The Great Mystery

Black Sun

Whatever view of reality we hold on to, one necessary condition must be present: we must be alive, conscious, aware. It is the basis for everything we know, everything we have ever built, will achieve and experience.
Some people might live their whole lives running around, working, fighting, and end up dying without ever realising to its fullest potential the weirdness, the wondrousness, of just this simple fact: I'm here, alive, breathing, seeing, listening and feeling all this rainbow of sensations, thoughts and feelings in this body at this moment.

We gain nothing palpable by realising this wondrousness. It's nothing that we can store in a box, grab, see or touch. And our daily problems are still there. Furthermore whatever theories we might have on this, no matter how much effort we put in trying to describe it to others, or to ourselves, we can never get a grip on defining exactly what makes us alive and aware. Nor can we give it to others. It is totally subjective and personal. Therefore rationalising it like I'm doing now becomes absurd. The intellect not only seems to be totally irrelevant when it comes to connect to awareness, it also makes it more difficult.

Because most of us were brought up according to the values of western society, naturally we feel this urge in doing, achieving, conquering, intellectualising, grasping, controlling, manipulating conditions, gaining more for ourselves, knowing more, to become something more than what we already are. Our will and attention become in this way projected to the outside world and dependant on it, in the world of appearances, hypnotised by the Illusion. A similar predicament was that of the men in Plato's cave, in which they were dependant on the shadows, oblivious to the Light at the entrance that produced the shadows. To connect to the Source, the awareness, a "letting go" of this striving and conditioning we identify with is necessary.

Some questions, which really have no definitive answer, might bring us closer to this:

"Who am I? Who are you?"

"When I move from one place to another, am I really going anywhere? Or am I always in the same place? Here, now? Wherever I am, I am here. Whatever time it is it's always now." 

"If I were not, would everything else be?"

When we awaken to this presence, we remain more or less the same (depending on the context and intensity of this awakening), but this time aware of awareness. Actually the human form, the biological machine, the mind, has always been connected to this Source. In other words we have always been alive since we were born. What happens is a realisation or remembrance of this. It is the silent answer to the question "Who am I?".

"You have to ask yourself the Question `Who am I ?' This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery of something within you which is behind the mind. Solve that great problem and you will solve all other problems."
Ramana Maharshi

So in this way we're getting to that which is common not only to every living thing in this Universe, but also to that which is the basis for everything else. Because really if you think about it you'll realise that we would not be aware without the object, the observed. In this way the duality of inside and outside is transcended, as well all other forms of duality.

"When this is a fact not an idea, then dualism and division between observer and observed comes to an end. The observer is the observed - they are not separate states. The observer and the observed are a joint phenomenon and when you experience that directly then you will find that the thing which you have dreaded as emptiness which makes you seek escape into various forms of sensation including religion - ceases and you are able to face it and be it."
Jidu Krishnamurti

However we get there, whoever we are, That which Is, inside and outside, still remains the Great Mystery, and we are It.

"Who are you who live in all these many forms?
You’re death that captures all.
You too are the source of all that’s gonna be born.
You’re glory, mercy, peace, truth.
You give calm a spirit, understanding, courage, the contented heart."
Private Witt, “The Thin Red Line”-