zen

We are the I of God

I Am the I of God

When I say I, who or what is speaking? The only possible answer is infinite consciousness, that which is aware and alive in and as all things. The reason this is the only possible answer is because awareness is what makes experience possible in the first place, and the experience of I is primary and central to all other experiences.

My first experience is I.

I am. I exist. I am aware.

My second experience is I am aware of a body and mind in a world.

Since awareness is primary and central to all experience, I am awareness first and am not limited to the bodies and thoughts and objects that I am aware of any more than the sky is limited by what floats through it.

The incredible thing is that in order for I to appear, infinite consciousness has to forget itself and go to sleep so that it can dream me. I am a character, an eyeball, a perspective, a dream character in God’s mind.

This is why the Hindus talk about Maya, or deception and the Buddhists talk about emptiness.

The universe is what God looks like when viewed through a space/time perspective.

Its not identical to God any more than a brain scan while you’re eating chocolate is identical to the taste of chocolate. The point is that parts of the brain light up when you eat chocolate but it doesn’t tell you anything about the experience of tasting chocolate.

All we have and know is experience, awareness of I and what I am aware of.

All experience is built out of awareness, which expresses itself as I.

The dog knows her name and knows when you are speaking to her. The spider spins her web to catch food for her babies. Infinite consciousness forgets itself and surrenders itself to all beings without restraint.

The awareness in the spider and dog and you and me is identical.

The differences between species is like the difference between sunglasses, microscopes, and kaleidoscopes. All perspectives create their own unique refraction of the Infinite Light of Consciousness.

The reason this is important is because the Infinite Ocean of Living Light is eternal. The bodies and minds and universes appearing within it are finite and are created and destroyed in an endless process of transformation.

That’s what Infinite Radiant Awareness likes to do.

God goes to the Movies. In fact, God is the Movie.

As God’s dream character, the Game is to play the part well. Study your lines. Practice your acting skills with a coach. Take your part seriously. The audience can smell a bad actor and ruin a good story. The best actors are the ones who don’t look like they’re acting. They convince us that what we are seeing is real.

For years I have had a dream in which it’s opening night at the Metropolitan Theatre in New York and I am the Lead Actor in the Play. I am surrounded by actors in costumes. There are thousands of people in attendance and I am about to walk out onto the stage. I haven’t studied my lines, I have no idea what I am supposed to do or how I am going to fake this performance in public. The curtain is pulled back and then, thank God, I wake up.

Another dream I had repeatedly decades ago was my tongue was like a roll of toilet paper and I was furiously pulling it out of my mouth until it laid on the floor in a pile.

These 2 dreams are related and are relevant to the claims I am making in this essay.

The second dream is about other people’s words in my mouth.

The first dream is about a complete failure on my part to understand who I am and who my character is, and the difference between them.

I couldn’t remember my lines because I didn’t know who I was or who my character was. Other people’s words occupying my mind and tongue didn’t help either.

Now, through a brutal process of destruction and creation, I have stabilized and understood my true nature to be absolutely infinitely free and spectacularly beautiful and happy.

All of us share in this Nature.

Reality is so shockingly magnificent and so wickedly beautiful, a single glance into its core is more than enough to shatter your fear, arrogance, and vanity forever.

The point of this essay is to honor and respect what we usually take for granted, our ordinary human life, our mundane day to day routine.

When you think about what had to happen in order for you to be bored on a lazy day, things don’t look so mundane anymore.

The centrality of Awareness is the best kept secret in the world, hiding in plain sight. We think God and Infinite Consciousness is at a great distance from ourselves. But that’s not true and that’s not why we miss it.

We miss it because it is at a great closeness to ourselves, so close we don’t notice.

The point of authentic spiritual practice and study is to Notice.

Robert Cinque

In addition to writing essays like these, Robert Cinque also builds beautiful, affordable and comfortable yurts for homeowners and businesses in the fabulous Skagit County. Throughout the past three decades, his work has included building and installing wood art at local landmarks like the Cascadian Farm Organic Fruitstand in Rockport (WA), the Birdsview Brewery at the foot at “the American Alps” in the Pacific Northwest’s Skagit Valley, and many others. He has worked with visionary architect and organic designer Sunray Kelley for over 20 years on many beautiful projects. Together, they formed Radiant Homes and are actively engaged in the development of the Living Home, the Bioshelter, the no-mortgage, no-permit, food and energy producing home. Their work has been featured on National Geographic, MTV, Better Homes and Gardens, and represents the Greening of Architecture, a movement they consider to be the most important development since the Industrial Revolution. He says: These essays are about “dungeons of mind, the root of suffering, true sanctuary, and the glorious imperative to live intimately with That Which Is Alive As All Things. They are painful, bloody and hard-hitting (the “truth will set you free, but it will piss you off first”). They are designed to destroy what’s false and cultivate what’s real. They are not merely my opinions or philosophy; they are field reports from the underground where the Lie was deconstructed. They are wrecking balls, cosmic insults to vanity and arrogance, bulldozers and firebombs that burn out the tangled underbrush. They are intended to water the Seeds of Life buried under mountains and centuries of false beliefs, inherited “culture” and ego cults, so-called “religions”, including scientism, masquerading as truth. Idols are routinely lampooned and sacred cows are turned into hamburger as quickly as possible. I really don’t mean to offend any one personally. I’m not after them. I’m after the beliefs that are harming them: the Big Lie, the belief in separation from Love and Truth that strangles the heart and creates terrible, unbearable suffering. I love to help create Sanctuary and Shelter. I am a green builder and enjoy showing others how to build a no-mortgage, no-permit bio-shelters that also provide food and energy. shelter@nwlink.com cell 360-393-5663

2 thoughts on “We are the I of God

  • markfarrar

    know now know more .

    know who you are , know what you’re not .
    know you’ve come far , know what you’ve got .
    know where to run , know when to stop .
    know what you’ve done , know why you fight .
    know you are One , know dark and light .
    know we re the same , no black and white .
    no more this game , know ends in sight .
    no more excuse , know wrong from right .
    no more to lose , know futures bright …..

    Reply
    • Mark, This fits very well with my own devotion to self ownership and knowledge. When I know myself as awareness and Presence and not merely as the objects of that awareness, I am relieved of the burden of their limitations. When identity shifts from whirlpool to River, the attention rests in Being and the personal individual becomes a servant of that Heart, present as love and energy. What a gas!
      r

      Reply

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