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The Non-Existence of Being
by sadh Sunday, May 10 2015, 10:39am
international / prose / post

it’s a form of obsession with humankind,
being and non-being,
"to Be or not to be," is indeed the question
that has challenged humankind since creation.

subject (or object) to scrutiny,
being reveals the most voluptuous ‘things’,
however, the most rarefied
states issue from non-being

humans instinctively seek Truth and
the primordial principle from
which all life/existence sprang;
and if we are fortunate enough to discover it
we realise that it resides in non-being,
which state alone is subject only to itself
and is best expressed as, ‘I am That I Am’

the self-created original is not subject
to anything unlike its creation
which is subject to it --
all the dimensions and multifarious forms
it creates or rather, emanate from it,
are illusory as they constitute a diverse plurality
not of the character of
ONE infinite singularity;
plurality in short is a trick designed to ensnare
with all its attractions and alluring temptations

and so we have infinite,
self-created being/continuum
and an illusory finite world of beginnings
and endings

we have a vague inaccessible memory of our inception
it haunts us until we are forced through circumstance,
disappointment and hardship to seek the constancy
of something beyond us

the question arises, how do we as finite beings
apprehend the infinite, immutable constant?
simple,
by tracing our consciousness back to its source,
as nothing is separate from the living principle,
we are able to realise who we are
and our purpose in life

unsurprisingly much has been written
about this mysterious source throughout the ages,
why are we not surprised?
we are sentient created beings
and seek that which created us
and answers to life’s enduring questions

now consider that the desire to know is innate therefore
common to all and that throughout human history
many have pondered and inquired into the great mysteries
and the meaning of life

an ancient Hindu holy text begins:

“I am Life; The Life of all lives.
Adore Me who am Life.”

and as we know from a modicum
of theological knowledge the above sentiment/claim
is shared by almost all the religions;
we are also informed by various people
from divergent cultures and historical periods
that we have direct access
to that source of Life

and so the mystery and meaning of our lives is accessible
to those that pursue truth to the end

in order to approach a condition of continuous becoming,
which is the character of infinity,
we must adopt a condition that is compatible
and as thought is finite, which is the polar opposite
of infinity, thought (conceptualisation) must be abandoned
if we wish to apprehend truth or infinity

we learn from Zen Buddhism:

“sitting quietly doing nothing,
spring comes and the grass grows by itself”

which means do not fuss mentally
as realising truth is Perfectly natural
as is our direct and continuous connection to it.

the cessation of thought, which is composed of
cultural signs, images and symbols,
eliminates the greatest barrier to understanding
which is our false notion of a separate identity
that defines us as unique in a pluralistic world

our bodies are born therefore must die
yet something (primal memory) informs us there’s more,
something that survives and continues
after physical death --
every culture believes in some sort of afterlife
and that is no coincidence
as we ‘die’ to our bodies regularly during sleep
yet remain confident that we continue to exist

we are in essence pure consciousness,
which state does not necessarily involve
thought; an empty or clear consciousness
becomes aware of itself and its source,
the seemingly endless process of thought
is culturally derived and with practice is able to be subdued.
Descartes unfortunately got
it very wrong when he attributed thought
as a condition of being/identity, “I think therefore I am”
is erroneous as Being is not subject to thought,
which assertion is ‘easily’ verified by anyone willing
to subdue the incessant train of thought

Descartes’ thought-based extremely limited identity
is a very poor substitute for unconditional
(self) awareness of the infinite process of Creation.