The Illusion of Self

When a man realizes his true nature, he understands that his ego has absolutely nothing to do with it. The self is nothing more than a persistent illusion. There is no separateness, no individual self, for all is One and One is all. Upon realization of the inter-connectedness of all things, all fear and all hatred disperses, and only love and compassion remains.

Now, this may sound ludicrous to you, as objective reality has the appearance of being separate. In order to understand the connected nature of the universe, you must first understand consciousness itself. So, what is consciousness? It is nothing more than an awareness, an ability to perceive, interpret, and react. There is no need to over-complicate it. Nothing can exist outside of consciousness, for in order for something to exist, we must consciously be aware of it's existence. It must be observed and then interpreted. Then we make up a definition and objectify it through this interpretation. Therefore, absolutely nothing can exist outside of the boundaries of your mind. 

There is but one true consciousness. I will call this God for lack of a better term, and because I don't feel like writing consciousness a million times. God is completely independent of the self or the "ego". God is independent of genes, thoughts, feelings, emotions, and social conditioning; the things that define us as human beings. God is that subtle awareness in the back of your mind, the observer that experiences all these things. You are not your body, rather, you are the one experiencing your body. You are also not your thoughts. You are the one witnessing and listening to your thoughts. You are simply awareness, that pure, divine consciousness that we all struggle to comprehend. And this awareness is the same for everyone.

Now, this may be tough to swallow for those of you who have become too attached to the ego. Those of you who think you are independent and separate from everyone else. You may have become too preoccupied with material things, thinking that they define you, and that the attainment of these possessions is your sole purpose in life. It is not. Like all physical objects, these things are fleeting and will not last. Even the body will perish someday, and this idea strikes fear into the hearts of many, because they think that the body is who they truly are, and without it they will cease to exist. But your consciousness will remain, for it is infinite and everlasting. It is unaffected by space and time, and it's very source is God. 

I'm sure many of you are wondering "What the f**k is this dude talking about!?!? If there is only one consciousness, then how are there so many people in the world? Not only the people living on Earth today, but those who lived in the past and those who will live in the future. Surely they are separate, individual beings." Let me attempt to explain this with something I like to call the mirror metaphor.

 Imagine a single mirror. This mirror is the source of all things, the original consciousness, or God. The reflection in the mirror is consciousness itself, and the frame and the glass is the place in which this consciousness resides. God has a desire; to understand thyself. In order to do so, God must multiply, for nothing can be observed, interpreted, and understood from the standpoint of absolute Oneness.

Now, this mirror represents a God who is complete, utter, indescribable perfection. Pure love, peace, bliss, etc... but in order for this consciousness to multiply, it has to divide itself, and create its opposite. This opposite is the "negative" aspect of the universe. i.e. hate, evil, fear, etc... This is not really a force in and of itself but rather a lack or absence of the one true force, which is light or God, the same way your shadow isn't some dark force that is separate from you but merely a projection created by you. So now imagine that this negativity is represented by another mirror, which is directly opposite to the original. What do you see when you look into either mirror. It looks like infinite reflections stretching into oblivion, right? Well, those reflections are us! And one of those reflections is you!

So we are not separate from God, but rather we are reflections of God.The frame and the glass represent the reality in which we exist and the universe that we perceive and interpret, which is where our consciousness currently resides. Just like a mirror, we will reflect what is around us and exists in our environment, and this will affect our beliefs and the way in which we interpret and react to our reality. This process is known as social conditioning. Pretty mind-boggling, eh? So if you ever wondered why there is negativity in this world and why everything isn't "perfect", it's because this negative aspect of the universe is the very thing that permits you to exist and allows you to have free will. It is the very thing that allows you to truly know thyself.

So in conclusion, you can see from this metaphor that all of us are really just reflections of the source consciousness, or God. Each and every one of us are essential pieces to an infinite puzzle. Thus, we are immortal beings experiencing a dichotomy, a universe of contrast or opposing objective realities. We are all truly spiritual beings having a human experience, for the physical body is the opposite of the soul. This can be traumatizing for some until you truly understand it and appreciate it for what it is. I hope I helped you to do just that. 

Peace and Love.