Advaita Post 18-07
From an Advaita talk with Douwe Tiemersma, April 5, 2003 at the Hoorneboeg,
part 3
The staying open of that which precedes forms
(Visitor) I notice that when I listen to the sound of that airplane, I don’t even know that it’s the sound of an airplane. I hear something, but I can’t talk about it. And when I no longer localize myself as sitting on a chair in this body, then it becomes totally …
(Douwe) Empty. Recognize the different levels. Apparently, there is a deep level with a sphere in which there is no recognition of the sound as the sound of an airplane, not even of the sound as sound.
I don’t understand that then you can still function in the world, that then you’re not going to go astray or something.
When you completely dive into it there, you fully allow your center of gravity to shift to it, you withdraw completely into it, there’s no longer any [you] functioning in the world. Just take a look at [how it is in] deep meditation. What happens next can be different: you fly through, or the world returns.
And when you fly through, then the story ends.
Then already that story doesn’t exist anymore. Here it’s about recognizing all these different levels. That this sphere of silence or silent reflection remains open as self-being. Then it’s fine for everything to return.
Then everything stays direct, without long stories and without questions?
A quiet reflecting remains. Nothing else – period.
In that reflecting, all kinds of learned things can still have a role to play, for example, the knowledge that it’s an airplane; but the depth of the indefinable stays open and the confirmations remain direct. This open depth remains. That’s why the phenomena remain relative. With it, the recognition of this depth as self-being remains. If this depth is not there, you remain positioned in the waves of events that are experienced sensually and thoughtfully.
There are two questions that arise because language confuses me so much. By silence do you mean the absence of sound?
Also, the absence of hustle and bustle, of movements, of things, of thinking, and so on.
What about someone who is born deaf?
Someone who is deaf has many other senses that still provide information and there is thinking. The mind then also has swirls. What it’s really about is staying open to that which precedes the forms of experience, thinking, and so on, and to recognize That as yourself.
Then I have one more question: is the silent witness in every form of experience?
Yes.
So it’s possible to make the transition from the coarsest form to this witness?
Yes.
Why is that so incredibly difficult? How can you go this other direction?
You can get to know it consciously. I give some indications on how to experience something of it. A shifting of your self-being, of your own identity, can actually occur. When your identity is completely fixed in your body, then there is little recognition of that silent witness. But the experience there is also the basis on which you can recognize that witness-being. In every ordinary situation there is something contemplative, possessing a knowing of your own situation. When that develops further – and that happens on a regular basis – the depth of the contemplation, of aware-being, appears to proceed incredibly far in the sphere of self-being. When someone who is sensitive to this goes along with the indication, a direct recognition can take place: indeed, This, has always already been here.
It is, of course, wonderfully attractive what you say: you pull yourself back to that silent consciousness and then you can completely delete your thinking, completely delete your programs just like on a computer, and live from that silent consciousness.
In this silence the programs of life can continue to quietly run, but that’s not bad. So, really, it’s actually about letting go of everything. But, when that happens and you recognize it, then this includes that you won’t be averse to what comes back from the world. It’s not only a withdrawal.
thegroundlessopenness 