Conversation with SELF and self...

SELF: You ask "How can I know myself if I do not reference my experiences?" This question implies that you believe you are the sum of your experiences. You can reference your experiences anytime believing they are who you are is the problem. 

SELF: If I were to ask you right now Who are you? What would you say.... Did you need to reference any past experience to answer the question?  

self: I needed no reference to anything to say I am me. Ha, I know I am here before my thoughts can tell me I am here, holy wow! It is as if my thoughts are just an add on to already knowing?! 

SELF: And what does this tell you or I should say lead to...

self: That I am here before any of my thoughts can tell me? 

SELF: Don't make it into a question, be absolutely certain.

self: Yes, I  can see that I am here now before a thought comes.

SELF: Stay with this, confirm this and test the ground you are discovering now. Drop everything else!

Conversation with Self and self...

self: I often hear go within, go deeper, look within, can you direct me as to how?

Self: These expressions are often used because the nature of the separate self is to seek externally for answers and experiences that one thinks will lead one to an enlightened being. All external spiritual seeking usually leads to a good feeling experience that comes and goes. Know that your standard mechanism for learning, doing, acquiring will not work, be sure to get this! For right now I feel its best for you to be silent, still...go about your daily day as usual and be aware of silence and stillness, it is your natural state so you do not need to do anything but be aware of it. Initially in the beginning it may take concentration and effort only because your conditioned habits of doing have been an automatic response and priority for a long time. Be silent, be still comes from within, just look within! 

Conversation with Self and self...

self: Thank you but I feel I need to return to my original question; Who is the experiencer, who is experiencing this conversation this moment right now?

Self: Who wants to know? Take your time with this response.

Self: Can we agree that all experiences come and go and have a beginning and an end? And that there is an awareness of these experiences?

self: Yes.

Self: Perhaps these metaphors may help...Like a coin there are two sides along with the whole. If you only know yourself as one side of the coin you are limited, even if you know both sides of the coin you are still missing the mark as you are the whole, all of it.

   Like a wave in water asking another wave "where is the water?" If you believe you are only a wave  you will miss the mark and not know water. If the wave looks deeper within it will see that it is made of water and that every wave is made out of water and that there is only water, regardless of a waves expression. A wave will always have a beginning and an end as it arises from water and ends as water its source will always be water.

 Like clouds passing in the sky looking for sky. A cloud can change into many things and produce rain, snow, sleet, hale, thunder and lightening but if it thinks it is only a cloud it will not know sky. Clouds have a beginning and an end but the sky never moves, it's always there, still and silent.

Conversation with Self and self....

self: Is there a difference between Enlightenment and Awakening or are they the same?

Self: To me Enlightenment is an awakened clarity that there is no beginning and no end, all comes from One and there is only One. Always was and always will be. This knowing does not leave you it fills you. It is known that you are infinite playing in a finite relative reality. Sorry for so many words, language has limitations.

Self: For me Awakening is a first time realization that goes beyond a body/mind intellectual knowing. 

    Awakening moments of formless infinite intelligence can occur many times (and they do), as glimpses into who you truly are beyond time and space but for most we tend to bend back to the habitual patterns of a conditioned separate self and the awakened experience is only known as a past experience. Awakened moments as a body/mind are usually profound and delicious experiences (some can scare the crap out of you...effective too!) that often lead one on the path as a seeker, game on!

Conversation with Self and self...

self: Who is experiencing if I am not my thoughts as my thoughts tell me of my experiences?

Self: What you refer to as an experience are your thoughts identifying, defining and expressing after the moment (s) passes. All movement appears and is known prior to any thought. Living in a conceptual relative reality of time and space your thoughts can only refer to any moment from the past, your thoughts can only give a descriptive measurement based on your conditioning and habits.

self: What do you mean by "known prior to any thought?"

Self: Are you not aware that you are reading these words, are you not aware that your body is in a particular position, are you not aware of the room you are in, sounds etc... your "Known" awareness is always known and present prior to thought or you could not know what you refer to as an experience. 

Self: This response is not to be clever nor confusing, together we must take a deeper look. If you are truly sincere to know the truth of who you are we must identify where one is holding onto the smoke screens!

Conversation with Self and self...

Self: There is no such thing as a separate self apart from thought.

self: If there is no me apart from my thoughts than who the heck am I?

Self: Ahhh now that is a question worth asking. If you are truly sincere about knowing the truth of who you are above all else remain silent. 

To be continued...