Excerpt from The Awareness of Self-Discovery

by William Samuel

Tangibles and Intangibles

I look outside my window and see a squirrel scampering up a loblolly pine, bits of bark cascading behind as he goes. In plain terms, that view is "here," "now," "tangible" and "out there" from "Bill". The entire scene is contained within conscious awareness, however. The scene IS conscious awareness in action. Neither the tree nor the squirrel is separate from the awareness within which they have form and substance. The Identity-I-am is the awareness within which the old loblolly and the frisky gray squirrel are befriending one another.

Now I look down and see the arms and feet of one called Bill who is watching the scene. That form is likewise included within (as) awareness, but the Identity I steadfastly view "me" as (if ever it seems significant to consider the matter of "me") is AWARENESS and not the body-form named Bill"

Awareness (life,Life) is the I that I am and never am I really contained, bound, restricted nor enslaved by any of the substantial images (forms) that exist within this awareness (or Awareness) I am—not even that body form that goes by "my" name. (That form is merely the point in time and space from which Awareness perceives tangibles.)

Now, Bill goes outside and sits under a tree—something he is woefully proficient at. (Why do we act? Always, we do whatever seems to be the sensible thing to do at the moment. And right now, it seems a darned good idea to go outside and sit in the sunshine.) Two chipmunks scamper after one another, disdainful of the squirrel. A little yellow flicker flashes through the scene and stops for a moment in the hedge. I look down and see Bill's hands as they write these words. Once again: the Identity-being-I is awareness wherein the forms of chipmunks, flickers, hands and happiness are discerned. The whole of Identity is not the body-form that appears to be doing the looking from a point in space. I am AWARENESS, not just the body-named-Bill who writes these words.

This awareness is the warp and woof of every grain of sand, twig, leaf, pine needle and cone in the INFINITY that awareness is. In poetic words, I might write that it truly has been "the Father's pleasure to give me the kingdom" by being this consciousness wherein the kingdom is seen, loved, enjoyed and lived.

Generally, this is the solipsistic view with which one "begins"—but only begins. It is a view that expands, develops apace "and rises higher and higher from a boundless basis."

It has been my experience that this profound (but simple) re-identification from the limited body-form call Bill to illimitable, ceaseless, unchanging awareness ITSELF, quickly reveals the singleness and togetherness of all "things." Then, then—after a common time of personal self-aggrandizement wherein the temptation comes to "command these stones" and has us playing at being God, rearranging the world, all in the name of holy ONENESS, comes the grand Light, the ineffable "awakening," the "mystical union" wherein it is clearly revealed that awareness is the activity of DEITY, the "That which is," and it is the "That which is" which is being awareness, not awareness being the "That which is."

It is known without doubt of equivocation that the That which is and its Self-awareness-I-am are not two, but one. "He who has seen me has seen the Father," said the enlightened carpenter. "My Father and I are one, but my Father is greater than I. He doeth the works. I bear witness to that which the Father has shown me." Consciousness (life) is the action of That-which-is. It is not the volitionally personal, directed action of a recipient-director of life as the director-created theologies of the world proclaim. Nor is it all there is to God as proclaimed by communism, most of the existentialism and that portion of the metaphysical world that writes from the solipsistic standpoint WITHOUT LETTING GO the old man, the liar, the mortal sense of self, the would-be director of everyone's affairs.

It is the awful attempt to maintain this ego vaunting position that PRECLUDES the Union, the Wedding, the Marriage of Light and Love, the Holy Communion, the final Light, as the poets, mystics, sages and saints have rightfully called it. We awaken to the absurdity of preachments and systems evolved from the possessor's position—from the "this is MY awareness" position.

Notice: This "new" view of Identity does not alter the scene at hand, you see. The squirrel is still searching for seed among the pine cones. Awareness still includes the one called "Bill" with chipmunks scampering at his feet, but it renders an unbound and eternal Identity free to soar and sing, free to see and be the living of the Eternal Light that Love is, enjoying "tangibles" but not bound by them nor encased within them.

Humanly speaking, tangibility has to do with the loblolly pine viewed from the body-form's point in space. That one looks "outside" his concept of self and sees the tree a measurable distance away. For that one, space is the measure of distance between distinct images. His "time" is the measure of movement from one image to another. Time is valid for the body-image called Bill, but awareness itself "transcends" time in that it has no distance to travel. What can Omnipresence view (and awareness is omnipresent!) that is not already included within itself? To live as awareness only is to find ourselves discovering precisely what the appearances of space and time are—and they are not at all what is generally believed.

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"But what of the intangible pine?" someone asks."What of those great ponderosas that are not here even though I can see them in the mind's eye?"

To the body-leaning-against-the-tree identification, the ponderosa is an intangible image, within awareness, while the loblolly "here" is a tangible tree "outside" himself. Awareness sees both pines within itself and recognizes tangibility as applicable only to the body-leaning-against-the-tree-position, and that only a portion of its province.

While intangibles may be inaccessible dream stuff to the body-against-the-tree identification, they are neither dream nor inaccessible to Awareness. The not-here of space (there) and the not-now of time (past and future) is the body-against-the-tree's TANGIBLE view of the infinite Eternal.

There is nothing wrong with the body-view of tangibles ("matter") but it is only half a view. There is the universal (or intangible) view as well. That which is called "enlightenment" has appeared to me to be a wedding of the two, yielding quite more—a monumental, transcendental more—than either separately.

Incidentally, the body-against-the-tree-view, being less than the whole view, is all there is to the big human mystery of "gender". If the limited (incomplete) identity must call itself something, it says I am male, or female, and looks outside itself for its completion. We find that only the purview of tangibles is gendered, while awareness in toto is neither male nor female, yet being all there is to the appearance of both.

THINGS

What are the "things" we see? They are the tangible (hence, limited) view of the infinite "That which is" or "God". Things are the finite appearing of the qualities and attributes of God. They are that which God knows God to be, viewed by unbound, unlimited, ungendered Awareness, God's Self-consciousness. And that awareness, gentle reader, is the very one you are, right here, right now, reading these words.

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Finally, we come to perceive that there is so much more to be seen than the world of images, as those who make this study and live as simple, childlike awareness learn. There is the "Light that is above them all." This Light has dominion "over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." That includes this body-form which exists as the "means" by which tangibles are discerned—a body incapable of leading us around by the nose.

So, these things considered, which do we choose to identify as: a sack full of writhing "innards," polluted water and struggling pumps, beset by everything on the face of the earth—or as Love's Awareness, the ineffable Light of Life that has dominion over a universe so wonderful that even the body-against-the-loblolly catches glimpses of it in the movement of a tree or the scamper of nature at play?

A little girl stops and asks, "Whatcha doin'?" I tell her I'm just sittin' here and loving my chipmunks and my universe. Asks she, "do you love me, too?" and I answer yes. Then, with very bright eyes and a big, big smile she says, "I love you, too, very much," as she scampers away with my chipmunks.

She scampered with my heart, too, but her gentle smile is here somewhere among these words.

If you would like further guidance in understanding any of William Samuel's work based on Self discovery - you are welcome to contact me, Sandy Jones -- samuelandfriends@gmail.com - Ojai, California -