• Q & A WITH THOM KNOLES •

Oneness

Question:
How can I believe in evolution if I have always been here and always will be here? Deep down a voice whispers 'What's the point?', which I don't want to hear. Evolution and Infinity seem to cancel each other out.

If everything exists all the time how can evolution move 'forward'?

Thom's reply:
There is One, indivisible, whole consciousness that maintains Its unmanifest, Absolute, never-changing nature as, simultaneously, It breaks Its symmetry to manifest as sequence (time) and form, in order - intentionally - also to become relative and ever-changing while never losing Its underlying Oneness.

The greatest achievement of consciousness is not remembrance or illumination - nor is it enlightenment. The greatest achievement of consciousness is Its power to forget Its identity of Oneness in order convincingly to appear as many, while simultaneously maintaining an underlying conscious Oneness to which It, playing the role of "part", can return.

It does all this in aid of experiencing love. Love is the re-cognition of Unity, Oneness. This re-cognition cannot happen without the creation of apparent disunity. The symmetry-breaking event which creates ignorance is no mistake. Ignorance-creation is the first step of evolution toward love, the fullest experience of which is the purpose of Creation.

When a wave upon the ocean realises (remembers, or re-cognises) its/Its oneness with the Ocean, realises that it IS the Ocean, then the wave/Ocean no longer identifies with being wave only. Now it/It experiences its wave-hood and Its Ocean-hood simultaneously; experiences being them existing simultaneously. There is no conflict or contradiction between the two realities - they are One reality, and there is nothing wrong, nor has there ever been. It/it is a wave and It is an Ocean simultaneously. Undulating Ocean is not non-Ocean. Waves are Ocean-water, the rolling undulations of the unmoving Ocean. The Ocean goes nowhere but apparently its waves travel through It, never at any time being anything but It, even if the waves cannot see that they are That through which they propagate. This realisation, of being a relative, individualised nature undulating within One Unmoving Nature, is enlightenment.

The gradual realisation of the part value of consciousness - that it is That, that in fact "part" is whole and part simultaneously - is the second phase of 'evolution' - that phase that evolves from the creation of ignorance.

At this phase, the part value of consciousness that 'evolves' realises that "it" simply is the Wholeness that knowingly, intentionally, assigned ItSelf to achieve forgetfulness so that that part of ItSelf could re-cognise the wholeness; could enjoy being brought back to memory of Oneness.

When a wave settles down to "become one" with the Ocean (meditation), it actually is not "becoming" one with the Ocean, since always it was one with the Ocean. In the experience of wakeful transcendence what is happening is the cessation of happenings. In meditation, when the mind retains consciousness but ceases thinking, then Being continues to know ItSelf without the forgetfulness It created; no new "merger" takes place. Simply, the direct experience of Oneness now dominates as one's identity. The "merger" always was the reality, since disunity cannot exist in the One, indivisible wholeness - it can only 'appear' to exist.

With repeated experience of this Oneness, the mind begins a process of dual identification. It identifies with the inner Absolute and, simultaneously and with no conflict or contradiction, it identifies with relativity, with ever-changing individuality.

A lamp at the door shines light inside simultaneously with its shining of light outside; it does not need to alternate between inside and outside in order to shed light upon both - it does so simultaneously.

Consciousness that has adapted to the experience of the Absolute, non-changing inner Oneness does not lose its ability to identify simultaneously with its status of individuality and to play that role.

So evolution starts with the process of Absolute Being, the One, indivisible, whole and super-symmetric consciousness, breaking Its symmetry to allow part of ItSelf to forget and to identify solely with individualised and dualistic temporary truths. Evolution continues when the individualised awareness learns through meditation how to transcend; simply to Be.

Evolution continues as the individualised consciousness learns to alternate, identifying in meditation with the Absolute, non-changing Being, and, outside the practice of meditation, bringing that inner Truth into action while alternating That with identification with the relative, ever-changing layer.

Through this we dissolve the conundrum you presented of Infinity vs. Evolution.

Infinity evolves through making ItSelf - in part - forgetful of ItSelf; by breaking Its symmetry while yet retaining Its wholeness.

Ocean. Creating waves without losing Ocean-hood. Infinity evolves by creating waves from within ItSelf that then realise themselves to be localised curvatures of the one unbounded Ocean, not separate to It, never "merging" with It, due simply to Being It already but also being individual simultaneously.

Individuality evolves by experiencing Oneness, stabilising That identity through daily identification with individuality; alternating between those two states again and again until individuality and universality are one contiguous identity that accepts its Oneness to play through its individuality.

Love and Jai Guru Deva

Thom

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