As the Presence prevails, there is no further identification with the body or mind.
When the mind grows silent, the thought “I Am” also disappears, and Pure Awareness shines forth to illuminate what one is, was, and always will be, beyond all worlds and all universes, beyond time, and therefore without beginning or end.
People wonder, “How does one reach this state of awareness,” but few follow the steps because they are so simple.
First, the desire to reach that state was intense.
Then began the discipline to act with constant and universal forgiveness and gentleness, without exception.
One has to be compassionate towards everything, including one’s own self and thoughts.
Next came a willingness to hold desires in abeyance and surrender
personal will at every moment.
As each thought, feeling, desire, or deed was surrendered to God, the mind became increasingly silent.
At first, it released whole stories and paragraphs, then ideas and concepts.
As one lets go of wanting to own these thoughts, they no longer reach such elaboration and begin to fragment while only half formed.
Finally, it was possible to surrender the energy behind the very process of thinking itself before it even became thought.
The task of constant and unrelenting fixity of focus, allowing not even a moment of distraction from meditation, continued while doing ordinary activities.
At first, this seemed to take effort, but as time went on, it became habitual and automatic, requiring less and less effort, and finally, it was effortless.
The process is like a rocket’s leaving the earth.
Initially, it requires enormous energy, but then less and less as it leaves the earth’s gravitational field, and eventually, it moves through space under its own momentum.
Suddenly, without warning, a shift in awareness occurred and the Presence totally prevailed, unmistakable and all encompassing.
There were a few moments of intense apprehension as the self died, and then the absoluteness of the Presence inspired a flash of awe.
This breakthrough was spectacular and more intense than anything before.
It had no counterpart in ordinary experience.
The profound shock was cushioned by the love that is the Presence.
Without the support and protection of that love, it seems that one would be annihilated.
There followed a moment of terror as the ego clung to its existence, fearing it would become nothingness.
Instead, as it died, it was replaced by the Self as Everythingness, the All in which everything was known and obvious in its perfect expression of its own essence.
With nonlocality came the awareness that one is all that ever was or can be.
One is total and complete, beyond all identities, beyond gender, beyond even humanness itself.
One need never again fear suffering and death.
I: Reality and Subjectivity
pg. xxv-xxvii of Introduction
As each thought, feeling, desire, or deed was surrendered to God, the mind became increasingly silent.
At first, it released whole stories and paragraphs, then ideas and concepts.
As one lets go of wanting to own these thoughts, they no longer reach such elaboration and begin to fragment while only half formed.
Finally, it was possible to surrender the energy behind the very process of thinking itself before it even became thought.
The task of constant and unrelenting fixity of focus, allowing not even a moment of distraction from meditation, continued while doing ordinary activities.
At first, this seemed to take effort, but as time went on, it became habitual and automatic, requiring less and less effort, and finally, it was effortless.
The process is like a rocket’s leaving the earth.
Initially, it requires enormous energy, but then less and less as it leaves the earth’s gravitational field, and eventually, it moves through space under its own momentum.
Suddenly, without warning, a shift in awareness occurred and the Presence totally prevailed, unmistakable and all encompassing.
There were a few moments of intense apprehension as the self died, and then the absoluteness of the Presence inspired a flash of awe.
This breakthrough was spectacular and more intense than anything before.
It had no counterpart in ordinary experience.
The profound shock was cushioned by the love that is the Presence.
Without the support and protection of that love, it seems that one would be annihilated.
There followed a moment of terror as the ego clung to its existence, fearing it would become nothingness.
Instead, as it died, it was replaced by the Self as Everythingness, the All in which everything was known and obvious in its perfect expression of its own essence.
With nonlocality came the awareness that one is all that ever was or can be.
One is total and complete, beyond all identities, beyond gender, beyond even humanness itself.
One need never again fear suffering and death.
I: Reality and Subjectivity
pg. xxv-xxvii of Introduction
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