Om is the first mantra. It is the seed syllable of reality Itself.
Om begins and concludes every ritual, meditation, and mantra.
Om begins and concludes that Thing we perceive as the Universe.
Om encodes the destination, the map, and the practice of the spiritual path.
The dot embodies the non-dual divine reality inherent in/as all Beings. The loops of the symbol demonstrate the shapes of human consciousness: waking life, dreaming, and dreamless sleep. Dividing the space between Reality and the shapes of human consciousness is a single swoosh, the Illusion.
This symbol is the reason for why some make a distinction between awareness and consciousness. Consciousness can change into many shapes, textures, and flavors. While dreaming, waking, and dreamless sleep are a few, consider also the shapes consciousness takes when exposed to psychedelics.
Yet even while consciousness can shift and change, there is an unknown knower of all these changes that is itself changeless. By unknown, what is meant is that consciousness cannot know this awareness any more than a cartoon character can know its cartoonist. However, that awareness can know itself.
The awareness in all living Beings is that divine reality. Some call it awareness because it is aware of consciousness due to the knowing capacity inherent in awareness but awareness is much more than just that. So why not call it Divine? That is just as good a description for its staggering majesty as any other.
Through an inexplicable and illusory occurrence, this awareness (or Divinity) has mistaken itself to be a single fragment of existence confined within the three shapes of human consciousness. From this arises the experience of separation, individuation, and suffering. All the while, the divine awareness is still the divine awareness. That's why this is called an illusion. It doesn't actually and never actually happened.
And that's also why Enlightenment isn't really a transformation but more like finally remembering or realizing how things actually are, hence realization. A person doesn't become enlightened just as a cartoon character doesn't realize they are the cartoonist. It is the cartoonist who remembers themself.
A non-dual teaching summarizes this succinctly: "There are not two selves, one that realizes the other."
In the end, the only real Self that we have and are is that divine awareness.
All of this and more is encoded in this lucid symbol and simple mantra...
Finished my first #sophieScarf in lovely leftover @violaemily yarn. Cast on another in @voolvineyarns will be knitting a few more as presents. @petiteknit https://www.instagram.com/p/CjLKS4rryBu/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
Went to @kwknittersguild #kwknittersfair2022 with @megeatsdirt. Got to chat with @kateatherleyknits and her @digitsandthreads publications. Picked up @crookedkitchenyarn @leo.and.roxy.yarn.co and @worthmending swift mending loom. Also saw some great @indigodragonfly patterns that I will pick up on @hi.ravelry. #greatTimes #knittersofinstagram (at Kitchener Memorial Auditorium) https://www.instagram.com/p/CiVZZTQLhug/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
Homemade bubble tea. So much easier than I thought it would be. Will be doing this again. #bubbleTea #homemadeBubbleTea https://www.instagram.com/p/Cfg9fmjr7PB/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
Aftermath - 1 week on. On to a newer car at some time soon. It was a good car for 12 years. #itWasAGoodCar #hondaCivic4Life https://www.instagram.com/p/CfccPbnpPlJ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
On the home stretch for my #stripesOfAllStripesPullover by @violaemily in @crookedkitchenyarn @sugarbushyarns and viola mohair yarns #bringOnTheMohair #softAndLofty https://www.instagram.com/p/CetQwXVrZVK/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
