Part 1 - Preliminaries

Oh Seeker, who you gain access to this precious knowledge, - vast understanding resides within you, - penetrate deep into this mighty wisdom.

    May the Great Majestic Awareness open your insight into Itself.

 

Everything the enlightened taught, - everything recorded in 'The Door of the Dharma' and other scriptures, all remains incomprehensible because these texts do not describe the ONE Awareness.

    Even the Tirthankaras, the enlightened ones of the Jains, have not taught anything regarding this.

    And the vast multitude of sacred scriptures barely contains instructions how to gain access to the Great Awareness.

    This scripture provides the true key to these eternal teachings. It shows the effective method how to apply them in practical life. It enables you to experience this Magnificent Awareness.

Be awake !

    Listen blessed seekers ! - Highest wisdom is before you now. - Listen with all your being !

Knowledge of what is commonly called 'mind' or 'consciousness' is widespread.

    The Great, Magnificent Awareness however is unknown, - or thought of erroneously, - or known only one-sidedly without consideration for the missing parts. Thus desire for these teachings is immeasurable. It attracts even those who do not know the ONE Awareness and thus do not know themselves.

    Such people aimlessly drift throughout all regions of the world of manifestations, continuously assume new forms and suffer and worry.

    As long as insight into the Great Awareness is lacking, such is the result.

    So impressed are they by their own suffering, so overpowered, that they lack all will to give direction to their life.

    And even if they long to know the Great Awareness, their lack of will to steer their life prevents this very insight.

Others follow faiths and practices that severely restrict their lives. Fascinated by such self-imposed, intoxicating yearning, they block all inner capacity for perceiving the Clear Light.

    They allow such self-inflicted blockages to overwhelm their mind and thus are unable to even recognize a widening of their perception.

    The Middle Path (the simple path Buddha proclaimed) certainly describes the true mechanisms of the manifested world and even The Unmanifested, yet aimless renunciation and clinging to rigid religious ceremonies obscure all deeper insight and real comprehension.

    Such attitudes likewise obscure what course of action leads to enlightenment.

    It further prevents perception of spontaneous, intense expansions of our awareness that offer orientation how higher states of consciousness feel like, thus indicating the path leading there.
    (These are sudden, fleeting insights into far broader comprehension that occur in regular intervals. We all experience these insights, but as long as we don't put attention there, they remain fleeting and thus cannot assist in the expansion of our being).

Since in reality duality does not exist, so also there exist no multiple causes.

    (Duality originates in the longing of man to classify what he experiences in opposites, e.g. good – bad, mind - body, consciousness – matter, interior – exterior etc. Yet in the basic reality underlying our present perceptions, such splitting is nonexistent, - though we might currently be unacquainted with imagining anything beyond dualities and pluralities.)


    As long as we don't pass beyond our desire for such classification we cannot perceive the ONE, Exalted Awareness, – will we not wake up from our current restricted state.

    The material, manifested world and the Unmanifested are ONE inseparable unity. This inseparable totality IS our Awareness.


    (Overcoming duality does not mean giving up perception of plurality, but only to clearly see the unity behind all plural appearances.

    The Unmanifested – the highest reality, - is no negation of existence, it is an unmanifested state from which all beings, properties, dualities, characteristics etc. emerge when they assume [material] appearance.

    Perceiving the ONE Unity is less far away from us as we might think. Almost always we see the world surrounding us through tinted glasses of our current feelings. When enthusiastic, we deem the world and our position in it positive; when feelings are negative, the world seems gloomy. Similar emotions even determine what sense-impressions get through to our conscious attention [i.e. which things and situations we focus on], and what we simply discard or ignore.

    Thus, that what surrounds us – that what we actually perceive, – always reflects our interior, - our motivations, preconceptions, preferences, dislikes, our ideas and fears.

    Yet when we forego our desire for duality, - when we begin to see the world before us as 'silver screen', - as total reflection of our interior, of all our emotions, - when we cease to see us as separate from what we perceive, we get nearer to experiencing The All-Encompassing Awareness – of which we presently perceive only a minute part.

    And if we don't like some of what we see on this 'screen', it's exactly these 'unloved' parts that provide exquisite insight what we still carry within [with a negative emotional tinge], but do not want to see. Would it not exist within us, we would not focus on it, - would not [negatively] react to it, - would not let it reach our awareness, - would not perceive it in the first place.

    It pays to acknowledge these 'unloved' parts of our reality as integral part of our life and to dissolve whatever negative feelings we associate with them. This considerably widens our scope, vision and range of life.)

Seen from a worldly perspective - which everyone is free to accept or to reject - man aimlessly drifts through innumerable material forms and experiences.

    Therefore – find what your life has as its purpose, - realize (experience, learn) what you intend to confront during this life, - expand your perception to the True Nature of your Awareness, - free yourself from all (material) restrictions.

    This is the core of The Great Self-Liberation. Once ultimate freedom is reached, enlightenment dawns.

Be aware ! - Stay alert ! – Let this sublime, mighty knowledge reach you deep inside !

What is commonly called 'mind' or 'consciousness' we access through intuitive channels.

    The Great Awareness though - though it exists - cannot be found (this way) within the manifested regions.

    Yet since it is the source of highest bliss, of happiness, of all enlightenment, as also of all burdens of the perishable world, it pays to know and value It, - as it pays to value all paths that lead to enlightenment.

Innumerable are the names given to the Great Awareness.

    Some call it 'The Mental Self '.

    Buddhists (of the Hinayana path) call it 'The True Essence of Doctrines'

    Followers of Yoga call it 'Wisdom' or 'Self'.

    Those taking re-incarnation for non-existent, or thinking the lives of man are ruled by outside influences, call it 'The Ego', 'The I', or 'The Cumulative Experiences of Man'.

    Some call it 'The Means of Attaining the Other Shore of Wisdom' or 'The Vessel to Liberation'.

    Some call it 'The Buddha Essence'.

    Some call it 'The Great Symbol'.

    Some call it 'The Sole Seed'.

    Some call it 'The Potentiality of Truth'.

    Some call it 'The Foundation of All'.

    And common usage assigns a multitude of further names to the Great Awareness.




Next: - The Tibetan Book    Part 2 - Realization



Author:  Hermann Kuhn
Book-Title:  'Where NOTHING Seems To Be'

ISBN:  978-3-9811466-1-5
Copyright 2009 Crosswind Publishing, Wunstorf, Germany

Available in pdf-format at DOWNLOADS

www.where-nothing-seems-to-be.com