The Mysticism Begins

The mysticism begins the moment you discover you are actually two selves; one that you can see, and one that you cannot. And you are very aware of the self that you can see, your "I", but you will never, ever be aware of the self that you cannot see. It is a mystery, but its presence is undeniable. It is aware of the other self, You. Without it's presence, you could not be self-aware. Your basic feeling of existing-in-the-world could not be there.


Now, what this mysterious, witnessing self is called--the soul, spirit, no-self--doesn't matter at all. It is there, nonetheless. Dicovering this witnessing presence is often likened to a wavetip discovering its depths in the ocean. No longer is it confined to only identifying as a rapidly moving and changing wavetip. It can now rest as a silent, deep, unmoving ocean.

This analogy brings us to a very interesting claim that the mystical and spiritual traditions make about this witnessing presence. It, like the ocean, is within all things, and is also, parodoxically, within your own individual self.

How can this be? How can a wavetip be separate from and one with the entire ocean at the same time? Again, feel into that other self, the self that cannot be seen, and become the answer.

I experience a kind of shift or flip or flash into this subtle, spacious presence. I witness myself, and in an instant, I find that I am also a spaciousness, inside of which my self, body, and the room is arising.

But it is important to note that this Self is never anything that you can know or experience or see. You can only be the Self, the Ultimate truth, Pure Being.

Maharshi: “People want to see the Self as something. They desire to see it as a blazing light, etc. But how could that be? The self is not a light, not darkness, not any observed thing. The Self is ever the Witness. It is eternal and remains the same all along.”

So, the mystics ask, can you feel into that part of you that remains the same? Can you recognize the only constant in your changing experience? Can you feel into that which is aware of change? And you feel into that presence which is doing the feeling?

The only constant in your changing experience is none other than the Omnipresent One, the Now, the Self. Deep down, you and the Now intersect. And the Now is birthless and deathless. What does that make you?

The beginning of mysticism is discovering that you are two selves: one that can be seen, and one that cannot. The self that cannot be seen is seeing the other self. If you are aware of your existence, then both selves are on. It is that simple, and that profound, because the self that cannot be see or experienced never came into existence. Which is to say, it was never born, and therefore, it will never die. Being aware of your self is simple but also profound because it also includes becoming aware of the part of you which never dies and is never born. The self that lives outside time, the Eternal Self that is Nothing and is All, is Void that is Creation, is Mysterious and is Obvious, that Self that is a nondual embrace of everything, is the One self in me and in you, and there is just one of it, and it never dies, and was never born. That Self is aware of your little self, that desires and loves and dies. That Self is also there, no doubt, and luckily, it is beyond all thoughts, and is never, ever experienced.