Awakened consciousness...

Francis Bennett;


The essence of awakened consciousness, the supreme Self, the basic source consciousness or substratum of pure Presence that is always present to whatever is experienced, is that it never clings to anything, nor does it ever push anything away. The little "i", the relative form and personality, is the more surface consciousness that always either likes something and clings to it, or dislikes it and pushes it away. For much of our lives, many of us feel and believe that this surface consciousness of form and personality is who we really are....We believe that this form and personality is who we are essentially, who we are exclusively. But sadly, we were gravely mistaken about this.

Awakened consciousness, the Self, pure Presence, is essentially an ego-less awareness that exists beneath the surface ego-based awareness that is normally filled with either greed or hatred or the delusion that believes happiness and fulfillment can be found in some condition of either having what we like and find pleasant to the ego or in not having what we do not like and find unpleasant to the ego.

The "ego" or relative personality, remains of course and still functions in the life of any profoundly awakened person in terms of name and form and roles, relationships, personal history and preferences. We kind of need this relative identity and form in order to traverse the relative world....We need it a lot like people need a car or some other form of transportation to travel through the world in.

It is really quite fine and even beneficial and useful and harmless as long as it is understood clearly for what it is, and what it isn't. It simply does not lead the way anymore in the life of an awakened one.. It is seen with clarity for what it is and it is clearly understood that it is not who we are on any ultimate or absolute level. We transcend this personal self in deep awakening, but it still has its place in our life. It simply no longer leads us around by the nose. It doesn't run our lives anymore. This is a huge relief of course!