In The Fruition of Unity Consciousness I described how the veil of the gap of separation between the Self and the non-self is pierced. The observer-observed dynamic of perception is retained but without generating a sense of separation between Self and non-self, only a sense of distinction. The Self observes itself in the non-self as a Self-reflective wholeness. Unity Consciousness reveals that the infinite source of the world is none other than Pure Conscious Being.
I also mentioned that there is another veil to be pierced, the veil of Pure Conscious Being. When that veil is pierced, the Divine source of Pure Conscious Being is revealed. We find that the wholeness of Pure Conscious Being is saturated with Divine Awareness and Its Intelligence, which is and always was the transcendental source of Pure Conscious Being.
Thus we begin stepping into Brahman and the beginning of the realization of the Divine Reality beyond Unity Consciousness.
In Brahman we begin to experience a major shift in our experience. As you might imagine, if the world exists in Pure Conscious Being, then transcending Pure Conscious Being would imply that we have stepped out of the realm of creation, that we have moved to a perspective prior to creation. And what would we find there? You might imagine nothing. Or, perhaps, just a great absence.
And it can seem that there really is nothing, even though Pure Conscious Being continues to arise as before. And the world is still intact.
The English language does not have precise words to describe the “nothing” of this step into Divine Reality. Brahman isn’t nothing. The Divine isn’t nothing. What do we call nothing that isn’t nothing?
This step into the Divine Reality shifts our perspective. We seem to take a position of observing from “outside“ Pure Conscious Being, beyond the observer-observed dynamic. Although the observing is more a kind of knowingness. And it might sound as though there would be a gap between the new perspective of knowingness and Pure Conscious Being. But there is no gap.
We come to recognize that Pure Conscious Being is the “nothing” in an active, reflective state. We begin to experience everything as the nothing in our entry into the Divine Reality.
As this shift clarifies, we see that within Brahman the awareness and intelligence of The Divine are the cause of Pure Conscious Being. Similar to the Self-reflection of Unity Consciousness, Pure Conscious Being is a “self-reflection” of Divine Awareness.
Experientially, we enter into the flow of Divine Awareness with the knowingness. We shift from the Self as the implicit observer in the wholeness of Unity Consciousness “within” Pure Conscious Being to the knowingness implicit in the flow of Divine Awareness. It feels as though there is no longer a Self referenced as an observer to experience. Instead there is a knowingness of experiencing, or “just experiencing” that characterizes our experience of the world. In other words, we still experience the world, but without being limited only to the perspective of the sense of Self.
As I described in The Fruition of Unity Consciousness, when Unity Consciousness is realized, the world of people, places, and things arising within Pure Conscious Being is seen to be without independent substance. Everything, Self included, is wholly Pure Conscious Being. There is no separate existence to the world versus the Self as observer.
Upon entering into Brahman, we find Pure Conscious Being is dependent on the Divine Reality. The experience of the goings=on of and within Pure Conscious Being are seen like watching a movie knowing that its only reality is the pure white light of Divine Awareness and its Intelligence that appears cast upon the screen in colors and images.
Whereas before the substantiality of experience of Pure Conscious Being was its wholeness, in Brahman the substantiality begins to be revealed as the Radiance of The Divine. Pure Conscious Being becomes transparent to its source.
“Life is this simple: we are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the divine is shining through it all the time. This is not just a nice story or a fable, it is true.”
– Thomas Merton
Everything that was before continues to be as it was. Similar to how the personal self is not destroyed, merely transcended, in Self-Realization, the Self of Unity Consciousness is transcended, not destroyed. Knowingness is, in a sense the perspective of a greater wholeness.
This is true “Oneness.”
And yet, the world remains the same. We remain human. The personal self continues to function as before. And our human soul takes another step in its evolution.
– Joel