A conversation with a friend: About the meaning of life.
~~~
Questioner:
Hi Magdi…I am having trouble finding meaning in this life. Why am I here? Can we actually awaken to truth in this life?
Reply:
Yes. Awakening to the reality of consciousness, awakening to truth is a divine gift that God offers us, as her children. You are here to return home, to awaken to the truth, to awaken to your causeless true nature. There is no other meaning.
Questioner:
I have studied spirituality and metaphysics since the 1980’s. I am tired of reading, meditating and having faith. I find myself feeling like a mouse in a maze with no end. What can I do to raise my spirits up – to find the truth?
Reply:
Contemplate your direct experience, without relying on the mind until you are certain about what you truly are, without the shadow of a doubt and until you are established in unshakable and causeless peace and happiness.
Questioner:
How do I learn to do that?
Reply:
You already are the aware presence that perceives all perceptions.  Awareness is unsoiled and unspoiled by the worldly events that it perceives, no matter what form they may take. Nothing is perceived without the reality of consciousness. Nothing is perceived outside of the aware presence that you are.
Rather than getting involved in the management of the person you imagine yourself to be, rather than managing thoughts and feelings… remain as the witnessing pure presence. You are this pure presence.
Do not try to manage the perceptions, the sensations and thoughts that arise.
Allow them to be …and remain as presence.
You are not a woman. You are not a human being. You are pure presence. Be like a mirror and not like images. Images keep changing. You do not.
Questioner:
I don’t know how to be as presence or like a mirror.
Reply:
What is it that reads these words?
Questioner:
My mind.
Reply:
What is it that perceives the mind? What is it that knows the mind?
Questioner:
I don’t know. It seems beyond my conception.
Reply:
Yes, presence, awareness… is beyond conception. Presence is beyond the mind. But it does not conception to know itself. You know directly that you are conscious.
The mind arises in consciousness, in presence and is known by aware presence. Presence, consciousness cannot be perceived as a form, as an object. But, can you deny that you perceive this perception? This very moment? Obviously something perceives right now… before your history arises.
Questioner:
I don’t feel like I perceive this perception – I feel lost.
Reply:
What is it that perceives this feeling? Something (that is not a thing) perceives the feeling of being lost, otherwise you would not even speak of it.
What is it that perceives this feeling?
Contemplate the source. Contemplate the roots and not the branches. Contemplate awareness and not the images that arise on the screen.
Questioner:
I think it is my mind that perceives it. I don’t know how to get beyond the mind. Even in meditation there is still the mind.
Reply:
The mind cannot perceive the mind. The mind is an objective quality… as a thought, a perception or a bodily sensation. The images arise on the screen, the feelings, the emotions, thoughts arise on the screen of consciousness and are known via consciousness. Images cannot know, they are not knowing. Only awareness is knowing.
Questioner:
So ignore the images? Learn not to see them?
Reply:
Do not ignore or avoid anything. Simply contemplate that it is not your mind that perceives. Your mind is an instrument via which the true you, consciousness, perceives. It is consciousness that perceives the mind and, in the absence of the mind is Self knowing without any form.
Questioner:
What pereceives then?
Reply:
YOU. But not you the woman, not you the story. YOU, awareness, consciousness. Awareness is not a thing that you can perceive via the mind or senses. It is THAT that perceives.
Questioner:
How can I tap into that awareness?
Reply:
YOU ARE THAT. It reveals itself to you as you become interested in it.
Questioner:
I feel lost in the personality.
Reply:
When you are interested in stories… stories arise to you. As a result, you feel lost in the characters of the story and all its details. You forget your true Self, the presence of awareness.
Questioner:
How can I express my interest?
Reply:
When you are interested in the personality, you get completely wrapped up in personality, and you feel lost. When you are interested in truth, your interest grows into love for truth and leads you home.
Questioner:
That is correct!
Reply:
You express your interest in awareness by turning your attention to awareness … by loving awareness … by remaining interested in awareness and not into images on the screen. Rather than being interested in your person. Do not feed that insatiable beast.
Your interest will lead you. If you’re interested in the personality, then you remain stuck in the personality.
Questioner:
I want out of the personality. It makes me not want to be here in this life.
Reply:
Start by noticing that you, as awareness perceive personality.
YOU perceive all perceptions, all personalities without being a personality. YOU are the knower of thoughts, feelings, sensations, images….
You are not a form. Consciousness, awareness is not a form. When you continue to be absorbed by your position, by your looks, by your body, by your image, by the opinion of others, you remain unhappy, miserable.
Questioner:
Thank you Magdi. That gives me something to go on. I will focus on awareness.
Reply:
Awareness is not an object. It is whatever TRULY reads these words. It is the reality of your experience. It is not the dream character, although it appears as one.