Whereas our Consciousness "I exist" is permanent, our Mind is impermanent. Whereas our Consciousness "I exist" is ever unchanging Existence, which always remains as it is, our Mind is a constantly changing flow of thoughts. And:whereas our Consciousness "I exist" is always conscious of its own Existence, our Mind is sometimes conscious of itself & other things, & sometimes conscious neither of itself nor of any other thing. Therefore our Consciousness "I exist" is Real, whereas our Mind is merely an unreal appearance.
If the essential nature of something is Consciousness, it must always be conscious, because nothing can ever be separated from its essential nature. Because Consciousness is the essential nature of our Consciousness "I exist", Consciousness is conscious at all times & in all 3 States.
Similarly, because the essential nature of our Consciousness "I exist" is also Existence or existence, it exists at all times & in all 3 States. In contrast, since our Mind is conscious only during the Waking & Dream States, & ceases to be conscious in Deep Dreamless Sleep, its essential nature cannot be Consciousness.
Similarly, since the Mind exists only in Waking & Dream, but ceases to exist in Deep Dreamless Sleep, its essential nature cannot be Existence. In fact, there is nothing that can be pointed out as being the essential nature of our Mind, because it is not constantly any one thing. The Body cannot be its essential nature, because though it identifies itself with a particular Body in the Waking state, in Dream it identifies itself with some other Body, & in Deep Dreamless Sleep it identifies itself with no Body at all.
Similarly, the Mind's essential nature cannot be any thought or even the act of thinking, because
throughout the Waking & Dream states the thoughts it thinks are constantly changing, & in Deep Dreamless Sleep the Mind ceases to think any thought. Though our Mind in fact has no essential nature of its own, in the Waking & Dream states its Essential Nature appears to be Consciousness. However, since the Mind ceases to be conscious in Deep Dreamless Sleep, the Consciousness that appears to be its Essential Nature in Waking & Dream is in fact borrowed by it from our real Consciousness "I exist".
Since our Mind therefore has no Essential Nature of its own, we can definitely conclude that it has no reality of its own, but borrows its seeming reality only from our Essential Consciousness "I exist". Our Mind is therefore an unreal phantom, something that is in fact neither one thing nor another. The Mind is a false appearance, an Illusion or Hallucination, a self-deceiving Imagination that appears & disappears in our one real Consciousness "I exist".
However, though our Mind deceives itself by appearing in & as our Real Consciousness "I exist", it does not deceive our Consciousness "I exist", which always remains as it is, knowing only its own Existence, & is affected by nothing else whatsoever.
Because our real Consciousness "I am" always remains as pure Consciousness, undefiled by the knowledge of anything other than itself, nothing that appears or disappears can ever affect it even in the least. That is, whatever else may appear or disappear, we always know "I exist".
The essential nature of our Real Consciousness "I am" is only Self-Consciousness – Consciousness of our own Existence – & not Consciousness of anything other than our self. Because our Consciousness of other things appears & disappears, it cannot be the Essential Nature of our real underlying Consciousness "I exist".
In its Real & Essential Nature, our Consciousness "I exist" is ever unchanging, & ever unaffected by any change that may appear to occur. Therefore, whatever other knowledge may appear or disappear, it cannot affect our Fundamental Consciousness of our own Existence, "I exist", which exists & knows its own existence in all states & at all times.
Our Mind is therefore a false form of Consciousness, an imaginary, confused & self-deceiving form of knowledge, a spurious entity that has no Real existence of its own. Since all Duality or Multiplicity is known only by this Mind, it depends for its seeming existence upon this Mind – this imaginary, confused, self-deceiving & un-real form of Consciousness. Hence our Mind is the root cause of the appearance of Duality. Without our Mind to know it, no Duality could exist. Therefore Duality can only be as real as our Mind, which knows it. Since our Mind is an un-real appearance that rises & subsides in our Real Consciousness "I am", all duality is likewise an unreal appearance.
Therefore we can reasonably conclude that our pure Consciousness "I exist" is the only existing Reality, & that our Mind & all the Duality or Multiplicity which is known by it is only an un-real appearance – an appearance that is un-real because it is impermanent, constantly changing, & dependent for its seeming "existence" upon the one Real Consciousness "I exist".
Thus, if we have the courage & intellectual honesty to seriously doubt & question the reality of our Mind, & to analyze its nature impartially, we will be led unavoidably to a Non-Dualistic view of Reality – to the conclusion that the only existing Reality is our Fundamental Consciousness of our own essential Existence, our pure Non-Dual Self-Consciousness "I exist", & that all else is only an Illusion or false appearance, an Imagination created & known only by our imaginary Mind.
The above themes & 2500 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through www.jpstiga.com
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"There is no Creation, no Destruction, no Bondage, no longing to be freed from Bondage, no striving for Liberation, nor anyone who has attained Liberation. Know that this to be Ultimate Truth."
– the "no creation" school of Gaudapada Nome – Ajata Vada
for very succinct summary of the teaching & practice, see: www.ajatavada.com/
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