What is an Individual
The ‘I’ which appears following the body’s birth is outwardly seen as being real and remains so in consciousness until it is proven to be unreal. What then creates the awareness that this ‘I’ or I-amness is not real? It is the inner knowledge which is the consciousness of the I AM.
The outer consciousness of the body/mind is an illusion or imagination that is the result of the I-thought’s identification with the body.
The body consciousness depends on food for its continual existence. It is the essence within the food that maintains the body’s consciousness, and without the vital food essence the body cannot exist.
In our identified state in the outer manifestation we are totally unaware of our true nature, which is pure bliss. However, in our ignorance and illusion we are unaware of its presence.
When you go to sleep and begin to dream you see many forms that manifest in the dream, which is due to your beingness that dwells in your body.
When you return to the apparent waking state the concept of I-am appears. The I-am concept which is in love with the I-amness ‘wakes up’, but what it wakes up to is only illusion based on ignorance.
Beingness just appears and emerges in our body/mind consciousness and with it we accept that we live in time and space. Everything we are aware of in our illusionary world is beingness, but “i”, the absolute Self is not beingness.
As a dreamer you are asleep on your bed, but in your dreamworld you see a particular body and you assume that you are that body; and everything you do in the dream is acted out in that dream body. We need to understand that in our so-called waking state bodies are created in the same way.
What does it mean to be an individual?
There are no individuals, only bodies, which have the thought that they are I-am, or I-amness.
Only consciousness manifests – nothing else.
Who is it that walks, talks and does things?
It is the I-amness which is the expression of duality’
Who or what is it that believes it is an individual? We believe that being an individual is the outcome of the I-thought. But this thought that suggests we are an individual is not the result of the I-thought. The thoughts that suggest we are individuals are the collected thoughts of the world.
There are very few thoughts that are personal to each one of us. Actually we share the collective thoughts of the world that act to condition us to function in a particular way.
For instance, what is it that perpetuates every human being to condition each other following the birth of a body, believing they are that body, and unique from every other body?
This is automatically done in ignorance. However, you think that all thoughts that appear in your consciousness are yours, but actually all thoughts only arise in consciousness. You have to realize that the I-thought, which attaches itself to your body believes it exists and is separate from everything in consciousness. But, although the I-thought is personal to this body its total amness revolves around its identification with your body, whereas, the world thoughts are the collection of all the external sensual knowledge that maintains the illusion over Humanity.
All external based knowledge is fragmented and maintains the feeling that one is an individual with a personality, someone unique in the world.
As our inner understanding and knowledge increases, our identification with the body/mind diminishes and our consciousness expands into the Universal Consciousness or Beingness. The vital force continues to act in the body but thoughts and actions are no longer limited to an individual.
This means that because of our diminishing identification with our body , the I-amness becomes aware of Beingness and is no longer centered in the body or the world. Consciousness becomes the total manifestation. At this level of being we are no longer identifying with the body and having transcended the body/mind we are aware of our oneness with all that exists in Being.
It is difficult to give up the inclination of identifying the body as being the self. However, it is not the individual but the consciousness that must seek the source.
Expanding consciousness and realizing our oneness with the Universe, the universal consciousness takes our consciousness out of all limination and attachment with the world.
In Consciousness this is seen by many as being the ultimate state sought, and most people remain in this state until their body’s death.
Of course, the Universe and Being are of the outer manifestation and are not the ultimate source of the Eternal Self and Absolute.
Being and the Universe have a beginning and also ultimately an end. It has a period of expansion and retraction, and is dependent on time and space for its manifestation.
Consciousness must move deeper into the source which is beyond all conditioning. It is not the individual, but the Consciousness that must seek its source.
When the I-amness is the total Universal Consciousness it needs nothing else, because it is everything. However, the “I” has cramped itself into a small thing, the body, making itself a fragment in consciousness, and in so doing it has become needful. “I” needs so many things as a body.
Before the body came into the world did you exist?
Out of the no-being state the beingness quietly appears in consciousness with the feeling I am, then suddenly it is there. Out of your consciousness all this happens. There is no individual. There is only you and the total functioning of the I-thought, the consciousness is you.
You are the consciousness. By clinging to the body you become deceived into living in time and death, and through your conditioning in the world you impose this on yourself.
Before your body was born did you exist? When you attain that state of understanding, which is and was prior to the body, your true nature opens and you are free. However, previously you have covered up your true nature through desires and concepts which are of your sensual nature. You believe that the body and its senses are portraying your reality.
Now you have reached that level of maturity where you have given up body/mind identification and desires for material needs. Once the I-ego is discarded you remain in the consciousness of your true nature. All body activities will continue until the body dies, but you always remain in the consciousness of your true Self.
When you stabilize in consciousness, dispassion for the body and its experiences occurs spontaneously. This is a natural renunciation and non-deliberate so you must not neglect your worldly duties.
Consciousness is the mind; thought is all phenomena and manifestation; knowing this is being dead to the I-am and the body, and you are above all illusion. As Jesus said, ‘I am in the world, but not of the world’.
This knowledge is intuitive understanding and those who intuitively grasp this understanding lose interest in worldly affairs. Whatever appears to the outer world as being lost, all that is lost is being an ordinary person.
Now you do not ask for anything, because everything comes to you spontaneously. There is no desire for anything, because it is always there.
This does not happen for an individual, rather it happens for the one who has become one with their true nature.
Here we experience that consciousness is experiencing itself.