--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rick Archer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: One of Byron Katie's questions is "Can you absolutely know that's true?" If you're really honest, the answer has to be "no." Is there anything we can know with absolute certainty, other than, perhaps, "I am"? ---------
I'm going to riff on your statement, Rick. Doing this just to see how it comes out -- for the thousandth time. Funnily enough, having the thought, "I am," is not "pure amness being experienced." It is a thought, and during pure amness, hey, no thoughts. Additionally, the ego is non-sentient. It is a process of the nervous system -- it cannot know even one thing -- it is an activity, merely one noise that accompanies all the other ways a nervous system can make a noise -- only this particular noise gets an inordinate amount of attention while the other dynamics of human experiencing are "more in the background." Quick, what message is your elbow saying to you right now? See? It's always there trying to get your attention too -- always cluing you in. Your whole damned shebang is trying to get attention, do its dance, but the ego won't get off stage! Amness is not an experience. The ego is unified when one (ego) has transcended-dissolved into amness, so there's "no one" to experience anything -- other than our good old faithful Absolute. The Absolute is the only sentience -- amness is to Absolute as dummy is to ventriloquist. Amness is illusory. A representation. A symbol. An activity of a nervous system that, partially only, it is as close as a map can be to the territory without being the territory. Brahma poses as Brahman and fools everyone, including Himself. Even the purity of amness cannot find purchase on the Absolute which cannot be stained by any conditional. When the ego re-emerges from transcendence, it REMEMBERS the amness -- that is, it has a thought about having had (been) that experience in the very recent past. That thought will seem to be UTTERLY VALID, but it is just another thought that can merely at best symbolize unity while being an act of duality. Certainly we cannot doubt our own sentience. BOTH my I's are here when I'm in the waking state. I (ego) am here now, and I (Absolute) witness it with perfect stealthiness -- but no ego can catch me doing it! Once manifested out of the primal unity of amness, the ego says "I exist," but the Absolute says, "That's what you're settling for? Why not have all of non-existence too! -- and then some!" Because the ego thinks that only it symbolizes sentience-witnessing, the human experience is impoverished in that all the other symbols of existing -- heart beats, breathing, paper cut pain, whatever -- are not allowed to be honored as equally representative of the unbounded fecundity of amness -- in a word, sacred -- as important as the ego -- deserving as much right to be objects of consciousness as the ego. The heart speaks in its own way, right? Don't nee no steekink thoughts! Everything is talking to you. The wholeness sings! Unfortunately, the ego thinks it's the star of the choir! So, though the thought, "I am" is a bazzillionth of the whole of experiencing, the ego is completely hoggy in grabbing one's identity. Talk about being small as an atom! Talk about being a nit instead of a wit! You always see that tiny little wandering monk way down at the bottom of these huge paintings of Asian landscapes. That's the right way to think of the ego amongst the wilderness of its nervous system's many operations. These monks are humble, know their insignificant heft, and are honored to be the pretend observer of the rest of creation. Ah, that felt good. I'll probably do it again soon. Edg
