Part 3. The End of Suffering and the Discovery of Our True Nature

Preface

Let us quickly review the principles of non-duality that we have learned. Consciousness, as Awareness plus arisings in Awareness, is all there is. This cannot be stated too often. All objects including the entire world of people and things are arisings in Awareness. The only value of this concept lies in the reality of Awareness to which it points. Awareness is my true nature. I, as Awareness, contain all objects of Awareness. ‘I’ do not exist as a separate individual — ‘I’ as an individual am simply an arising in I as Awareness. To see this directly is to be liberated from all suffering.

Now we come to the practical application of this course. Everything that has come before forms a groundwork of concepts that we shall now use as pointers in ending our suffering and uncovering our true nature. The purpose of spiritual teachings is to help to make us aware of the experiences that validate the concepts that we have learned. Most teachings incorporate some kind of spiritual practice. There are hundreds of different kinds of practice, and each spiritual teacher will teach his own version. We have focused, and shall continue to focus, primarily on two teachings that are currently taught by jnanis in the West. One of them does not involve a practice at all. This is the deep understanding of the absence of volition, doërship, and the individual, as taught by Wei Wu Wei, Ramesh Balsekar and their disciples. The other is the teaching of inquiry into our true nature, and variations of this teaching as taught by many teachers, such as Francis Lucille, Rupert Spira and Greg Goode. Both are intended to cut through the paraphernalia and brambles that are characteristic of so many teachings and practices, to the essence and heart of all spirituality.