Consciousness is always Self-Consciousness

D.M. "Charles you seem to see the world as an illusion and I see the world as real. Why is there such a gulf between my perception of reality than yours?"

C.G. "You are a scientist are you not? Does not areas of science now accept that the universe is virtually non-physical. Even in the various versions of string theory, if one substitutes prana as the hypothetical strings and consciousness as the supreme intelligence behind the universe, are we so far apart. Theoretical physicists now discuss infinite numbers of parallel universes and infinite dimensional existence. Each decision we make as individuals creates it's own universe. Measurements are touted like "the Planck length" which is about a millionth of a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a centimeter. Is this the world consisting of interrelated energy fields in constant change, the "real world" you speak of?"

D.M. "No, I am referring to the practical world. I wake up in the morning and the world is there. I read the paper and there is much suffering and conflict. I refer to the world that was there before I was born and the world that will be there after I die. "

C.G. "When you awake your world is created and when you sleep it disappears. You go from a dream state to a dream state within a dream state. When you drop your body you will enter into a new dream. You have no memory that the world was there before you were born - only your current dream state tells you so. "

D.M. "But while I'm asleep others are awake to attest that the physical world exists."

C.G. "They tell you it existed in your "awakened" dream state and anyway, should your validity of the world rely on others?."

D.M. "Then again my question - Why is there such a gulf between my perception of reality than yours? "

C.G. "You look out at the world through your senses and see the world as separate from you. There is the observer and the observed and most importantly there is consciousness (beyond thoughts and the mind) that is aware that one is observing this play. The observed is not separate from the observer. "I am that" or "I am that - I am" is the highest esoteric teaching.

I look out at the world through my senses and know absolutely that the world is a projection and extension of those senses and my will. Liken it to being in a cinema - you get caught up in the film or Leela and I know it's merely the play of light. In reality your consciousness is the script writer, the director, the actors, the projector, the screen and the light particles. You are totality and "nothing" isn't you!

Only when you give up the notion that the world is real and separate will you be free of the illusion. Once free the Real will have a chance to manifest in your consciousness. I was asked the other day "What is the future of the world?" I answered "Why, it will cease to exist!" "But the knower that knows this fact is beyond time and unchangeable."

Buddha used to say " Only that which is permanent and unchangeable is real," and of course he was right."

D.M. "When did this realization reveal itself to you - what changed you?"

C.G. "Many years ago I was meditating outside a Mandir in an ashram in South India at about 8.30 in the evening. I was dogged for months by the nagging question "That if all was one in consciousness - and my absolute self merged with the infinite and became self realized, how would I know? I mean if there was any sense of "I"ness left, duality would still be present. If there was no "I" remaining, who or what is left to know. I was in a catch22 intellectual bind. Of course now I realize it was all intellectual nonsense but my earnestness was so intense that the break through had to happen. Suddenly the world and time disappeared and the indescribable became manifest. Totality - supreme bliss - out pouring of total love - golden light .... Beyond absolutely anything imaginable."

D.M. "And did you get the answer to your nagging question?"

C.G. "Yes and Know. This totality and quality of consciousness obviously is beyond description. It really can only be experienced not described. However, after a prolonged period, as if from a billion miles away a strange and foreign, faint recollection of the "I" presented itself. Against the overwhelming bliss this very faint echo seamed to drag me back into the Ashram. What was, before this experience, the most peaceful and spiritual place on Earth now seemed in comparison, the world's biggest, dirtiest, grossest and noisiest sewer. It was as if my senses had expanded to cosmic proportions. I know that I would have dropped my body (and gladly so) that night if that faint attachment to the world was not there."

D.M "To reach this state, did you follow a Guru and is a Guru necessary?"

C.G. "As soon as I was old enough to go to libraries I read as much as I could on Eastern Mysticism, spirituality and the major religions. So in truth many great beings have influenced me. However, all Gurus are merely the reflection of the inner-guru - the sad-guru - and it must be so. Consciousness is always Self-Consciousness even of the Guru."