Guided Meditation: ‘I Am’ Is the Highest Truth

I want to try to explain something which is not easy so please bear with me everything we know everything we know through the mind is filtered through and appears in accordance with the limitations of that mind a human mind consists of the faculties of thinking and perceiving so when awareness looks through a human mind everything it knows or perceives is filtered through the limitations of thought and perceptions and appears in accordance with it a human mind the P The perceiving Faculty of the human mind consists of seeing hearing touching tasting and smelling and therefore the

world appears to us as sights sounds tastes textures and smells it's not that the real world is a collection of sights sounds tastes textures and smells that's just how the reality of the world appears when it is viewed through the lens of a human mind just as white snow will appear orange to one who views it through orange tinted sunglasses the real snow is not really orange it just appears orange because of the medium through which it is perceived and as long as we're looking at the snow through the orange glasses although we are perceiving

we're looking at the real snow we're not seeing it as it really is so when we look at the world although we're looking at the reality of the world whatever the world is in itself it appears to us in a way that that is consistent with the limitations of thought and perception in other words when we look at the world through the mind we can never know what it really is we can only know how it appears to a limited mind one more thing to say about that that whenever we look at the world when

awareness looks at the world through a mind our experience of the world is always in subject toob relationship the awareness that knows it and the world the object whatever it is that is known this also includes our thoughts and feelings they are known in subject object relationship everything that is known through the Mind our thoughts and feelings on the inside the world on the outside is known in subject object relationship the awareness that knows the world that is known this is the only way a mind can know anything all the mind's experience takes place in

subject toob relationship in Duality it cannot be any other way now exactly the same is true if we want not to look at the world and know the nature of the world but to look at ourself if we look at ourself through the faculties of the Mind through thinking and perceiving our self will appear in accordance with the mind through which it is perceived it will share the limited qualities of the Mind so in order to know the nature of awareness we cannot look at it through the faculties of thinking and perceiving awareness must look

directly at itself unmediated through the Mind awareness is knowledge of itself would be the only true knowledge the only absolutely true knowledge all other knowledge or experience is relative to the Mind through which it is known so the only absolutely true knowledge would be awareness's knowledge of itself so what is awareness is knowledge of itself when we when I say awareness is knowledge of itself I imply I suggest that awareness is knowledge of itself it takes place in subject object relationship like awareness is knowledge of the world awareness is knowledge of itself but this is

not intended in order to to know the world world we must stand as a separate subjective experience we can only know the world indeed we can only know anything objective in subject toob relationship I know my thoughts I perceive the world in other words in order to know anything we must stand apart from that thing we must view it or know it in subject toob relationship the eyes our eyes cannot see themselves because they cannot stand apart from themselves and view them they can see everything apart from themselves it's just an analogy so what about

awareness is knowledge of itself awareness cannot stand apart from itself it cannot separate itself from itself and look back and say there is awareness like we can say there is a tree just another analogy like like empty space imagine empty space being conscious or aware empty space could never stand apart from itself and look back at itself it could never know itself in subject object relationship because how would it stand apart from itself where would it go empty space cannot separate itself and look back at itself and know itself in subject toob relationship it's the

same with awareness awareness cannot stand apart from itself it cannot separate itself from itself and look back and say oh there is awareness it is and then describe its qualities so if we ask awareness what is your experience of yourself do this experiment now I don't just want to think about this I want to to perform the experiment you are aware you awareness are aware that is your innermost experience it's now more intimate than your thoughts or the sound of my voice or the sensation of your body being aware is your innermost experience you awareness

are having the experience of being aware so I'm talking to you awareness what is what is your experience of yourself the first thing awareness must do is turn its attention away from all the other things that it knows thoughts images feeling Sensations and so on it must so to speak try to look at itself but of course awareness can't look at itself because it's too close to itself to look at something we must stand apart from that thing and view it from a distance in subject object relationship but awareness cannot separate itself from itself where

would it go at the same time we cannot say that awareness does not know itself if awareness did not know itself we would not know that we are aware when we say we are aware it is we awareness that knows that we are aware so awareness is obviously knowing itself all the time but its knowledge of itself is not in subject object relationship it's the only awareness is knowledge of itself is the only experience if we can call it an experience there is the does not take place in subject object relationship so ask yourself the

question now what is my experience of myself me awareness what is my experience of myself for imagine that experience and by experience in this context I mean objective experience thoughts feeling Sensations perceptions had not yet Arisen imagine you awareness all alone prior to the arising of experience imagine removing you don't actually have to remove them of course just imagine removing thoughts feelings Sensations and perceptions so it's just you awareness all alone and because being aware is your nature you are aware of yourself just by being yourself what is your experience of yourself if you were

to say something true about yourself what would you awareness say about yourself based on your current intimate d direct experience of yourself don't think about this thoughts are completely irrelevant there should be either be no thoughts or at least don't refer to what your thoughts are saying this is just about awareness's direct experience of itself a awareness is as it were tasting itself knowing itself and then if it were to formulate its experience of itself what would it say don't make reference to objective experience objective experience hasn't yet arisen for for for for for for

now of course awareness cannot say anything without the aid of a mind but imagine that awareness could say something about itself in order to say something about itself it would first have to name itself because it wants to refer to itself and it would name itself I because I is the common name that that which knows itself gives to itself and if we were to ask awareness having named itself I to tell us what its primary experience of itself is it would just say I am for the reason why awareness can say of itself I

am is because it knows itself it is having the experience of itself albe it a nonobjective experience and whatever what whatever says or whoever says I am well let me rephrase that whenever we say whenever we feel and say I am we are always referring to awareness's experience of itself because only that which is aware can know the experience of being therefore when we say I am we do not say I am as a person when we say I am we are speaking on behalf of our selfawareness the one who knows the only one that

knows and therefore the only one that is aware of itself aware of being now what would awareness say if we were to press it further tell us something else about yourself the awareness would so to speak keep looking at itself keep experiencing or knowing itself what else can it say about itself apart from I am don't think about this you awareness are having the experience of being aware you are experiencing you are knowing your own being what can you say about yourself apart from I am for for awareness would just remain silent in the face

of this question it could not add anything to I am it would not say I am inherently peaceful because it has not yet known the agitation of the mind it is all alone remember prior to the arising of experience it would not yet it would not say my nature is happiness because it has not yet known the experience of Sorrow it would not say I am Eternal because it has not yet known the experience of time it would not even say I am infinite because it has not yet known the finite when we say awareness

is inherently peaceful unconditionally fulfilled ever present infinite these are just the mind's attempts to express the nature of awareness with reference to the agitation the sorrow the time and the space that it knows they are these statements that awareness is peaceful happy Eternal infinite and so on they are true relative to the mind's knowledge but in Awareness is experience of itself none of these statements are true awareness is exper experience of itself is just the experience that we refer to when we say I am it is not finite it is not infinite it is not

in time it is not Eternal is not agitated it is not peaceful it is not unhappy it is not joyful in its own experience of itself and thus the words I am are the highest truth take all the philosophy all the religion all the spiritual Traditions everything that has ever been said or thought or written in the last 5,000 years what is the height the culmination the Pinnacle of of knowledge of Truth what is absolutely true I am for for and now I'm going to say something that in other cultures at other times one would

be killed for and that is that to say I am is higher more true than to say God is because to say God is we must stand apart from God and name God as an object of our experience we must we must assert God as an as an object that is and to do so we must stand apart from God and if we are to stand apart from God we must be a second self a second being a second Lord and to stand apart from God and to assert oneself as a second being orbe it

a a finite temporal being is to assert that there is something other than God and that is blasphemy so to assert that God is is to deny God because implicit in the assertion that God is is our self as a separate self that stands apart from God as a as a as a second self a second being a second Lord if we were to ask God what is your experience of yourself God would not say God is God would say I am therefore the knowledge I am is higher than the knowledge God is we could

say that the knowledge God is the is the Pinnacle of the mind's knowledge the Pinnacle of the mind's limited knowledge but the knowledge I am is in a different category of knowledge this is why me eot prayed to God to rid him of God for for the ordinary familiar intimate experience if we can call it an experience that is present for each of us now that is the experience I am it is the most profound experience one can ever have and we are actually having it all the time only for most of us the I

am is colored and qualified by experience so we do not know it as it is as it essentially is the pure experience I am is our primary experience our first experience our innermost experience it is the origin of all knowledge and experience but it is also the culmination of all knowledge and experience the height of all knowledge and experience it is the Alpha and the Omega it is the end of knowledge the comination of knowledge there it's what vanta means vadas and an in Sanskrit means the end of knowledge the culmination both the origin and

the culmination of all knowledge for when the Mind understands what the words I am truly mean it just falls down it surrenders it dies he cannot bear that knowledge for for for for for for for for for thank you