In my post The Beyond I described that beyond Unity Consciousness we begin stepping into Brahman. We transcend Pure Conscious Being, and begin to realize the Divine source of creation.
Brahman is a Divine dimension of reality, the underlying foundation of all that exists. People who have experienced Brahman may refer to it as “nothing” because it may seem to be a void or complete absence of anything. It is very abstract to the human mind and it is difficult to articulate the experience of Brahman, but it’s not really nothing. As the underlying source of all that exists, it is more a virtual source of vast potential than an actual nothing or void.
When one awakens to Brahman, post Unity Consciousness, this is the stage of Brahman Consciousness. Those that enter Brahman may also describe there is no longer any remainder of an individual self, perhaps not even a universal sense of self. All their sense of being seems to have fallen away.
They may also describe that there is nothing to reflect upon experience. Experience happens, but it is as though there is simply no one there experiencing it. The experience is of “just experiencing.” But yet they still appear to function normally in the world.
Some spiritual teachers who talk about this transition refer to it as the falling away of any vestige of the self, or as “No-Self.”
No-Self is one of those terms used in the spiritual community that often goes undefined, and is used differently by different teachers in reference to different stages of awakening. But in the context of Brahman Consciousness, No-Self holds a particular meaning.
But as I pointed out in It Never Ends, there is a continuing evolution on the spiritual path, and what may seem like No-Self may be superseded by a different matrix of experience, including a return to a sense of self, though not in a regressive sense — not a return to the former sense of self — but a maturation of Brahman Consciousness and an integration of a reflective sense of self of some kind.
What do I mean by a reflective sense of self? First, I mean the sense of knowingness that we exist. Second, I mean that this knowingness is aware of life experiences.
One cannot claim credibly, even if experiencing No-Self, that there is no awareness of whatever may be experienced in life. The knowing we are (just) experiencing, no matter how subtle, is a form of reflective awareness even if it may seem devoid of a sense of self. It is at minimum a reflective knowingness. But of course we still can’t get away from the obvious that knowingness implies something or someone that knows.
Some refer to ancient teachings that state only Brahman knows Brahman. But that language suggests that as humans we cannot know Brahman. But we do know Brahman in Brahman Consciousness. If we do not have the capacity to know Brahman, we could never assert we’ve entered Brahman Consciousness, would be completely unaware of Brahman, and would have nothing we could say about it except to discuss it in the theoretical because ancient teachings have asserted Brahman is a reality.
So is the “No-Self” of Brahman Consciousness really no self? Perhaps it initially appears that way. Brahman Consciousness does take some getting used to. And our experience of Brahman Consciousness does refine and mature over time. And as it does, our insight, discrimination and perception do as well, and we find that No-Self in Brahman Consciousness is really a higher order of reflective self or knowingness which is nestled even closer to That Great Divine in the deeper “dimensions” beyond Brahman.
And this is the continuation of discovering even deeper realities of who we really are.
Wait. But what about the personal self — that matrix of mind, body, personality, preferences, conditioned beliefs and behaviors? Nothing. All that remains the same within the dimension of personal self. Personal self continues to operate, but the sense of existing is not dependent on the personal self. Actually the sense of existing ceased being dependent on the personal self in Self-Realization, well before Brahman Consciousness.
The idea that the personal self is a “false” self is itself a falsehood. The personal self is only “false” in the sense that it is not the whole of who we are. If our only sense of self, of existing, is the personal self, then it’s a false presumption of who we are.
We should not lose respect for our own birthright as human souls. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s teacher, Swami Brahmananda Saraswati said to emphasize this point:
“To get a human body is a rare thing – make full use of it. There are four million kinds of lives which a soul can gather. After that one gets a chance to be human, to get a human body. Therefore, one should not waste this chance. Every second in human life is very valuable. If you don’t value this, then you will weep in the end.”
So as we evolve through the stages of awakening, we should embrace, not deny, the personal self. It is a dimension of our human soul’s existence. Even in Brahman Consciousness there is a human being living a life. Without the personal self, there is no living human life. Even Brahman Consciousness does not erase this reality.
– Joel