“Truth - All that exists, through all time and space, is one all-encompassing and unbroken field of awareness. (From the Tantra Illuminated site).”
Hello and welcome, namaskaram, to this important PSA of a (pod)cast. For years? “i” have been tripping on something - kinda hard, impacting the fluidity of the transmissions in this space (meaning, these Substack audio transmissions).
Ultimately, this piece has to do with creating a new world. How do we do it if our foundational context is off? Language can trip us up, yet is it not one of the first steps in form coming to fruition from the imaginal realm?
This transmission covers two issues. Even though it’s the main title, i cover the “issue with I” toward the end and first explain another important matter, which is knowing where your teachers/guides/ the people you listen to (especially often) are coming from. My perspective or bias comes from being highly influenced by non-dual Shaiva Tantra. I get more into that, obviously, in this audio transmission.
Then i address the second issue, which really is the main issue. It seemed most important to explain “my” bias first. On the spiritual path that i study and share in this space, we are attempting to liberate ourselves from all that obscures the Truth. How is that defined? I wrote it at the top, but I will include it again. It’s worth repeating and might be helpful in someone’s future bloom.
“Truth - All that exists, through all time and space, is one all-encompassing and unbroken field of awareness. (From the Tantra Illuminated site).”
This implies many things and the implications, of course, i touch upon in this audio transmission. i’ll try to summarize. Typically, “we” write “I” and refer to ourselves, meaning the individuated body/mind entity that we think we are. Even if we recognize our bodies as not our ultimate nature, our inner-most self or awareness is still egoic. This means it feels separate from other people and separate from, say, the device you are now reading these words on or will listen to this transmission on. If “you” understand that on an intellectual level, then “you” still perceive duality as the baseline of your conscious experience. And that’s ok, so long as we recognize where we are at. Mostly "my" baseline lies here as well. Some people might call that reality. To make it simple, what we are saying on the spiritual path “i” study, we say it's not. Duality is not (ultimate) reality in non-dualism. We are saying there’s a higher/ more expansive/ more all-encompassing reality than that. What is it? It’s called many things but one such term is “Truth”, again, defined both above and below.
So what is the illusion of “I”? and why do I keep it uncapitalized? As seekers of Truth, we must see all the subtle cagings that prevent us from being free. Is this not one of them? If there is only, ultimately, One, then there is only one “I”. And it’s not the current implication in the way we use that letter/ term now.
Language is important. Is it possible we might limit our intuitional recognition if we don’t address this issue? Follow? If not, listen to the audio transmission above. If you still don’t quite get it, reach out.
This piece was made in part to serve as something I link back to in other casts/ transmissions. It feels important to be transparent, but i've also made this piece selfishly because i want more flow. If i have these thoughts here that i can refer to, it is "my" hope i can go off on tangents relating to this issue less. It's a piece to point to if anyone is wondering why I'm adding parentheses to "my"'s and "you"'s and "we"'s when "i" write in this space. As we learn on the path, discernment and intention become increasingly more important.
The illusion of I