Limited by my own experiences
The “soul” or essence, cannot be viewed only as something individual for paradoxically; the Totality is in it.
If the above cannot be understood, perhaps by looking at the concept of “self-similarity” which brought about “fractal art,” then this idea could be intellectually understood.
The whole has the same “shape” as the parts.
In consciousness, “we” are the parts making up the whole.
Therefore, our consciousness of how we relate with the world is nothing but how we relate with ourselves.
“I am the world.”
This “I” has a personality in it. To go beyond that personality is to find our essence.
To deny the personality just to embrace the essence is what a “black or white” consciousness could observe.
The personality is “bad.” The essence is “good.”
However, when we understand the world through its paradoxical aspect, we cannot embrace one side of the coin and deny the other, for one side depends on the other side to be a coin.
This understanding will bring about a different consciousness.
Yes, we are the essence, but while living life, we also have a personality which could develop ego, that is isolation from the Totality which in turn will bring the effect of suffering.
That is how spirituality is not about denial. It is about integration of the 2 sides of the coin.
That essence, the soul is timeless, but when our consciousness is located in the personality, then time exists.
Does time exist?
🙂 Tell me about your consciousness and “I” will tell you an answer according to that.
A wrist watch has hands moving continually in a circle. That is life.
When the point of reference is 3 o’clock, then our consciousness will believe that it has 60 seconds to enjoy life, for after that, 3:01 will arrive, which is different from 3 o’clock.
We call that death.
Nevertheless, the hands of the watch will keep moving and even repeating the same movement, for that is the way a watch works. Just like the Universe. Life.
Who created the watch?
No one. The watch is all there is. It exists the moment we become conscious of it.
But… someone has to give power to it, for the hands to move… 😉
50 years ago, the example of the wristwatch would not have been a good example, for a battery is needed for the watch to work.
Someone created the battery… and the battery is something separate from the wristwatch.
Now, we have solar-powered watches. No battery needed. The Universe provides itself the energy which it needs to move. Movement is what exists. Nothing is idle.
This example only wants to convey that to understand and explain to others “how everything works in life” depends upon having experiences that could closely match the phenomena.
“I” am limited by my own experiences.
That is how paradoxically words which are meant to explain something or to describe something, will be limited by the experiences of the one explaining his experience.
Any spiritual teaching has the same issue.
If I didn’t know about “fractal art,” I wouldn’t be able to explain the paradoxical nature of the soul. If “fractal art” did not exist, then there couldn’t be something in my experience to convey what I would like to.
I will be limited.
When we abandon all the concepts including the ones explained above, we only need to realize about our own immortality.
That is all. However we get there, that may need to be experiential.
That is the “time” when enjoyment truly starts…
Put the ideas and concepts aside. Put the reasoning aside, and then we are left with the experience of enjoyment of what is… for however long is lasts… for that enjoyment can only last as long as our consciousness is aware of it. Paradoxically, when we forget about ourselves.
Everything resides in our state of consciousness.
Exploring the Depth of Living 