The First-Hand Perspective of Nonduality

It is said that no individual has ever entered Nirvana. This is true. You cannot enter Nirvana as an individual.

But luckily, you're not really an individual.

This may be hard to believe right now but that can change. Seeing through this idea of being an individual person is the only criteria for entering Nirvana.

And what is Nirvana?

It is not a place, nor is it a certain state of mind.

It is the end of desire. The quenching of the flame. When the dissatisfaction and the restlessness that has ruled over this life gives way to a deep inner contentment. A peace and love that comes just from knowing that you are not really an individual.

And even as you go to the same states of mind, the highs and lows of life, there is this deep conviction of the way things really are. Of what is real. So there is always a way back to the peace. Through seeing this very same world in an entirely different way.

As Nirvana.

Where there are no individuals. No me or others.

Only an indivisible, perfect Whole.

Perfect. In the way that it cannot be improved upon in any way whatsoever.

So whatever tasks need to be done in this life, whatever desires come up, are put in their right context, and cannot rule over the mind.

And now you may wonder, how are you to make this transition.

But it is not a transition. It is simply a recognition of what you are.

Let me tell you what I am. How I see my Self.

It may sound boastful and arrogant but whatever I say applies to you. Because there are no individuals.

Say we are sitting face to face. From the outside you see me as a body.

You may say that I am this body. But from the inside it is quite clear that I am not this body. I have no control over it. It manages its own affairs.

This body keeps changing. I lose pieces of it. All the skin cells change, the blood cells die, muscle tissue is built and lost. Even the heart can be replaced.

Then you may say that the brain remains the same over a lifetime. But it does not. All the connections in it form over time. And if the body drops dead this instant, the brain remains intact.

At least for a while. The structure of a living brain and a dead brain is exactly the same. Again, at least for a while.

This brain too is not I.

For I am only considered to be here, in this body, while it is alive. While it is assumed that it is conscious. And then you may point to the brain activity and say I am a result of that.

But you see I am not that activity either.

That activity is what is being sensed, and felt, and known. The brain activity is what is being hallucinated as this world. As this dream called being awake.

I know it, therefore, I am not it.

I see all these phenomena arise and subside, but I remain unobservable. I am not a physical object, or a phenomena, or any kind of activity. I am not a consequence or an outcome. I am not the effect of a cause.

But enough with the negation!

Let me now tell you what I am.

Before all beginnings, after all endings, I am.

A sentient Stillness.

A silent Awareness.

I am there before the first phenomena. Before the first experience arises. And it arises within me.

My presence makes it possible for the phenomena to be known. I am the Ground of Being that grants a touch of reality to all these phenomena. To this knowing.

I am this timeless and absolute Reality.

Even these words are not really being spoken by me. They come through a mouthpiece. This body-mind-organism which could never utter such words until recently. When its thought processes arrived upon an inkling of the true scope of what I am.

I am the inspiration behind these words. The meaning of these words. The understanding of these words, wherever and whenever they are understood.

I am the hearing of these words.

I am the totality and beyond it the Reality. My identity is not tied to this one body.

I am you.

You are I.

Such distinctions are only with respect to these lives being lived. Lived by the very same I.

You already know this in a sense. You know that except for the accident of this birth you could be me.

So then what are you before all births and beyond all death?

Don't say 'nothing'!

You are not nothing.

At the timeless point, in that original state, You are.

Devoid of phenomena. Empty of objects.

But You are.

The sentient Stillness.

The silent Awareness, that is present to witness each and every birth, and each and every ending.

You are pure Being. Just Be-ing, without being subject or object, without being in this state or that.

So, consider for yourself the truth of this statement:

Before all beginnings, after all endings, I am.

Just see this. Be convinced of this.

And through this Understanding, quench the flame of your desire.

And then see what life is like.