By itself nothing has existence.
Everything needs its own absence.
To be, is to be distinguishable,
to be here and not there,
to be now and not then,
to be thus and not otherwise.
Like water is shaped by the container, so is everything determined by conditions (gunas).
As water remains water regardless of the vessels,
as light remains itself regardless of the colours it brings out,
so does the real remain real,
regardless of conditions in which it is reflected.
Why keep the reflection only in the focus of consciousness?
Why not the real itself?
To know that consciousness and its content are but reflections, changeful and transient, is the focussing of the real. The refusal to see the snake in the rope is the necessary condition for seeing the rope.
One must also know that a rope exists and looks like a snake.
Similarly, one must know that the real exists and is of the nature of witness-consciousness. Of course it is beyond the witness, but to enter it one must first realise the state of pure witnessing.
The awareness of conditions brings one to the unconditioned.
To know the conditioned as conditioned is all that can be said about the unconditioned. Positive terms are mere hints and misleading.
Those who make plans will be born to carry them out. Those who make no plans need not be born.
To me you are your own God. But if you think otherwise, think to the end.
If there be God, then all is God’s and all is for the best. Welcome all that comes with a glad and thankful heart. And love all creatures. This too will take you to your Self.
~ Guru Nisargadatta Maharaj
Excerpt from: I AM THAT
Chapter: “Existence”
