Underneath all of experience is Awareness, the Self. There is no phenomena that has ever occurred outside of its Knowing. All of the thoughts which arise which suggest an individual “me” - e.g. I am X years old, my favourite food is Y, I live in Z - are known by Awareness. If they were not known as such, they could not be.
Prior to all apparent separation is this Awareness, shining in all things.
Yet, appearing in this unbounded Awareness is manifestation. A kaleidoscope of life, movement, dynamism and activity. On the one hand we have the silent Self, knowing all, and on the other, we have vibrant experience of “things” and “happenings”.
Within the infinite, there is infinite potential. Infinite possible “knowings”, or things known. Yet, within the knowing, there are contradictions - the universe could be known or manifested (which is the same thing) with and without the Earth. A sunset in a particular location could be known with and without clouds obscuring it. A certain person could be known, and that person also could never have existed.
A thought experiment. Imagine sitting on a beach. Then imagine that your perception begins to grow. You begin to see through the atmosphere into space, with all the planets, stars and empty space in your field of view - first within 10 light years, 100 light years, 1 million light years. What happens to the view of the sunset? It is obliterated with that which is contrary to it - an asteroid, the interior of a star, vast empty space. The sunset has disappeared, and so does everything else.
Infinite knowing, with all potentials known simultaneously, is also infinite emptiness. The yin and yang cancel each other, all duality is extinguished (or rather, never appeared). For God or Self to know all its potentiality, in all its details, it must, then, know it finitely.
But how does the infinite know finitely? It must forget what it is. It must become so engrossed in its own unfolding potential that it forgets what it is, at least for a while. To use an inadequate metaphor, it must be “encased” in, or filtered through, a finite body-mind. It must shine through a finite structure of perception and intelligence. Yet, this structure can also never be anything but the Infinite, for the Infinite is all there is.
This is the apparent duality of our life. We know “things” and “happenings”, we perceive manifestation in various forms, but always in a limited way. Yet, if we withdraw our attention from manifestation, we can glimpse the Infinite, eternal and without form. Yet this duality is only apparent - prior to thought, there is no “me” and the “sunset”, but just knowing-in-sunset-form.
Infinite Awareness knowing Itself through a finite body-mind.
The body-mind is Awareness veiling Itself from Itself. But the veiling can only ever be apparent. It is not total, for self-enquiry can discover it. Awareness is always calling Itself back to Itself - and, in the realm of relativity, that is the yearning of the body-mind for peace and happiness. Yet, in another sense, there is no yearning - prior to conceptualisation there is just that. No “awareness”, no “relativity”, no “yearning” or “yearner”.
In the realm of relativity, the body-mind is a part of the universe. It responds to and is affected by causality in its myriad forms. Someone yells at me, and I react. My body is injured and my mind is affected. I get sick and die. Yet all the while Awareness looks on, unperturbed. Not only that, but it is all Awareness, even the delusory thoughts of separation.
As this is more understood, another apparent form of causality arises - Awareness knowingly knowing Itself suddenly or slowly transmutes the very structure of the body-mind. The body-mind becomes less reactive, more calm, more separate from the causality of the universe. This apparent causation does not exist in the realm of relativity - it is not an action of some apparent object in space-time. It is much deeper than that. It is eternity bleeding into time, Knowing flowing into ignorance.
Yet, again, all of this is simply Awareness, and so the causation, the effect of Knowing on the finite body-mind, is still just a story of the mind. Prior to the operation of thought, not a single thing is, not a single thing changes, not a single thing moves.
The story of the body-mind, a vehicle exploring the universe, is a beautiful story. Growing, loving, changing, suffering, succeeding, falling, weeping, overcoming. It is an expression of the Infinite, which is boundless. When this body-mind returns to the earth in death, a new story will begin, perhaps next time with larger horizons.
Yet it is all just a story. A very engaging story, but a tale nonetheless. Prior to all speaking, to all thought, to all narrative, there is Emptiness, Joy, Knowing, Awareness, Self, God - and that is all.
Peace be with you all.
You're on it, brother! Nice work!
I had never considered that “infinite knowing is infinite emptiness.” What a great explanation for the purpose of the veil of forgetfulness.