The inward-facing path has revealed the presence, primacy and nature of awareness. The outward-facing path shows that all experience is made of awareness itself. A natural question then arises. If there is only awareness, how is the world to be understood? Is it merely an illusion to be dismissed? What is our relationship with the world in the light of this understanding? This essay explores how the recognition of our true nature provides the ground from which the world is understood afresh, and how the world that was provisionally set aside is now welcomed back and integrated within this understanding.
This week we continue from the middle of page 90 through the middle of page 93, deepening our exploration of the outward-facing path. Here we encounter the three stages of the spiritual journey as expressed in the great traditions, and discover why sages have so often chosen to speak by negation, pointing beyond the reach of language toward the direct recognition of reality itself.*
*(The page numbers indicated here each week refer to the original publication of the physical book – they may vary slightly from more recent versions, owing to the publisher’s design modifications.)
The Illusion of the Separate Self
We have seen that all experience is a modulation of awareness, that consciousness is the only substance present in experience. Just as the screen modulates itself in the form of a movie without ever ceasing to be the screen, so awareness assumes the form of thinking, feeling, sensing and perceiving without ever becoming a finite mind, a separate self or an ego.
Awareness does not turn into something other than itself. It appears as the activities of the mind and the perceptions of the body, but never actually becomes a limited entity.
This does not mean that the ego, or the apparently separate self, is non-existent or unreal, but that it is an illusion. However, the word ‘illusion’ is often misunderstood, and without careful clarification it can easily give rise to confusion or unnecessary resistance.
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