Revised November 2015
There is nothing separate in the world. Look closely and you will see that there is no separation between the seer and the seen. They may ‘appear’ separate but where is appearance, but in the mind only. In seeing, both the seer and the seen are contained in it.
It is in our nature to perceive differences where there are none. The seer and the seen appear only in seeing; they are attributes of seeing. When you say ‘I am seeing this’, ‘I am’ and ‘this’ arise with seeing, not before. You cannot have an unseen ‘this’ nor an unseeing ‘I am’.
All parts are one with all. To know the part is to know all as the chariot is one with all it parts. Every part carries all parts with it. Know one thing well and you will know all.
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Thinking yourself to be the body you see the world as a collection of material things. When you know yourself as the centre of consciousness, as the hub is the centre of the wheel – still, unmoving – the universe and all it contains appears as the ocean of the mind. When you know yourself as you are in reality you know all as yourself.
In ignorance you love people and things etc. ‘for yourself’. With true love inspired by enlightened insight, you love them selflessly ‘as yourself’. All you need is a sincere longing for reality; the love of the boundless self… the determination to be free from the false notion of separation.
Without love, and will inspired by love, nothing can be done. Merely talking about reality without action is self-defeating. There must be love embracing both the person who says ‘I am’ and the observer of that ‘I am’. As long as the ‘conscious’ observer considers her/himself above and apart from the observed, the ‘lower’, ignorant-self despises and condemns it, and the situation is hopeless.
It is only when the observer accepts the observed as a projection or manifestation of him/herself and, so to say, takes the self into the Self, the duality of ‘I’ and ‘this’ goes. And in the identity of the outer and the inner the Supreme Reality is known.
This union of the seer and the seen happens when the seer becomes conscious of him/herself as the seer; s/he is not merely interested in the seen, which s/he is anyhow, but also interested in being interested, giving attention to attention, conscious of being aware. Affectionate awareness is the crucial factor that brings reality into focus.
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Man who knows that s/he is neither body nor mind cannot be selfish, for s/he has and is no-thing to be selfish for. Or, you may say, s/he is equally ‘selfish’ on behalf of everybody s/he meets; everybody’s welfare is his/her own. In ignorance, we cannot help but be selfish in defence of the part against another, and as the light of awareness grows boundaries fade and merge, and the part and the whole are one. It would not be incorrect to say ‘I am always selfish on behalf of that that I see that I am. The child is selfish for what s/he perceives as his/her own limited world. The parent is selfish on behalf of the family. The Statesman is selfish on behalf of, and in protection of the state. And the enlightened, at one with the universal, is selfish on behalf of all. It would not be incorrect to say ‘I have never done an unselfish act’, it just depends on where you see the limits of your tolerance and your boundaries.
The feeling ‘I am the world, the world is myself’ becomes quite natural; once it is established there is just no way of being individually selfish. In this sense to be selfish means to covet, acquire, accumulate on behalf of the part against the whole. There is no part to be selfish.
NaturesDestiny 