Question about Consciousness … “my slight reservation is accepting to be that BIG and the fact that it has no features whatsoever to hang one’s hat on. This notion comes and goes and when there is no doubt, there is Peace. How can Consciousness be Peace and Love that are objects?”
A simple way to resolve any question is to check what platform you are standing on. Are you seeing things as a person or as impersonal Awareness/Consciousnes? The resolution to the question arises naturally.
Ask yourself, “Who has the ‘slight reservation’?” People. Consciousness doesn’t have reservations. Which do you take yourself to be? What is a reservation? A doubt. What is a doubt? Just a thought about something one is not sure about. What happens if one is sure? There is no doubt. If the doubt can be resolved, fine. From the position of person, doubt is not easy to resolve. From the position of Consciousness, resolution is direct and easy.
The trouble with identifying as person is that DOUBTS NEVER CEASE. For every fact offered or experience experienced, a doubt will arise. It is the nature of the mind to doubt. A person will even have doubts about itself! How long does one continue like this? If the reservation is weak, just give it up and see it as unresolvable or see your self a doubt-free Consciousness. It is a simple practice.
If your have a strong reservation, then help is needed. The strength of the doubt depends on the strength of your identification as person. The stronger the identification, the stronger the reservation, doubt. We have thought of ourselves as people for so long that it takes time and effort to overcome the conviction of personhood. The primary quality of people is smallness/inadequacy/limitation, hence the reservation about the BIG-ness of oneself as Consciousness, simply because of persistence of identification as person.
Stop and ask, What am I? Knowing that standing as my true nature, existence shining as Consciousness, takes care of all questions, why would I choose to see myself as a continually insecure doubting creature? Self-doubt seems normal because it is almost constant when you are awake but it isn’t normal. Resolve to go beyond doubt. Take a stand as Awareness.
Remember the session on the dreamer, waker and Consciousness? To the dreamer-person in dream, the person is real. To the waker-person, the dreamer-person is not real but the waker-person is real. To Consciousness, the waker-person is not real and even less is the dreamer-person. It is simple when you accept and claim: “I am Consciousness, not person” and view everything from the perspective of Consciousness, ‘I’.
What would happen if you dropped the doubt? As you said, “when there is no doubt, there is Peace.” Why? Because, when the thought is dropped, Consciousness is recognised because Consciousness is always and already present. Shift the attention from the doubt to the context, the backdrop, the milieu in which the thought exists. What is present? Consciousness. That Consciousness, you are, here and now.
About the lack of features …
Yes, Consciousness has no qualities. Qualities are limitations. Consciousness is limitless.
We do use words to point to Consciousness, otherwise how can we communicate? Words like immortal, eternal, changeless, limitless, infinite, complete, fulfilled … etc. are only pointers. Vedanta uses them in logical sequences that remove the belief that you are a person. You have a doubt about your personhood because you are not a person. Carefully follow the logic of the teaching as it is unfolded and you can’t accept yourself as a person any more. You will chose to identify as ever-free unborn Consciousness because that it the only other option available. The Mandukya Upanishad is the best teaching for getting rid of the waking state doubter. You will never think of yourself as a limited waking state entity if you really hear the Mandukya.
It does not take much to shift from person to Consciousness assuming you are fed up with the constant doubts and conflicts that come with personhood.
Who said Peace and Love are objects?
They are the nature of Consciousness. Yes, the peace and love (small p and small l) are present as subtle reflections in a sattvic mind. But that which they reflect….PRESENCE, BE-ING, UNCONDITIONED AWARENESS, COMPLETE SATISFACTION…require capitals. Let the mind flow with the implied meaning of the pointers and it will merge into its source, ever-present consciousness. If you want a name for it, call it OM and think of the Mandukya Upanishad which explains what OM means. It is the meaning of the words, not the words themselves that you want.
The mind reflects consciousness. It’s presence is borrowed from you, limitless Consciousness. It is not different from Consciousness but it is not the same either. There is a difference, just as the big shadow of a giant Eucalyptus standing in bright sunlight is dark. Whatever satisfaction the mind enjoys when it gets what it wants or avoids what it doesn’t is a small blip of bliss on the screen of Consciousness. Mental emotional satisfaction is good, but knowing yourself as Awareness/Consciousness it much much better. People who chase momentary bliss always experience themselves gasping for more, like fish out of water!
In summary, don’t wait to identify as what you really are. Use your free will and do it now! It is good for you, good for the world and good for the teacher who shows you what you are.
