When a boundless dimension manifests, it relocates the consciousness of the soul to a whole different realm of reality, where she experiences herself in the world in a completely new way. All the elements of her world continue to appear, especially the objective ones not constructed by her mind but they begin to appear on a different dimension. So the body, physical reality, emotions, thought, images, actions, essential aspects, and diamond vehicles all continue to appear, but in a different light. They appear explicitly as manifestations of true nature, with the quality and characteristics of the particular boundless dimension. The elements are all grounded in and inseparable from a boundless and infinite field of presence. Therefore, the experience of each of the boundless dimensions includes the perception that all of reality is one. All manifestation is one Reality, unified by the boundless dimension that forms the ground and substance for all forms.

Knowing depends on perception; without perception there can be no knowing. Perception is, hence, more fundamental than knowing. Perception involves a capacity for simple awareness, the sensitivity that makes it possible for us to see, hear, smell, taste, and feel … yet the awareness responsible for perception is more fundamental than knowing and cognition. This becomes clear when we experience another boundless dimension of true nature, pure awareness. Pure awareness is again a field: boundless, infinite, and continuous. It is similar to that of pure presence, but without the cognitive element. Since the source of cognition is the knowing of being, pure awareness is not a sense of being. We do not experience it as presence, for the experience of presence involves the concept of being or existence. Since pure awareness is a continuous medium or field, we can say it is presence, but it does not feel like presence because it involves no recognition of being or nonbeing. There is only the pure awareness of manifestation, without knowing of what one is aware.

The important part of this new experience is that the soul begins to see that the delicate presence of this loving light is not only inside her. It is all around, everywhere, bathing and blessing all manifestation. All forms look as if they are melted and surrendered, softened and released. Everything looks luminous, beautiful and in complete harmony. She recognizes that essence has now manifested in a boundless form, as the presence of oceanic love that is at the same time light and consciousness. It is conscious love, loving light, the coemergence of presence, light, and love in a soft and delicate ocean that suffuses everything and cleanses it from all her projections. All objects appear immersed in its grace, and all essential aspects manifest as sweet substances condensing from it.

All the boundless dimensions of true nature are coemergent.

However, perception of change and transformation is different on the boundless dimensions than in normal egoic experience, revealing the relation of dynamism to Being or true nature. We understand this relation exactly, precisely, and completely when we experience this dimension of dynamism. Phenomena, both external and internal, appear similarly to the previous three boundless dimensions; but here the characteristics of dynamism and change dominate the experience, giving us the opportunity to experientially understand their relation to Being. The dimension of dynamic being is a boundless dimension, appearing as an indivisible and infinite field of consciousness and presence. All forms, external and internal, appear as forms that this conscious presence assumes. The fact that all forms are basically shapes and colors that Being assumes changes our perception of change and transformation, and our view of such processes. We begin to gain an entirely new and different perspective on all processes that involve time; these processes include not only change and transformation but also development, growth, maturation, evolution, decay, decline, movement, action, behavior, functioning, expression, speaking, thinking, and so on. We begin to understand time – its flow and the origin of this flow. The new perception and understanding are unexpected and exhilarating.

As the boundless dimensions emerge, they take the soul nearer to the transcendent state of true nature, with each succeeding dimension a little nearer to the primordial simplicity, each one a little simpler, with fewer qualities and features. Divine love is manifest true nature with the quality of love, true nature as heart. Love is a differentiated, recognizable quality, a discriminated quality of Being. The next dimension to emerge is simpler; it arises through the transcendence of the quality of love. We have already seen that love is the source of affective qualities. This gives us a hint of what the next dimension will be like. We refer to it as pure being, or pure presence. Divine love, like all qualities of essence, is being or presence; and all these qualities are definitely pure and undefiled. Here, however, purity is not simply the absence of defilement; it is the absence of differentiated qualities. Pure presence is presence with no qualities, with no discernible color, affect, or taste. It is simply being, with nothing added. It is the simplicity of presence, before presence manifests its qualities and aspects. In a sense, it is like divine love with the love removed, and only the sense of presence or light remaining. But when there are no qualities, the light is not white light. It becomes clear, transparent colorless light, like clear water or empty space.

All of the boundless dimensions of reality—realms of love, knowledge, awareness, nonbeing, and dynamism—are nondual in the sense that they contain no dichotomy between subject and object. That is to say, in the realization of the boundless dimensions, there is no separate “I” experiencing the dimension. The sense of I is the dimension experiencing itself as a unified totality. Not only is there no subject/object dichotomy between you and the boundlessness, but also there is no subject/object dichotomy between the vastness and all objects and phenomena within it. Every single form is a manifestation of the same field. Experiencing this kind of presence that is not limited by any boundaries or partitions will put pressure on the structures, beliefs, and ideas that limit our sense of self to a particular shape or size. The nondual dimensions of Total Being initially arise inseparably from our obscurations because each dimension addresses a certain level of obstruction as if it were designed specifically for that purpose. We discover that there is an inherent intelligence in reality: Our obstacles, delusions, and limitations are directly connected to the pure or free dimensions of reality.

Now, one of the challenges in approaching the boundless dimensions is that as you go deeper and deeper into them, there’s less and less in it for you, as you are no longer the central part of the picture. Once people see that, they often wonder why anyone would want to go there, and what the point of it all is. However, part of the intelligence and compassion of the divine being is that it frequently presents its nature at the beginning in a way that is attractive and accessible to human beings. This is through the quality of love. And so we begin with the first boundless dimension, which I call the dimension of Divine Love.  It is easiest to open to because it is closer to our usual human experience. The word “love” means that it still feels familiar to the human being; it makes sense to the individual soul and is something we appreciate. This, of course, implies there are other boundless dimensions besides that of love, such as presence or awareness, for example.

As we experience these boundless dimensions of reality, our view changes in a big way. The vantage point of perception no longer is the center of observation that we have called the self, but rather is the vastness of Being itself. The sense of being a subject, in the beginning, is experienced as being an individual that sees itself through the aperture of the self. As that aperture opens up, at some point we see that the individual is not the true subject. The vastness of consciousness or awareness is the true subject. But even that is not entirely accurate, because in this vastness both the individual consciousness and other forms of experience appear at the same time. Our relationship to time and space changes as we discover the boundless dimensions of Being, which is what we are and what reality is. This is the entry into the classic or standard mystical experience. In our teaching, the story of the boundless dimensions is a long story and many stories. It encompasses the entire range of nondual realization. One characteristic of experiencing the boundlessness of true nature, especially when we are realized in it, is that our center of gravity moves into the vastness, and we begin to perceive things from that place. The recognition then is that everything is included in that expanse of vastness, because everything is a manifestation of it. It feels like a unified totality. We can experience this unified totality as love, as knowledge, as awareness, as nonbeing, as dynamism. Recognizing everything as love is the easiest way to go beyond the boundaries of the self, because that process is scary and can feel like some kind of death or annihilation. It is much easier for the boundaries of the self to dissolve if there is love everywhere.

The unfoldment of the logos is an outflow, a cosmic articulation, a speaking of the Word. All movement must occur against the background of stillness, and all speaking against the background of silence. Stillness and silence are the first properties of the unmanifest that the soul normally encounters in her inner journey. By simply witnessing the process of manifestation, and not going along with the normal enmeshment in the forms it assumes, the soul may find herself outside of her individual form, as the background against which all change and movement occur. She is then simply a silent witness, unmoving and immovable, a vast expanse underlying the process of continual creation. In this process we discover a deeper dimension than the logos; deeper than all other boundless dimensions, a dimension of true nature that forms the ultimate ground of the other dimensions and the ultimate ground of all things. We discover where the unfoldment happens, which turns out not to be a place; we discover the source of all manifestation, which is also its ultimate and absolute nature.

We have seen how the world of experience is constantly generated by the logos, as an unfolding pattern of forms and phenomena. One way of experiencing this is to see that the manifest world is not a continuation from the past, but an arising in the moment. It simply manifests, as a new creation, a movement from nonmanifestation to manifestation. Such understanding can begin the inquiry into what nonmanifestation means. When we recognize the unfoldment of the logos as the appearing out of nonmanifestation, where does the appearing appear from, or in? What is the unmanifest, if there is such a thing? Can we step out of the manifest world and witness the process of manifestation?