Quotes from the book Self Abidance

by Srimati Margaret Coble Truth is non-dual. It is the awareness of awareness, seeing the seer and knowing the knower, without the medium of the sense organs. It is the intuitive and direct perception of the Consciousness which is timeless existence and everlasting eternal joy. Focus on the inner light - direct awareness - I Am. The door to Selfrealization is wide open to you. Through the constant practice of abiding in the Self you become established in the Ultimate. Meditate and drop all objects from this witnessing consciousness, focusing on consciousness directly. Discover It to be Pure Peace and objectless Happiness, your own Self. Abide in That. You are That. Ever continuing one's practice in this way, one begins to abide in what was here from the very beginning: unlimited awareness, non-dual consciousness, changeless Presence. Remember again and again your true nature: Oneness, peace, happiness. Take note of a changeless Presence. At other times, mentally affirm I am Consciousness. Meditate. All this brings the energy-flow of the mind inward, homeward. It matters where your energy goes! The quest of Who Am I is the beginning of real understanding. The persistent win through. All are the I AM. The only obstructions are selfcreated mechanisms of the mind. What man has done, he can undo. Continue divine practice to the end which is natural constant experience of the real nature in the Perfection of Being. With great love and devotion concentrate on the feeling of I; how this I within you feels, exists and shines. You may find yourself laughing and laughing when you realize I have been trying to feel everything else, except I, the Real. When you drop all this movement of the mind, retracting all into your own Self, then you shine as Consciousness Pure. This is the process of enlightenment: to emphasize more and more the consciousness aspect rather than the objective appearance aspect. Rejoice in the direct realization of consciousness as I AM. It has begun. The great Awakening. You are in it. I am in it. It is in us. In it we live and move and have our Being. There is no place to go except on and on with Consciousness in Consciousness as Consciousness, Peace and Bliss. 1

As long as consciousness experiences itself as limited with a particular body and mind, it needs some method of interiorization, such as Yoga, to extricate itself from the world of appearances in order to realize the true nature of its own Self. Yoga practice prepares for the awakening to take place from the inner Self. Only by this awakening or rebirth is the deeper realm of Being realized. Thus the consciousness drops all false associations and realizes its own innate nature which is Peace and Bliss. It now discerns directly the changeful realms of mind and matter as not-self, as mere variable objects lit up by Itself as the subject. Through continued discerning practice - SelfAnalysis - consciousness becomes fully established in the Truth of its own Being and that is Self-Realization. This means that no object or mental wave has any more power to mislead consciousness away from its true nature which is pure awareness, peace and innate happiness. Real Life begins with Self-realization. Even the love we are radiating out has its Source in the un-manifest. Search that! This un-manifest part of you must no longer remain unknown and unrealized! For, that is our great imbalance; too much energy always going into too much diversification without our knowing the one Source, the Eternal Peace, the Infinite Blessedness as our own changeless Self-nature. Our real Self is eternally changeless and until we realize our changelessness in peace and bliss, suffering will continue! You need meditation. Aim daily at the depth of the Unmanifest. Recognize your hunger for the Unmanifest. By meditation, experience the Unmanifest directly. Refuse to let energy run away from you, aligning itself against your Selfrealization! The energy which flows habitually away from the center must be made to come back into the Center which is Consciousness. Then Inner Presence is lit up by that same energy and you stand Self-revealed, at Peace. I Am Pure Consciousness, Peace and Bliss. Before the Absolute Self - which we all are - can be realized properly, there must be an introduction to that Self. It must be made clear in a most lucid and open way that there is but One Self - what that Self is and what it is not - and what are the methods for directly realizing its natural ever-presence. If we bring our energy in 100% there is a total change of polarity. Whereas matter previously had the power to imprison our consciousness, now 2

Consciousness pure and sublime has the absolute power to reveal its true nature of Infinite Peace and Bliss, Oneness and Perfection. This is open to all. The ever-enlightened Self is here now! If any human being can envision Enlightenment as a possibility, that being is qualified for its experience. Whatever thought comes, whatever sensation arises, I am already beyond it. I stand eternally beyond anything and everything that comes and goes. Know that all divisions are the imagination of the mind; resolve not to be subjected to the mind. Insist that you must know and realize the Self permanently. Pure Consciousness, the infinite ocean of Existence, Peace and Bliss is here now as your real Self and true Nature. Now there is really nothing but this ocean of Love, and you are one with it. No dualism, no separation, no otherness - just this unconditioned love, peace and bliss. Do not settle for anything less. Resolve to be vigilant, to catch yourself again and again whenever you are out of this experience. This is your Home, your Reality. Let not the mind deceive you away from it. Let nothing interfere with it. If you find yourself in some other level of experience, return yourself to where you belong, namely, into Love, Oneness, Blessedness, changeless Identity. The constant, continuous, flawless, perfect flow of Oneness, Wholeness, and Perfection. You and I belong into this. Learning to identify with the pure Light of Consciousness, the Real `I' behind every movement of the mind, you step back from limitation and exclusiveness. A sense of flowingness and spaciousness arises, for that life within is not bound by gravity or limited by form. Now let Being shine. Let there be total renunciation of anything other than That which is subjective Self-luminous Light, Existence and Knowingness. You are this! Never absent current of pure awareness, serenity, and blessedness. This current is to be discovered. By moving the focus of attention progressively inward to the very subtlest where there is no division whatever, no individual body, no individual mind and no separation - the Self is realized. Talking about, and truly experiencing, are two different things. It is in the very nature of that flow to bring wholeness and perfection to all who are open to it - making room for it by relaxation and giving time for it 3

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meditation.

Only by first-hand experience can we let our light shine from the innermost Self, because only there prevails eternal unity and peace. Pay attention to the silence; it is of consciousness, your own being-ness. A shifting of the focus of attention from the object to the subject, from the gross to the subtle, from the outer to the inner, from matter to Spirit, from multiplicity to Oneness. Go daily into deep meditation. Dive deep beneath the waves of the mind into the ocean of Being where Oneness, Peace, and perfect Harmony prevails. Gradually learn to abide there. There must be a rest from all acting, talking, and thinking, so that That which is beyond, behind, and within all as the Foundation may be realized. Investigate who is the witness of all these vibrations. Discover that this witness is consciousness, pure awareness unmixed with sensations, thoughts, feelings, concepts, or imaginations. It is even unmixed with the diversified flow of its own energy, being just pure awareness. Recollect your focus into That and know: I AM. It is through the I-am that we enter in. I am is the door. By this I-am we enter into THAT I AM, the eternal ocean of beingness, knowingness, peace, and bliss. Pure Consciousness, the I AM THAT I AM should be more real to us than all the realms of multiplicity. Let us understand clearly that the Supreme Self is the only changeless Reality which is Eternal Existence, Consciousness, Peace and Bliss. It is an infinite ocean, Self-existent, Self-luminous, Self-satisfied. Wholeness and Perfection is Its own Nature. The constant and flawless flow of this pure awareness, peace and happiness is continuously going on right within. The Self is One without a second, transcendental, infinite and eternal - and we must not leave it out of our experience! Do Self-analysis: the practice of awareness of consciousness. We are not to stop short of total At-One-Ment, Self-realization, the Ultimate Truth.