THE PHANTOM I: SEEING THROUGH THE ILLUSION -- PART 2


Instead of the natural process of manifestation taking place, in other words, instead of a phenomenon coming into appearance as merely a manifested image of the unmanifested noumenon, an apparently independent phantom-self gets created which appears to have an autonomous existence. 


This phantom not only is supposed to be born, to live, to suffer and to die, but also to have the choice of decision and action, and, therefore, to be involved in the process of causality and Karma. 


Once the mistaken identification with this pseudo-entity has taken place, then it gets loaded up with the concept of having to experience the resultant effects of all its imagined volitional actions - in other words, it is supposed to become subject to Karma, to bondage and to re-birth; and then, eventually, the entity, seeking relief from its suffering, appears to seek an imagined 'liberation'. 


But, at no time has this shadow-phenomenon ever existed separate from its substance-noumenon; there was never an independent entity doing and suffering and seeking liberation.


 –       Nisargadatta Maharaj


Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.

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