Where Our Freedom Lies

‘Do not try to bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead, realise the truth. There is no spoon. Then you will realise that it's not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.’ - From ‘The Matrix’ 

The ego wants you to believe that ‘I AM’ is the body and that ‘I AM’ is the mind. None of it is the truth. The ego wants you to believe that the beginning of life is your birth and that the end of life is your death. None of it is the truth.


‘I AM’ is unlimited, ever-present awareness. ‘I AM’ is aware presence, or knowing being. ‘I AM’ is aware of being aware and is at rest, or is eternally resting in Being. 

The mind is awareness in motion.  Deep sleep is awareness at rest.

‘I AM’ is aware, it knows your present experience. Your experience consist of the movement of awareness, or process of thinking and imagining, sensing and feeling and perceiving. 

A practice for you actually practice aware presence, is … instead of saying e.g. ‘I am upset’ … the truth would be expressed this way, ‘I AM’ is aware of the experience of feeling upset’.

It means that all objective experience, like thoughts, sensations and perceptions appear in awareness. I use awareness here synonymously for consciousness or knowing presence.

There are no single thoughts or perceptions, it’s a movement, a process, a wave of experience, which is known by awareness, appearing in awareness and ultimately made of awareness. Nothing exists outside of awareness, awareness never begins, never ends. Therefore awareness is infinite and eternal, beyond space and time.

It is perception that creates space and it is conception (mind) that creates time.

Clusters of thoughts, feelings and perceptions feel like a separate entity, but these identities are, of course, not real. They have no independent existence apart from the presence of awareness, the ‘I AM’. 

Realise the truth. There is no spoon (ego/seperate mind) so don't try to get rid of, fight or change these identities. Simply see the reality that there is no separate self living, a separate individual life. 

The ego is illusory in nature. There is only life itself and ‘I AM’ is life itself, pretending to be an individual in order to take part in this experiential journey of eternal Consciousness. 

Consciousness would be the scientific term, Awareness the spiritual term and God the religious term. 

When we see ourselves from the highest reality, then the ego/separate mind can no longer have a foothold on us. 

So, while it's true to say that it seems that you HAVE a body, it’s more accurate to say that the appearance of the body is known by awareness. All we really know of the body, if you investigate closely, are clusters of sensations, feelings and perceptions, all appearing in, known by and ultimately  made of awareness.

You don’t HAVE a body, awareness HAS a body.

It is this imaginary ego identity that causes all of the suffering we experience. However, the ego can only be an automated activity, seeming outside of the focus of our aware attention.

The moment we are aware of the fact that what we are is unlimited, ever-present awareness and not the body/mind/ego, the program of fragmentation, vulnerability and scarcity loses its grip and influence over us because the ego is dependent (conditioned) on our unconscious beliefs in it, in order for it to sustain itself. 

'If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.' William Blake.

In other words, when we see ourselves the way that consciousness sees itself then we cannot be vulnerable to the programs of the ego. 

Therefore, when we feel insulted, we’re insulted on behalf of an imagined self. This is a consequence of the story we tell ourselves about ourselves and about how the world should be. That's why we see in different cultures and subcultures people are offended by different things. 
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It is usually when something conflicts with our own personal story (whatever that maybe) that can lead to feeling upset. If you investigate deeply, you will discover that you’re always upset on behalf of a non-existing self.

However, it is most wise to ‘respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment’. Be mindful, pause and ask yourself certain questions in the very midst of being on the receiving end of insults or other mean spirited words. 

We could ask ourselves: who or what is it that is feeling upset? Is ‘I AM’, the aware presence upset? Which reactive patterns are triggered? What thoughts, feelings, sensations arise? 

The practice of mindfulness is an invitation to grace and graciousness. It shows much more character if we try and seek the root of our own emotional reactions within ourselves instead of immediately pointing  the finger at the outside world. This is what it means to be mindful in this context.

After all, our own thoughts, beliefs and opinions are our own responsibility and what other people think is none of our business. That is the meaning of responsibility, I AM is able to respond, or it doesn’t need to respond.

That is where our freedom lies. This is what gives us inner stability.

If you want to know the ‘I AM’, look inside your heart.

With Love + Respect

Rolf Krahnert

rolfkrahnert.com

Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash