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#2473 - Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - Editor: Jerry Katz
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Here is a dialogue between a questioner and Jerry Katz. The
writer's name has been replaced with [the writer].
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QUESTIONER:
I don't understand this quote by Nisargadatta.
"As I only know the contents of my consciousness, and as an
outside world is unprovable, all
perceivables are only in my mind."
Does this mean that the world exists is in [the writer's] mind?
Does it mean that there are no
starving people in Africa, no Tibet, no USA, since I'm not there
right now to experience it?
I would be thankful for a reply to this one, since I have found
myself thinking over this a lot.
JK'S RESPONSE:
See if the video at the link below makes any sense. I think it
explains what Nisargadatta is
saying. It tries to show that there is only the Absolute, or
Truth, or Reality, or God, whatever
term you prefer. In this video they use the term Allah. Just
replace Allah with whatever term you
like. It could be Christ, Krishna, God, Ultimate Reality, or
whatever.
But, really, you might be in Africa holding a dying child in your
arms, and he is looking into your
eyes: what is that exactly, and where are you? Is it about Africa
and starvation? Are you thinking,
"Wow, I'm in Africa and here's a starving child." Where
do those thoughts come from and do they
express the actual reality of the moment? Anyway, check out this
video if you feel like it:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4232897377629019446&q=holographic+universe&pl=true
QUESTIONER:
I saw the video and I think I got most of it. I understand that
there is one awareness, God or
Allah that makes my mind see this world. But isn't it so that the
world is in all our minds, not
just in [the writer's] mind?
JK'S RESPONSE:
Yes, I believe the teaching is that Allah or God is not separate
in any portion or fraction from
what our minds actually are. Yet there appear to be separate
minds and infinite separate things, no
two things the same. At the same time -- and I really mean at the
same time, not at a separate time
or in a separate place or on a separate order or within a
separate context -- there is only God.
And God or Allah is ... nothing. Formless.
To use a golden oldy of metaphors, God is like the ocean and
everything else is like the waves.
Every unique form, and they are infinite, is not separate from
formless God, just as no wave is
separate from the ocean. That's what the scriptures point to.
That understanding resolves the
doubts that arise when we think there are other things out there
that are separate from our minds
and awareness. The video is one way of getting to an
understanding of the formless God that is not
separate from the form of the human body, the form of world, and
the form of all existence.
In the quote -- "As I only know the contents of my
consciousness, and as an outside world is
unprovable, all perceivables are only in my mind." --
Nisargadatta hasn't told the rest of story.
The rest of the story is that there is only God, Allah, or
awareness. "As all waves are in the
ocean, so are all things physical and mental in awareness. Hence
awareness itself is all-important,
not the content of it," Nisargadatta says elsewhere.
QUESTIONER (continued):
I mean if I meet you then you see a picture in your mind of [the
writer]. And at the same time I
got a picture in my mind of "you".
JK'S RESPONSE (continued):
None of it is separate from Allah. Our minds perceive the work of
Allah. We should know that our
minds, that perception itself, that what is perceived, is all out
there to deal with, to work with,
to suffer, to enjoy. But none of it is separate from Allah ever,
not ever. That's the thing to get,
as far as I know. It's not enough to know that awareness created
everything. It's not satisfying to
know that there are separate things out there. It is necessary to
know that the two are not ever
separate. Those things that appear to be separate are actually
awareness, and awareness is actually
those things that appear to be separate, such as Africa and all
that we know as tragic or
otherwise. There is no separation.
That's the message of nonduality, that there are
"not-two." Nonduality means "not two," which
means
nothing is separate from God or awareness, though things appear
to be separate. If you were
absolutely certain that there was only God, first and last, and
that what you perceived was not
separate from God in any way, although they appear to be
separate, would your questions arise?
The thing is to fully get the deal that there is only God and
that nothing perceived is separate
from God. That's an extremely ultimate and powerful thing to
know. Knowing it, how could any
questions arise, other than things like, "How do I get this
damn digital camera to work?"
QUESTIONER:
Thank you Jerry for the long reply. I think I got it now. I hope
I do. It's like when I meet you,
[The writer] sees a picture in his mind, Jerry sees another
picture. But both our pictures, both
our minds are in the one source, in Allah, in God. We are in
essense the same, even though we as
[the writer] and Jerry got different minds and different stories,
both [the writer] and Jerry are
in the the one source, and the source is really who we are in
essence.
JK'S RESPONSE:
We try to speak the knowledge of nonduality, but we are creating
more waves that come and go. Once
in a while someone, such as Nisargadatta, through their word,
through their life, generates a
perfect wave that rolls across generations.