @ 4:06 am
WOW !
Morning Fred .
Who wrote that? Who read that ?
The Light met the Light right here in this smile
Beautiful. Thanks Fredness.
January 6, 2015 @ 4:13 am
Hi Fred,
At last,I can relate and feel complete and comfortable in these words of wisdom.
They leave me braethless !
I thank you Fred
In gratitude
Mary
January 6, 2015 @ 8:07 am
Wow! Delicious…. thank you ^.^
Heal well 🙂
~Tracey
January 6, 2015 @ 8:31 am
Brilliant, beautiful, and clear. Thank You. Wishing you a full and rapid recovery from the elbow surgery. xox
January 6, 2015 @ 12:18 pm
Hey, Irene! As always, thank you for your unfailing support.
Love,
Fred
January 6, 2015 @ 11:01 am
Fred,
Well written and conceived! I also know the feeling of being compelled to write something, not knowing whence it came, yet feeling it to be true. This passage closely parallels some of that writing in “Part of God.” Live on and write more!
January 6, 2015 @ 12:18 pm
Thank you, TE!
January 6, 2015 @ 11:11 am
Your magnificant exposition, most definitely came from your conscious conection to the infinite, the All. The notion and experience of “God” for me is simply experienced/expressed as infinite wisdom and uncondition love. Apparently you were expressing the effects of your connection in that flow of moments, as infinite wisdom. At the same time with each of your talks, your unconditional love touches my heart, so this entity got you on two levels Fred. Thank you!
When you referred to birth and death as two opposites. Indigenous consciousness, views birth and death as one endless cycle of Life. From the ashes/remains of death comes the birth of new life. In this context birth and death are one whole process. This came as a revelation to to this entity, which helped to ease this entity’s initial fear of death. Then experiencing this entity, absent of the illusion of a “me” or an “I” furthered reduced this entity’s concern with death. Your discouse brought this entity’s into a heightened state of connection to that mysterious source of the All of existence. Thanks for the the wonderous Journey.
Josh
January 6, 2015 @ 12:17 pm
Yes, life and death are two ends of the same stick. Thanks!
January 6, 2015 @ 1:21 pm
The article shows that you are connected and aware. It also begs us to ask just how far down the rabbit hole do we want to go in our awareness. Thanks Fred for the concise article.
January 6, 2015 @ 3:19 pm
Thanks, Cliff!
Who is it that wonders how far down to go?
January 6, 2015 @ 1:25 pm
Clear as a bell! Holy ****!
Makes me want to shout and shut up at the same time 🙂
We are blessed.
Happy recovery.
January 6, 2015 @ 3:20 pm
Hey, Robbin! Thank you! And yes, I think I pretty much said what I wanted to say. 😉
January 6, 2015 @ 1:27 pm
I like the candle/wick/flame analogy! Very Clear!! Thank you Fred!
January 6, 2015 @ 3:20 pm
Hey, Cheryl! Thanks!
January 7, 2015 @ 6:53 am
Divine Fredness, I bow to Thee.
Thou hast verily nailed it.
What can I say, except Om?
OK, I could a Tat Sat I suppose, but I don’t think
we even need to go there.
BTW, I changed my spiritual name.
I am no longer Garydas, since the Gary unit aka Garyness
has completely (OK, almost completely) disappeared.
Please refer to me from now on as Sri Das Ananda, if you can find
it in your heart to do so.
And verily verily I say to you:
I am the whole ball of wax, but most of all, the flame.
Shanti Shanti Shanti
Sri Das Ananda
(Formerly known as Garydas, the Gary Unit,
Garyness, and, according to Jerry Katz at least,
Mr. Personality of Nonduality.)
January 14, 2015 @ 8:46 am
Hey, Gary! Your name reminds me of Joan Tollifson’s spiritual name–Ananda Bliss! LOL!!
January 7, 2015 @ 3:59 pm
Dear Fred,
Great article! Great to hear you’re writing a new book and good luck with your surgery today!
January 14, 2015 @ 8:45 am
Hey, Alfred! Thank you! I’m recovering beautifully. Always good to hear from you.
January 7, 2015 @ 4:42 pm
Very beautiful. Thank you!
I hope the surgery went smoothly. Chris and I chanted the Kanzeon (invocation of Avalokitesvara) for you today, and we will continue to send healing vibes your way as you recover.
All love,
Kathleen
January 14, 2015 @ 8:45 am
All is well, Kathleen, and I can now answer the comments from the last post!
Love to you,
Fred
January 11, 2015 @ 12:30 am
“Waiter, I’ll have what he’s having!”
February 14, 2015 @ 10:09 pm
This is great, Fred!
February 15, 2015 @ 9:15 am
Thanks, Aleta!