The Light Behind Consciousness by John Wheeler

Author:John Wheeler [Wheeler, John]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Non-Duality Press
Published: 2013-11-17T16:00:00+00:00

57

The Person Idea Is the Root of All Trouble

Question: I am about a third of the way through your book ‘You Were Never Born‘. In the last six months, I have been drawn as by a suction to non-duality materials. What I have seen is the continued weakening of my ego and story.

John: This is still a story! The point is to see if there is an ego at all! If not, there is nothing to weaken. Folks in spiritual circles go for years with the stories of enlightened teachers, awakenings, retreats, experiences, readings, losing conditioning, going deeper and so on, but it is all really a shell game because all those things are still a grand story of a person.

Q: While I understand what you are saying, I also do see the fly in the ointment. ‘My ego' is just an illusory concept. Seeing this brings in much more peace, less worry, more flowing with events, rather than trying to make things happen.

John: Yes, this is good. The person idea is the root of all troubles. With that knocked out through clear seeing, it is not more peace, but peace itself, here and now.

Q: Yet I do not grasp non-duality.

John: There is no need to. You are that. It is not to be grasped because it is already present.

Q: I can agree that I am awareness all of the time, but I cannot see yet why that makes form non-existent or an illusion.

John: You are misunderstanding one of the pointers here. Form appears. That is all. Awareness or your being abides; it does not appear. Do not make more out of this point than is intended.

Q: Just because something is temporary (like mind, thoughts, feelings) does not make it ‘unreal‘. It is not ‘eternal' but cannot something that is not eternal be real within awareness?

John: It does not matter. Whatever appears is just an appearance in and on awareness. Labeling it as real or unreal is beside the point. The point is to know yourself. Forget about trying to label appearances. That is looking in the wrong direction and takes you back into concepts. That is cosmology not self-knowledge.

Q: I do not see myself and the ocean as one.

John: What self? The point is that the self, the person, is not. So there is nothing to see or figure out in relation to a figment of one’s imagination. You are pure being-awareness itself. Now, nothing that appears is outside of awareness. Is there anything separate from awareness, in direct experience? All that appears is just a manifestation or appearance in awareness, like waves arising on the sea. All there is, is the ocean. Waves are not different or separate from the water. It is the same with appearances and awareness.

Q: I see myself showing up as a form within awareness.

John: This is the mistake. You are the awareness itself. Forms come and go within this. No form is yourself. Thinking so is the basic error.

Q: One teacher uses the phrase ‘consciousness playing with form‘.

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