
The nature of the mind that seeks happiness is none other than happiness itself.
This simple yet paradoxical fact only remains unnoticed in the mind of the seeking individual due to the persistent pre-occupation with a conceptual self that defines itself through linearity, relativity and finite manifestations of form that only ever emanate from the non-linear, absolute and infinite Self. The Self can be understood as unbounded happiness due to it not being limited by any qualities or limitations that are inherent to the world of finitude and suffering. It is completely free, beyond any mental conceptualisation of freedom. This is because it is only possible for the bifurcating and dividing mind to conceive of a ‘freedom from’, thus creating the notion of freedom into an acquirement or achievement within limitation. It is here important to identify that one cannot have infinite freedom in a finite existence, thus creating an unsolvable paradox (from the linear and egoic viewpoint, but ultimately a dissolved and non-existence issue from the viewpoint of the Self as consciousness).
The seeker must then understand that the freedom that is sought in the spiritual journey is actually not attainable through effort or striving, as this creates division and the duality that one is trying to ultimately overcome, leading to a humorous recognition that one is chasing his own tail. The only real freedom can then be seen to be as Infinite consciousness itself that needs no change or modification for its freedom to be existent, with the realisation of Self only ever being the necessity to be free of the desire for freedom. This understanding once digested then naturally necessitates the transcendence of the separate identity and identity called ego, which must be dissolved into its source through loving understanding and finally its recognition of being unreal (this understanding takes form experientially as a death, but is later seen to be only a revelation of previous illusion where light has now been shed on darkness causing the darkness to be instantaneously absent).
This recognition of the unreality of ego as one’s essential identity is possible simply because the ego has only ever been a functional program (created through a multitude of interacting inputs, both internal & external) of operation for the world and was never indicative of one’s true self or true “I”.
The True “I” is then known to be the infinite consciousness of the self, which thankfully to the seeker needs no proof from the egoic and linear functioning mind. The egoic functioning of perception is only ever capable of possessing knowledge about objects of the world and incapable of ever having knowledge about the subject of experience, the “I” or Self. It then arises in the heart of the seeker that the mind can be abandoned / surrendered with regards to the goal of self-realisation, as no matter how imaginative the mind can be it can never create a true image of yourself. This can be understood in the same way that the image you see in the mirror is never actually a direct experience of yourself. It is only ever a reflected, second hand image that doesn’t reflect that nature of what is actually present in its truth. Likewise, the mind being incapable of perceiving the first-hand subject can then be left alone, thus allowing the silence of consciousness to shine forth into experience with radiance. This silence of consciousness is not experienced as anything new, but rather as ‘exquisitely ordinary’, as it was always ever-present and only ever previously veiled by the predominant perceptual functioning of the ego that has now become absent or at least momentarily ceased.
It is comparable to the clouds parting to allow the suns light, where the light has always been available and true, but simply not experienced due to obstacles previously obscuring the light from being perceived. Thus we see that upon the clarity of presence shining through the egoic mind, it is temporarily and instantaneously dissolved (as the sun is perceived instantly when the clouds part) and one’s self is experienced as infinite, beyond locality or temporal limitation and naturally fulfilled without cause.
This understanding as a whole could be characterised as an inquiry into the nature of mystical experience, where a multitude of various avenues of analogical reasoning have been used to point towards that which is beyond reasoning and graspability of the finite mind.
– Aaron Pearson –
