At some point, advaita started making sense experientially. It needs a complete change in perspective [1], transcendental rather than localized to a single body.
Try this meditation/visualization:
Imagine the place you are seated in is filled with consciousness (or awareness).
Imagine that you are that awareness.
Feel that you are filling that space completely.
Feel the presence of every living being there (human beings, animals, insects, plants, sub-microscopic things,...) [2]
Then the presence of every non-living thing (furniture, soil, water, air, ...) [2]
Let the space of awareness expand gradually, stepwise.
With each expansion, feel the presence of everything in that space. [2]
Continue till the entire universe is included. [3]
Questions:
You are the consciousness spread over a large space, both inside and outside all the body-mind units in that space.
1. Which is your particular body or mind?
2. Are the thoughts, emotions, or physical sensations of one body-mind complex any qualitatively different from those of any other body-mind complex?
2a. Are they any more or less important?
3. What distinguishes consciousness in one body-mind complex from the consciousness in another?
5. What about the consciousness existing in the space between the two complexes? How is it different?
[1] Trying to merge into universal consciousness while aware of your individual consciousness is probably impossible. Ramana Maharshi has termed this as trying to stand on your own shoulders.
[2] Details may become fuzzy after a point, don't fret.
[3] Consciousness fills the entire universe, you are simply dissolving the artificial boundaries of your localized awareness.
Try this meditation/visualization:
Imagine the place you are seated in is filled with consciousness (or awareness).
Imagine that you are that awareness.
Feel that you are filling that space completely.
Feel the presence of every living being there (human beings, animals, insects, plants, sub-microscopic things,...) [2]
Then the presence of every non-living thing (furniture, soil, water, air, ...) [2]
Let the space of awareness expand gradually, stepwise.
With each expansion, feel the presence of everything in that space. [2]
Continue till the entire universe is included. [3]
Questions:
You are the consciousness spread over a large space, both inside and outside all the body-mind units in that space.
1. Which is your particular body or mind?
2. Are the thoughts, emotions, or physical sensations of one body-mind complex any qualitatively different from those of any other body-mind complex?
2a. Are they any more or less important?
3. What distinguishes consciousness in one body-mind complex from the consciousness in another?
5. What about the consciousness existing in the space between the two complexes? How is it different?
[1] Trying to merge into universal consciousness while aware of your individual consciousness is probably impossible. Ramana Maharshi has termed this as trying to stand on your own shoulders.
[2] Details may become fuzzy after a point, don't fret.
[3] Consciousness fills the entire universe, you are simply dissolving the artificial boundaries of your localized awareness.
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