Lesson 2 - The Experience is Within You
Look at a child standing before a mirror for the first time, feeling its
nose and ears, eyes and mouth, looking at itself reflected in the glass.
Feeling and seeing what has always been there is a discovery in
experience. Parashiva is the same. It is always there in each and every
human being on the planet. But involvement in the externalities of
material existence inhibits their turning inward. The clouding of the
mirror of the mind--that reflective pond of awareness which when calm
sees clearly--or the ripples of disturbance on the mind's surface
distort seeing and confuse understanding. Without a clear mirror, the
child lacks the seeing of what has always been there--its own face.
Parashiva is an experience that can be likened to the hand feeling and
the eyes seeing one's own face for the first time. But it is not
experience of one thing discovering another, as in the discovery of
one's face. It is the Self experiencing itself. Experience, experienced
and experiencer are one and the same. This is why it is only registered
on the external mind in retrospect.
Most people try to experience God through other people. Disciples see a
guru as God. Wives see their husband as God. Devotees see the Deity in
the temple as God. But all the time, behind the eyes of their seeing, is
God. We know the Self which is God and which is ourself only when we
turn away from the temple, family, friends, gurus and the world and
enter the guha, the cave within, as a way of life, not just a temporary,
experimental, psychological trial. We know the Self within ourself only
when we fully turn into ourselves through concentration, meditation and
contemplation and then sustain the resulting samadhi of Satchidananda in
hopes of finding--determined to find--That which cannot be described,
That which was spoken about by the rishis, Parashiva beyond a stilled
mind, Parashiva that has stopped time, transcended space and dissolved
all form.
Nose and ears, eyes and mouth, looking at itself reflected in the glass.
Feeling and seeing what has always been there is a discovery in
experience. Parashiva is the same. It is always there in each and every
human being on the planet. But involvement in the externalities of
material existence inhibits their turning inward. The clouding of the
mirror of the mind--that reflective pond of awareness which when calm
sees clearly--or the ripples of disturbance on the mind's surface
distort seeing and confuse understanding. Without a clear mirror, the
child lacks the seeing of what has always been there--its own face.
Parashiva is an experience that can be likened to the hand feeling and
the eyes seeing one's own face for the first time. But it is not
experience of one thing discovering another, as in the discovery of
one's face. It is the Self experiencing itself. Experience, experienced
and experiencer are one and the same. This is why it is only registered
on the external mind in retrospect.
Most people try to experience God through other people. Disciples see a
guru as God. Wives see their husband as God. Devotees see the Deity in
the temple as God. But all the time, behind the eyes of their seeing, is
God. We know the Self which is God and which is ourself only when we
turn away from the temple, family, friends, gurus and the world and
enter the guha, the cave within, as a way of life, not just a temporary,
experimental, psychological trial. We know the Self within ourself only
when we fully turn into ourselves through concentration, meditation and
contemplation and then sustain the resulting samadhi of Satchidananda in
hopes of finding--determined to find--That which cannot be described,
That which was spoken about by the rishis, Parashiva beyond a stilled
mind, Parashiva that has stopped time, transcended space and dissolved
all form.