![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iamomIt feels like I'm supposed to say goodbye to my present incarnation. In 3 months, we should have a new baby, and as I've been told by absolutely everyone, all hell will break loose at that point. My attention will shift immediately and almost constantly to the baby and our family, and Everything Will Be Different, or so they say.
Of course, here's the thing: since it's me we're talking about, I can't actually imagine it being fundamentally different than my life currently is. My daily activities will undoubtedly change enormously, but my essential nature -- the fact that I am -- won't be any different.
I read an excerpt from Nisargadatta to B last night that rang strongly true for me. In a dialogue focused on the perceived differences between the Real and the Unreal, the questioner is having trouble grasping Nisargadatta's underlying point. "Look," the questioner says, "You've been telling me that nothing is good or bad and that everything springs from consciousness itself. But while your universe might be perfect to you, mine needs improving. Everywhere I look around me, things could be better."
Nisargadatta replied: "Your personal universe does not exist by itself. It is merely a limited view of the Real as seen through your own eyes. Therefore, it is not the universe that needs improving, but rather your way of looking."
"How do you view the universe, then?"
"It is a stage on which a world drama is being played. The quality of the performance is all that matters: not what the actors say and do, but how they say and do it."
I added: "Exactly. The words and actions we deliver today or tomorrow aren't intrinsically important unto themselves. In life, we can disregard the exact words that everyone says, instead simply listening and responding to the inner, underlying message."
It might just be the schizophrenic in me that's having delusions of grandeur and clairvoyance, but I must admit in most situations to be constantly aware of a deeper message in everyone's words. If I probe it deeply enough, that message reduces itself to simple silence: namely, a nothingness from which the mind's activities are spawned. But that message is ever present and impossible to miss if you're attuned to it; it becomes natural to listen to it at all times and in all interactions with the world.
Of course, here's the thing: since it's me we're talking about, I can't actually imagine it being fundamentally different than my life currently is. My daily activities will undoubtedly change enormously, but my essential nature -- the fact that I am -- won't be any different.
I read an excerpt from Nisargadatta to B last night that rang strongly true for me. In a dialogue focused on the perceived differences between the Real and the Unreal, the questioner is having trouble grasping Nisargadatta's underlying point. "Look," the questioner says, "You've been telling me that nothing is good or bad and that everything springs from consciousness itself. But while your universe might be perfect to you, mine needs improving. Everywhere I look around me, things could be better."
Nisargadatta replied: "Your personal universe does not exist by itself. It is merely a limited view of the Real as seen through your own eyes. Therefore, it is not the universe that needs improving, but rather your way of looking."
"How do you view the universe, then?"
"It is a stage on which a world drama is being played. The quality of the performance is all that matters: not what the actors say and do, but how they say and do it."
I added: "Exactly. The words and actions we deliver today or tomorrow aren't intrinsically important unto themselves. In life, we can disregard the exact words that everyone says, instead simply listening and responding to the inner, underlying message."
It might just be the schizophrenic in me that's having delusions of grandeur and clairvoyance, but I must admit in most situations to be constantly aware of a deeper message in everyone's words. If I probe it deeply enough, that message reduces itself to simple silence: namely, a nothingness from which the mind's activities are spawned. But that message is ever present and impossible to miss if you're attuned to it; it becomes natural to listen to it at all times and in all interactions with the world.
