The Difference is Awareness

There has been some discussion about that which is conditioned and that which is unconditioned. Is there anyone who is not conditioned? It is not possible to exist and not be conditioned. To think is to accumulate. What is accumulated becomes conditioning. Because thought is movement in time, there is memory, the past. The conditioned self projects memory as the concept of what is. It is the definition of logical thought. The mathematics of the linear. Can conditioned thought become unconditioned? Thought is the result of the conditioned, it can never be that which is unconditioned. One can only have a realization of the conditioned mind, when there is observing in the absolute moment. Direct observation becomes awareness when there is a cessation of the referencing of thought as a separate individuality. When there is no self then there is no conclusion or opinion (no choosing or choice). It is a state of timelessness in which awareness its self has no validity. It is a state of non-being, which is the flowering of the unconditioned. The unconditioned may be hinted at, but it cannot be known. It is of the unknown, that which is understanding in the absolute moment. It has no validity as memory and loses its significance in time. If one attempts to retain the realization of the moment as concept, one creates only confusion in the mind. The ego/self cannot grasp the significance of the moment as an idea. Mind can only create the illusion of approximation. Thought which is word, definition, attempts to know. But the unknown cannot be known, otherwise it is just an idea. One can only know and verbalize what it is not.

Awareness begins as a practice of mind. It starts on a superficial conceptual level. But as one continues to be aware that awareness begins to reveal the deeper layers of self and of the motivations of self. When there is an awareness of the experience of knowing and of projecting the known that is absent the self, then one may come upon the unconditioned. But it cannot be sought out as an accomplishment or an achievement. Whatever is sought is the projection of mind and not the truth of the moment. Awareness ultimately is a non-movement, a timeless state of non-being.

The activity of awareness opens new levels of understanding that were previously hampered by ones preoccupation with the self and becoming. One sees directly when the self has been understood. There is a dissipation of self as the one who interprets and concludes. There is understanding through the self, but not of the self. One understands the projection of ones owns thoughts and that understanding is freedom from the known and from knowing. Awareness leads to the true self, which is the peace and freedom of the moment.

One cannot become unconditioned, it is not a state of mind. Through awareness the ground work is laid for what may or may not happen. If there is awareness there is the possibility of that which is unconditioned, but it cannot be made to happen through any type of individual or communal effort. Awareness is the meditation of the moment, of non-movement. It is the only difference between living in what was and living in what is. The realization of the unconditioned is the stillness of peace and love.

If one has realization of the unconditioned then the world is different. One does not see struggle and resistance as that which needs to be overcome. One instead has understanding that transcends the self absorbed. There is realization into the very source and origin of all fear. One sees into the essence of the ideal self.