By Ted Thompson:
“Mainstream religion speaks of the Immanence and Transcendence of the Divine. God is All-Pervading, present everywhere. God is also trancendent, existing beyond all names and forms, beyond all thoughts and perceptions, beyond body, mind and world.
“God” is just a pointer toward that which is the essence of everyone. In this moment there seem to be a couple of things happining. There is the Awareness, the unchanging witness of fingers on keyboard, the noise of the keyboard, the screen on which words appear.
Awareness and appearances are qualitatively different. Awareness is unchanging from moment to moment. Appearances are fleeting, temporary, transient. In this moment and in every moment Awareness is Transcendental. The transcendence of Awareness is most obvious in peak experiences, temporary experiences of Samadhi, or Awareness totally devoid of appearances, basking timelessly in its own radiance. But Awareness is always transcendent, always untouched by changing experiences, always free and clear.
The temporary experiences are very different, airy nothings that are always changing. Thoughts appear and disappear with stunning rapidity. They are only temporary appearances in Awareness, and are NOTHING BUT AWARENESS. Awareness is immanent in all things, all pervading, because appearances happen in awareness and are merely apparent modifications of Awareness. But Awareness is not modified. Awareness is unchanging, both transcendent and immanent.
What a marvel is this Awareness that we are. Within it all things appear, yet it is unchanged, unaffected. Unborn, it is the witness of birth and death. Perfection itself it is the witness of creation and decay. Fearless, it is the witness of all horrors, tragedies, calamaties.
Fire does not burn it. Water does not wet it. Wind does not blow it.
It is the only genuine Reality. It is what we are.
What a marvel! How wonderful!”
~~~     ~~~     ~~~

Lisa: I don’t know about the fearless part.

Magdi: Lisa, When in your night dream, you are dreaming that a lion is running after you, the dream character you take yourself to be, is full of fear. But the dreamer is untouched.
After all, no one is forcing the dreamer to dream such dreams.
Like all thoughts are made out of you, aren’t all dreams made out of the dreamer?

Lisa: So why does the dreamer have fearful dreams?
Why not dream love, peace and happiness?

Lisa: Sounds like a cornball question. Haha! Or a romance novel.
I tell you Magdi, my head spins round and round with this. Outside of the realm of intellect, I’m sure.

Magdi: When I was a kid, I loved to go play near the stream and get all muddy chasing frogs.
Then, upon my return home, I loved all the attention my mom gave me. She was so sweet. She rarely reprimanded me and instead, she bathed me and clothed me in new pajamas.
In a way, there is the dream of separation that eventually leads us home, to our naturalness, to our peace and happiness.
Initially, all there seems to be is suffering.
But, in time, we learn to appreciate the path and the journey and at how marvelous it is.
It gets sweeter and sweeter.

Magdi: In time, we realize that the reality of our experience is sweetness and that the entire affair of separation is just an illusion, a dream we are waking up form.

Lisa: I’m holding you to the “it gets sweeter and sweeter” part!!

Magdi: How could it not get sweeter when your love is for truth?

Lisa: Ooh, nice.

Magdi: Loving truth opens the heart and dissolves the fears. After all truth is impersonal and does not leave anyone out.

Magdi: When you love truth, your attention is turned towards the higher Self and forgets about all these personal travails, memories and old stale dreams.
There is freshness and revelation in truth. Truth, love, beauty welcome you as you welcome them.

Lisa: Ok then. I’ll be as welcoming as possible, and see what shows itself.

Magdi: As soon as you are welcoming, you are already there! It is an unconditional surrender.
Openness of Being welcoming itself.
We surrender everything to the Self.
Surrender the past. Entirely.
Surrender the future. Entirely.
Surrender all phenomenal hope and remain with the Self… The non-phenomenal reality that is beyond the mind…. but the mind is not beyond it

Lisa: I try very hard Magdi! But I do come up against resistance which is puzzling to me since in my heart I feel driven to the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

But it’s all ok. It’s a journey. We’re all on the way.

Magdi: Notice the contraction at the body level. Very gently, locate in your body the contraction and allow it to have all the space it needs…. Infinite space.

Lisa: Ok. Will do. Just let it be. I find when I do that it passes rather quickly. Thank you.

Magdi The release at the body level is quite important. Once you are open to the reality of consciousness, the body is slow at getting it and for a while will continue to express contractions. These contractions are arising to be dissolved and released. At the body level, invite and recognize the space.The noticing of the space and that there is ample room for anything to arise in your welcoming…Lisa: And they are released by just allowing it?

Lisa: Are they just released by just allowing it?

Magdi: Yes…. Welcoming openly and not resisting and noticing that it is all made out of space…. What seems to be very dense is revealed to be spacious
As long as you do not look at what arises from a ‘desire for it to be different’ position.
Instead, notice the welcoming and remain as the welcoming, irrespective of what arises on the screen. You are more the welcoming rather than what is welcomed. The welcomed keeps getting sweeter and sweeter due to the infinite sweetness of the welcoming

Ted Thompson:
Krisnha: Out of a tiny portion of myself, I create these worlds.
Srimata Amritananda Ma: Coming out of Samadhi I saw that the entire universe was a tiny bubble floating on the infinite ocean of my being.
It is somewhat a matter of size. If I am a tiny being in a large world, then there may be much to be afraid of. If I am the Infinite Awareness within which this world appears like a mirage, then what is there to fear?
Upanishads: Where there is another, there is fear. If everything and everyone is yourself, who is there to fear? Awareness is unchanging. What can anyone or anything do to it???

 

 

Photo by Sasa Gyoker