Becoming vs Devouring

Becoming vs Devouring

There is an interesting shift that takes between the style of experience in Unity and the style in Brahman.

In Unity, we progressively become whatever we experience. Perceptions, memory, the whole works – as we experience it, we recognize we are it in the most profound, intimate way. Simply living life, we gradually come to know the entirely of consciousness (Atman) until we know ourselves as both global awareness and all points within that. Of course, some will frame or emphasize this process a little differently – like with being or inclusiveness. The dominant theme though is a growing Oneness or uniting with all.

With the Brahman shift, we switch from knowing ourselves as consciousness to knowing what is beyond consciousness, beyond being. We come to know the totality greater than everything. Brahman is the knower of Brahman.

But in Brahman the process is not uniting, it is “devouring”.  Brahman is the eater. Again through simple experience, everything is recognized as That. What had been recognized as being is now progressively recognized as nothing.

In a sense, even experience itself is devoured into simple knowing.

While this may sound like a bad thing, it’s actually quite remarkable, eventually becoming delightful. This is because that “nothing” is not an emptiness but rather a totality, an inclusiveness that unites even the subtle divisions within consciousness and being.

In one sense, we could say Brahman is also a Uniting process, but at an even deeper level. We have united all of consciousness and now are uniting totality. But because That has a different dynamic than consciousness, it is quite different subjectively.
Davidya

Last Updated on June 16, 2016 by

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7 Comments

  1. Jim

    Yes, the experience [life in Brahman] is akin to immersing ourselves into an ever evolving fractal geometry, so that we can function “in” Brahman, unlike Unity Consciousness, without interfering with our non-localized state/identity.

    The Big Boundary up until the Brahman Shift is that we continue to reference the Self as the judge of all experience. Even the profound union and seamless nature of life in Unity has, at its heart, the Self.

    In Unity, we are Infinite, though not yet free of boundaries, because of this unseen reliance on the Self, for identity, for primary reference. Unity is an Infinity imprisoned within the Self.

    Just as the self was made servant to the immortal, infinite Self, and the Self realized its full value in Unity, so is the Self then made servant to Brahman.

    Because of this subsequent lack of interference in the flow of consciousness by the Self, this uniting of “even the subtle divisions within consciousness and being” can now continue unimpeded, growing into ever greater totalities.

    Thanks for writing about this!

    1. Beautifully put, Jim. I particularly liked “Unity is an Infinity imprisoned within the Self.” and “the Self then made servant to Brahman.”

      And yes, like another liberation. Amusingly, we’re liberated from liberation. (laughs)

    1. Hi Share
      Yes- there is that paradox. But they can also be seen as quite distinct experiences.

      For example, in recognizing all this is That. Food is Brahman, this body is Brahman, the world is Brahman.

      And then, the process of experience “devouring” all content as the post describes. All of the above being recognized as uncreated – all and only ever Brahman.

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