the light is the self

 

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Separateness arises from identifying the Self with the body, which is made up of the elements; when this physical identification dissolves, there can be no more separate self. 

This is what i want to tell you, beloved.

That which is above heaven and below earth, which is also between heaven and earth, which is the same through the past, present and future — that is woven, warp and woof, in space.

Space, called Akshara, the Imperishable, is without limitation, without inside or outside. It consumes nothing and nothing consumes it. The Imperishable is the seer, though unseen; the hearer though unheard; the thinker, though unthought; the knower though unknown. It is in the Imperishable that space is woven, warp and woof.

When the sun sets, and the moon sets, and the fire goes out and no one speaks, the light is the self, for by that we sit, work, go out and come back. The Self, pure awareness, shines as the light within the heart, surrounded by the senses. Only seeming to think, seeming to move, the Self neither sleeps nor wakes nor dreams.

There is a state of consciousness, between the dream world of sorrow and joy and the Self, in which we are aware of both. In this intermediate state we make and dissolve impressions by the light of the Self. In this state we make up our own lotus ponds, lakes and rivers.

It is said of these states of consciousness that in the dreaming state, when one is sleeping, the shining Self keeps the body alive with the vital force of prana and wanders wherever he wills until returning to the state from which he began.

As a man in the arms of his beloved is not aware of what is without and what is within, so a person in union with the Self is not aware of what is without and what is within, and passes beyond sorrow.

In that unitive state, one knows without knowing for nothing is separate. When the physical identification dissolves, the Self gathers in all the powers of life and descends with them into the heart, becoming one. By the light of the heart the Self leaves the dream body, merging in consciousness.

Assume the Self.

Give All.

Love. 

Lessons from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 

Eknath Easwaran version

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All this is full. All that is full.

From fullness, fullness comes.

When fullness is taken from fullness,

Fullness remains.

OM shanti shanti shanti 

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