I have read and have benefitted from the metaphor of our lives being like watching a movie, or being in a play as an actor, or like a dream. Everything that streams across the screen is accepted by the “Awareness”. I’ve got a couple of questions about “the movie or the play.” Nathan Gill, who wrote Clarity, says regarding the play of life, “It is Your cosmic entertainment. You are Your play. It has no existence separate from You. The play of life is not a separate creation watched and presided over by You. The characters in the play have no separate existence, only an apparent one. The characters are You celebrating Youself.” And Tony Parsons says, “Realisation ... come as a direct rediscovery of who it is that lives.” Finally, Ken Wilber says, “Our movie of life is the film that the Witness creates out of its own infinite plenitude, simply so it will have something to watch at the movies.” He also says, “When you realize it’s a dream, you can afford to play.”

OK. Here are my questions. Whose movie is it? Am I creating it? Or is God/The Mystery creating the movie? My movie intersects with others movies, yes? And sometimes my movie conflicts with others movies? Or sometimes my actions end up hurting someone else in their movie. And how is it that the characters in my movie are Me celebrating Myself?

Who is it that lives? Is it God/The Mystery that lives through me? I am thinking that that is the case...at least I hope so.

If it’s a dream, what if the “playing” I want to do hurts someone else in their dream, especially if they don’t realize that they are dreaming, too?

Here’s what I hope is the case, or at least the understanding I have. Realizing that “I” am no one, this lets God/The Mystery live through this “no one”. This “no one” is now God’s play, God’s pleasure, God’s entertainment. This “no one” can now sit back and enjoy the movie with God, finally free to “be”.

Thanks for your reply.

_________________
The curtain rises on the scene
There’s someone shouting to be free
The play unfolds before my eyes
There stands the actor who is ... me.

Dear N.,

Thank you for your sincere email. To answer your questions, let me state that no one is creating the movies, they are an appearance and everyone sees them according to their viewpoint. One time a wiseman said, “Tell me how you see the world and God and I shall tell you everything about yourself and even predict your future.” Every human being lives from his/her viewpoint and that can’t be helped. It is all part of consciousness growth. A giant step is taken when one recognizes that his particular viewpoint is just a viewpoint and has nothing to do with reality. Then after that we start seeing that there is only One Source (pure energy or nothingness). It is at this point that we start to see that nothing is outside of this Source and it ‘appears’ as the world of objective reality.

You said very wisely,
“Here’s what I hope is the case, or at least the understanding I have. Realizing that “I” am no one, this lets God/The Mystery live through this “no one”. This “no one” is now God’s play, God’s pleasure, God’s entertainment. This “no one” can now sit back and enjoy the movie with God, finally free to “be”.

It is all true, however, you missed an important point -- this ‘no one’ only refers to the ego part, but who you are and that which lives is ‘YOU.’ This is hard to explain in words but there is only Source. Just see it from Adyashanti’s quote, “We are always looking for God, with his eyes.” Therefore the one who is seeking is the one who, as yet, hasn’t recognized that which lives. That which lives as ‘you’ is your consciousness, but consciousness is ONE. Again, although there is no ‘you’ as an ego but there is ‘YOU’ who is unborn and functioning in a unique expression and form temporarily to recognize that which sees and knows. The one who is aware now reading these words, who it N.? Who and what are you right this very moment? There are no words except to say you are awareness. That awareness does not belong to anyone -- IT JUST IS!!! We call it God and then make IT into an entity as separate from us. There is only ONE LIFE acting as you and me and there is no separation anymore than there is separation in the ocean that appears as billions of waves. The waves are not separate but seem to be because they have a millisecond lifetime.

In truth N., there is only YOU! Once this is recognized then there is only rejoicing, celebration and true aliveness!

With love,

Burt

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my questions, and to have attempted so genuinely to do so. I can’t begin to guess how many emails you get a day, and I don’t want to monopolize your time, but it is very difficult to find good dialog through message boards and forums.

I have been teaching biology at community colleges for over 20 years and have been a material realist for most of that time...and it has been pretty miserable for me. I have recently stumbled upon Advaita and some of the stuff has literally brought me to tears, penetrating to my core in waves of peace, release, and a sense of fullness. The “scientist” in me continually wages war against much of what I’ve beenÊreading and receiving, all ofÊwhich has been wonderfully enlightening. I’m simply telling you this for background. The questions and doubtsÊsometimes just pour in and seem overwhelmingly against the idea of “Just This.”

If I can, I’ll just fire off the questions, if that's OK with you. The movie thing is just a metaphor that I could identify with. I saw it sort of as God’s script for me, watching how “I” lived life in “my” way, simply showing the universe how big God is, and so on for every person. The variability, the creativity of all humans, and God accepting it all without judgment, that it was all OK. That's a pretty big God, and he’s running the whole show, watching, kicking back and enjoying himself as manifested as us on the screen...Am I wrong here?

And just how different is everybody's viewpoint? If you and I looked up in the sky tonite, we’d both see the moon, right?Ê

My viewpoint has nothing to do with reality. Really? If that is the case, then all sorts of questions come up in the realm of ethics (not to mention biology!!!). If that’s the case, thenÊmy behaviors that have caused my wife so much pain, then why don’t I just cave in to them again and go out and do them? If everything around me is just non-reality, then why not just go for the pleasure..etc etc etc regardless of others? I’m playing the devil’s advocate but at the same time these are real live questions and “realities” for me.

Honestly, the part about me being no one and being God’s play, pleasure and entertainment brought me immense release and peace. I felt I could rest...but then the questions started coming....well maybe my “bad” behaviors which hurt my wife are just “God’s play” in my life. Do you see what I’m asking here?

If I am understanding you, basically the little “you”Êand the little “me”Êis the ego. The big “YOU” and “ME” is God itself. And what you are saying is that there is only ONE life, ONE consciousness, ONE awareness...and it is God. And therefore, the realization is that truly, always, already, there was and always has been and always will be ... the realization is that thisÊ“me” minus the ego, this “no one” is in REALITY God itself.

I can’t seem to get past the ethics thing. Burt, I have been plagued in my life by something that seems to have been a part of me for as long as I can remember (and I'm 51 now). It is a behavior that is not conducive to being married, which I am for the second time. In the context of this discussion, I don’t think it to be relevant to reveal what it is. What I want to know is, could it be that this behavior is just God expressing itself through me? I’m trying to be honest with myself and asking if I am just trying to justify this behavior. I hope that is not what I am doing.

Thank you very much, again, for taking the time to write.

N.

You have the intellectual grasp of advaita but to start living it requires a ‘heart-knowing.’ This means that trying to understand anything with the daily mind ( which is conditioned by past concepts of life) makes clarity almost impossible. Truth is the simplest thing there is because it deals with the only reality there is -- NOW!! There is only this moment forever! Until we fully comprehend this simple truth then everything becomes a jumble of words. Bhagavan used to say, “There is one thing everyone knows and it is that they exist -- now ask yourself, ‘who is it that knows this’ and also ‘what is existence?’” I recall how those two statements changed my life and I had spent a few years silently reflecting on them until they became my life.

To answer your question about God running the world, it’s true but God is not an entity separate from you. There is only ONE consciousness but like the waves of the ocean appears as billions of separate people when in fact they are all the same one consciousness. This seeming separation is like the waves just mentioned, but everyone is the same one ocean. The reason everyone seems different is because all human beings are unique expression of the ONE. Therefore, everyone has a different viewpoint based on their concepts and experiences of life. And here is the miracle of existence -- there is only one consciousness but it has the incredible power of recognizing itself and that is why every human form can say, “I can think and I am aware that I think.”

Now to answer your question on viewpoints: Picture a ladder that reaches above the clouds. We evolve by climbing the ladder one step at a time. Initially we are in the bottom rung and see only our immediate environment and surface life. Then as we climb higher we see more and expand our view. Finally we are above the clouds and people appear as small grains of sand on a huge beach. At this point you realize that you are like a grain of that sand but you are also the vastness you see -- there is no separation. You realize everything is interconnected, interdependent and interrelated. At this point you also see clearly that every viewpoint you had only seemed real to you at the time but now see clearly it was all illusion. And even the viewpoint from above the clouds is limited because consciousness is infinite and can keep on recognizing itself ad infinitum.ÊIn our milky way galaxy we are still limited because beyond it are other universes. Astronomers tell us that if 1/10,000 of 1% of planets could have life then there are over 100 trillion civilized planets. When you start seeing with this immensity you will also begin to know, from deep inside you, that this NOW-moment contains all time and therefore it is unlimited and infinite. We only use a very small portion of our brain. Advaita has been known to expand the brain’s capacity immeasureably because it combines both left and right brain activity plus our imagination and sensitivity.

Everybody’s viewpoint is based on their conditioned concepts and therefore can only be real to them. For example, we can all see the same person in front of us but in truth do we really? Some may harbour dislike or admiration, some may see a bum and others may see a saint, some may see with their memory of the person and others may see with their heart. Some can only see themselves in the other and so on. Visually we may see a person but it is our viewpoint that determines what we really see. Similarly with consciousness -- consciousness is divided into two aspects -- pure One Consciousness and what we are conscious-of. Since consciousness has the great power of recognizing itself we can easily identify with any idea or concept, but is it real?

N., there is no doubt that you are intelligent and sensitive and still suffer from guilt regarding your wife. Please remember that you did what you did because that was your conditioned response to life at that time. Now you are more sensitive and aware and therefore chnaces are you won’t act the same way. You are not the past N., but an ever-new being moment to moment. However, when you identify with the past as being who you are then you limit yourself and clarity ceases and stop growing. In truth we are ever-expanding consciousness, which also means ever-expanding love. It is all about love since everything is ONE.

With love always,

Burt