Pure Awareness

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 Inner Journey Home, pg.324

Nonconceptual Awareness

Since pure awareness is beyond knowing, the experience is totally nonconceptual. There is awareness of awareness, which is the presence of awareness, but this presence is not felt as presence. Nonconceptual awareness is beyond the concept of being, so we cannot experience or describe it as being or presence. We might then think that it must be nonbeing, but nonbeing is also a concept, the opposite of being. Being and nonbeing constitute a pair of mutually defining concepts; like all conceptual pairs, neither exists without the other. Experientially, being is presence and nonbeing is absence; the latter is often referred to as emptiness. Because pure awareness is free from the cognitive element, it transcends all concepts, but it is specifically the transcendence of the concept of being. By transcending being it also transcends nonbeing, emptiness. Experientially we feel it as simultaneous presence and absence, being and nonbeing. But this is only when we begin to view it conceptually. When the experience is full and complete we cannot say it is both presence and absence, nor neither. In fact, it does not occur to us to say anything about it, for to speak is to conceptualize, while here we are absolutely in the moment, beyond all mind and speaking. The Inner Journey Home, pg.327

Thusness

This understanding usually appears in the experience of the total inseparability of ground and manifestation. It is the experience that there is one indivisible Reality, not two as ground and manifestation. The manifestation is not something apart from the ground, but it is the ground itself. One perceives everything forming an indivisible, boundless, and transparent block of ice, with forms simply as carvings in this block. There is a sense of eternity, for time is also conceptual, but mostly it is the sense of seeing what is, Reality as it is, before memory, association, and commentary. It is the virgin Reality that has never entered time. Discriminating mind cannot enter there, nor thought, nor memory. In this experience, there is only true nature, for all forms are nothing but true nature, as its own differentiation. Conceptually, we can discern true nature as the pure undifferentiated awareness that is the ground of everything, and everything as manifestation, but in immediate experience there is no such discrimination of the two. Reality is what is, in its thusness. We describe this situation by saying that nonconceptual Reality is inherently differentiated as the world we normally see, but in the immediate experience of pure awareness we do not recognize the elements of our world, even though we clearly perceive them. In other words, differentiation is a step prior to discrimination. To put it more analytically, true nature manifests as a nonconceptual ground that differentiates into all the forms of appearance, and its dimension of pure presence develops these differentiated forms into discriminated ones. The Inner Journey Home, pg. 329

The Crystal Dimension

Just as the essential aspects arise in the dimension of pure presence as faceted gems, in the nonconceptual dimension essence manifests in a similar way. The absence of knowingness makes consciousness more objective and less emotionally reactive, and the qualities tend to appear as crystals rather than gems. The diamond vehicles become crystal vehicles, which are simply the diamond vehicles on the nonconceptual dimension of Being. The crystals and crystal vehicles become the emissaries of the wisdom of nonconceptuality, of reality beyond mind. The diamond guidance, for example, appears in the crystal nonconceptual form and guides the soul’s consciousness to the integration of nonconceptual presence. This is a subtle manifestation, not easy to understand. What does it mean that we learn the wisdom of nonconceptual truth? What is wisdom on the nonconceptual level? The crystal aspects and vehicles function partly by challenging various barriers and obstacles to pure awareness, which are mostly conceptual positions taken to be ultimate truths. These positions appear on the conceptual level, but the guidance demonstrates how they become obstacles to the realization of the nonconceptual. As these barriers are understood, the crystals arise as the aspects and vehicles needed for the resolution, but appear as manifestations of nonconceptual presence. In other words, basic knowledge unfolds in such a way that takes consciousness beyond it. The Inner Journey Home, pg. 331

Transcending Conceptual Dichotomies

Much of the work of realization of the nonconceptual dimension is a matter of recognizing the basic mental dichotomies, and recognizing them for what they are. They form the solid bases of our mental universe, and hence function as the final underpinnings of the structure of self and world, a structure that we generally accept as reality. Our ordinary mind adheres to these dichotomies as if they are solid and ultimate reality, unquestionable and eternal. This view of reality inherently supports the structure of the ego-self, for this structure is built using images and representations that are ultimately conceptual, but also depend on the basic dichotomies for their reality. As long as we adhere to them as truth they structure our experience in such a way that reality appears to conform to them. It is difficult to challenge the fundamental dichotomies, for we cannot see them as conceptual fabrication until we stand on the nonconceptual ground. Only true nonconceptuality, which is the ground of pure awareness, can expose them for what they are, through contrast. Some approaches to realization try to penetrate the conceptual dichotomies through thought and reason, but how can a dimension of being comprehend a deeper and more fundamental dimension than itself? Access to the deeper dimensions is what frees the soul from its inherent limitations of thought. The Inner Journey Home, pg. 333

Beyond Oneness

There is oneness in the nonconceptual dimension, in the sense that we do not perceive the forms of manifestation as separate and discrete. Yet, we do not experience oneness, we do not feel that everything is one. It is not that we feel everything is not one, but rather that we do not experience one and do not experience not one. There is no one and no many in nonconceptual awareness. There is just the suchness of things, or more accurately, it is thus. Reality as such is neither a oneness nor a multiplicity, but an indivisible truth that we experience without thinking it is an indivisible truth. The experience of unity and oneness is simply the contrast to that of separateness and multiplicity. In reality, there is no such thing as unity or oneness, for Reality is beyond any such categories. It is what it is, before any knowing and commentary A related dichotomy is that of duality and nonduality. Some refer to Reality as nonduality, to emphasize that there is no separateness between observer and observed, manifestation and source, and so on. Yet, in reality there is no such thing as nonduality. Nonduality is the creation of the discriminating mind, just as duality is. At best, it is a concept that attempts to describe the nonconceptual, but it fails just as all other terms do. The Inner Journey Home, pg. 329

Enlightened Indifference

In the realization of the nonconceptual dimension, we do not experience purpose in life, nor do we experience the need for it. In fact, we do not even experience purposelessness, for Reality is beyond both. We do not strive toward anything, and do not aspire toward any result. We have no motivation, but act intelligently and compassionately. We act this way not because we want to, not because we have compassion or love as our motivation, but because we are true nature, and true nature is the source of such qualities. It acts the way it acts, always in a nonconceptual perfection, but when we cognitively contemplate this action we think of it as loving and compassionate. In other words, one who is realized in the nonconceptual does not experience himself to possess a motivation for action, and does not feel a purpose for his life, but looked at from the outside people will think that such an individual is motivated by love and compassion, and seems to have a clear direction and purpose to his life and action. (See Luminous Night’s Journey, chapter 4, for a discussion of the issues relevant in the attainment of motivelessness.) What is traditionally referred to as purposelessness and motivelessness, and sometimes as indifference, but more accurately understood as the transcendence of purpose and motive, is not something to try to emulate. One cannot say that there is no such thing as purpose and motivation, and that it is therefore fine to live a haphazard and meaningless life. That attitude would abrogate one’s human nature, for as long as one still lives in the cognitive sphere one’s life requires purpose and meaning. Purpose, motive, and meaning are necessary for human beings, because they are emissaries of the timeless truths of nonconceptual Reality, before they are recognized for what they are. Only when we have integrated the nonconceptual can we say we do not need meaning, purpose, or motive. The Inner Journey Home, pg.340

Universal Heretic

No sacred cows survive the realization of the nonconceptual, and one’s realization becomes independent from any belief or teaching. He recognizes that who and what he is is ultimately beyond any category, including all the spiritual categories. He realizes that Reality is not a description, and that any description, any teaching or belief system, regardless how useful and accurate, falls short of Reality as it is. He recognizes the uniqueness of his realization without having to compare it with others, and appreciates the differences between the various teachings without having to rate them. His realization has gone beyond conceptual categories and, hence, beyond comparisons and ratings. He believes in nothing, and adheres to no teaching or religion as final and ultimate. He has become a universal heretic, embracing all, yet free of all. In the Diamond Approach, this realization is related to the crystal vehicle of the citadel. It is the timeless wisdom leading to nonconceptual certainty. One attains here a certainty beyond doubt, because it is independent of belief, of knowledge, and of any intellectual or experiential category. One is oneself, and sees Reality as it is, with a nonconceptual conviction. The person’s realization has gone beyond knowing and, hence, beyond any doubt or questioning. It is not that he feels certain because he is convinced, for he is beyond convincing. He is not convinced of anything, not even of the truth of his own personal and ascertained experiences and perceptions. He is certain because there is nothing to be certain about, and nothing to doubt. In fact, there is no such thing as doubt, for the mind that doubts is the discriminating mind. This realization becomes what we call certainty only when he contemplates it conceptually. He understands that certainty is unquestionable only when it is nonconceptual, when it is not certainty about anything, but simply the solidity and rootedness of one’s realization of nonconceptual truth. With such nonconceptual certainty he does not need to gauge or rate his realization according to any teaching or wisdom tradition. His realization is totally autonomous, and he accepts it with its uniqueness, just as he accepts the uniqueness of other teachings and realizations. He is free, and this freedom is unutterable delight and uncontainable joy. The Inner Journey Home, pg. 343