If You Just Look, You Cannot Escape This Self (Ashtavakra Gita 2.4 - 2.5) - 10th October 2016

Then verse 2.4: 'As waves, foam, and bubbles are no different from water, so the universe emanating from Self is no different from the Self.' This is where we said that like the hand and the finger appearing does not mean that something happened to the hand, or the hand is no longer the hand, or the finger is not the hand, you see? It is this appearance of these waves; they can appear and disappear within the Self with no bearing on the Self itself, which remains untouched, unchanging, and unmoved. So the universe is emanating from the Self. We just discussed this. We have experienced that there was nothing in that which we call the sleep state, and then we have the experience that 'I am' now, you see? So if awareness was all there is—is all there is—then even this wave of Consciousness, this ocean of Consciousness, it must be made up of what? This awareness itself. And it is seen that it is 'I am.' It is not... many times in Advaita it can sound like to make a qualitative also distinction between awareness and Consciousness, it seems like, 'Oh, but this is duality.' It can seem like that. That's why I have to reemphasize this point over and over: it is 'I' which is 'am.' I am awareness being, you see? Not separate one, but playing as if the Yin and Yang, Shiva and Parvati, you see? So the unmanifest and the manifest are playing as if they are separate, but actually they are one. It is 'I' which is 'am.' Shiva and Parvati are one. Yin and Yang are one.

And Father?

And Father, no? We can say Son and Father only because this awareness, you see, is present from which this being comes, you see? But the Son is no different from the Father fundamentally. That which arises within awareness is also made up of awareness itself, you see? So we refer to it as Son and Father because Father is there and then Son arises.

Source is the awareness?

Exactly. 'As waves, foam, and bubbles are not different from water, so the universe emanating from Self is not different from the Self.' 'I am' is not different from 'I.' It is 'I am,' see? Then Janaka continues to say: 'Look closely at cloth, you see only threads. Look closely at creation, you see only Self.' Look closely, you see? I said after the break when I started sharing Satsang again, I said my provocation, my invitation to you, is to look deeply. Look deeply. What is going on? What is here? Look, is it? And if you just look, leaving aside all conceptualization, all interpretation, you cannot escape this Self. All that is needed is this open looking, simple seeing. You are here. You don't need to look for the Self somewhere else. What is here? If all that is phenomenal is an appearance, who is this appearance appearing to? Who is the witness of these appearances? Is it not you? Is it not the Self? Then all separation, all boundaries, even distinction between awareness and Consciousness will be meaningless, and you see that all of this is oneself. And this looking deeply is the opposite of picking up a lot of spiritual concepts, because the picking up of spiritual concepts is just this game of God pretending to be a person and then the person pretending to be God again, you see? When we go in that direction and we attach more and more things to this sense 'I am,' you see? So then it is God 'I am' then pretending as if it is a spiritual person or a realized person, and then that one pretending to be God, which is the most burdensome way to live. Instead of that, we are coming to the dropping of this conceptual understanding and coming to the simple looking. Before I can pick up any pretense at all, what am I? Who witnesses my waking? Who witnesses my sleep? Who knows right now that I exist? Who is aware of my existence? It is you. It is I.