The Self

Sat is that aspect of consciousness which exists in equal proportion in all beings, at all times, in all places. It is the foundational support of all that is. It is the Divine Consciousness that is the basic essence, the essential support and the ingredient of all that exists in the relative world. Sat is the fundamental fiber from which the entire pattern of the universe springs. Sat is the motive force of the creation, sustenance and dissolution of the universe.

All that is, is sat.

Chit is that aspect of consciousness as intelligence or knowledge of the Divine. It is that which at all times and in all places manifests and discloses everything. It is the light that illumines and allows knowing. Chit imparts life or consciousness to all and shines forth through all. All senses are functions of the illuminating knowing power of Chit.

All knowledge and inspiration arise from the chit aspect of the Divine.

Ananda is that aspect of consciousness which is bliss. The essential experience of all movements of consciousness are bliss. We are created out of bliss, maintained by bliss and dissolve into bliss. It is Ananda that is the motivation for all activity; to experience bliss, joy, happiness. All activity exists to expand Ananda. We seek joy because joy is our essential nature.

Bliss is the result of Consciousness knowing that it contains within itself all possible creation and that it alone is.

Love and joy are the expressions of the bliss aspect of consciousness.

1. The nature of the Self is Light

This is more than the light that you can see. This is the light by which the eyes see. This is the aspect of the Self that allows you to illumine, to reveal, to know. This is consciousness. It is from this power to illumine that actual light manifests, the light you can see. This aspect of the Self, of consciousness, is the foundation for all relative existence; earth, fire, water etc. It is this light of consciousness that gives rise to the possibility of conscious existence.

2. The nature of the Self is Awareness

This is the capacity to differentiate, to discern, and to discriminate and allows you to know what you are seeing. This aspect of the Self allows you to examine something, reflect on your perception, and make it meaningful. Awareness allows you to take the light of knowing and to touch, reflect upon and examine a thing.

3. The nature of the Self is Joy

When awareness moves into manifestation it creates bliss. There must be vibration or movement for joy to exist. It’s like taking a bath in hot water. After a while, laying there, you no longer feel the warmth. Move around in the water and you feel the warmth. In expansion, in evolution, in creativity and in expression there is the possibility for bliss to be felt and experienced. When the Self is experienced, it is the subtlest, primal vibration experienced as bliss.

4. The nature of the Self is Freedom

The Self is the essence of all that exists. Consciousness is the only creative intelligence and power. As such you have complete freedom to do or not do, to become any form while retaining your infinite nature. The Self is unlimited and can become limitation. The Self is completely independent. Since the Self is the only intelligence and power, it depends solely upon itself, in complete freedom.

The spiritual path is becoming completely free.

5. The nature of the Self is Well-being

Well-being implies the highest possible state of all aspects of manifestation; perfect health, protection and always being taken care of by virtue of being connected and one with the divine. Being a manifestation of the divine, being that through which the divine expresses, in your connection to that, you experience perfect well-being.

6. The nature of the Self as Abundance

All power and intelligence exists within the Self. When not completely connected to the Self you have the ability to discover, invent, rearrange and attract to assure your abundance. When completely connected to the Self, you have all power to create and manifest, even a universe.

7. The nature of the Self is Love

The initial impulse of the divine into creation (relative manifestation) is a pulsation (spanda) that is experienced as love. Out of the bliss of the divine, the feeling of love emerges as the predominant experience of knowing the Self.

When you feel love it is you aligning with the essence of who you are. When you feel love for another that feeling is focusing who you are on another. The focusing of who you are upon another allows the essential aspects of who you are to vibrate. You experience this vibration, this activation, this focus, this movement of the aspects of your nature as love. The experience of love is not arising from another. It is always your internal experience of your essential nature.

8. The mind is a pulsation of the Self and emerges from the Self

All thoughts arise from Self. When the mind is silent, the mind does not exist. Then only the Self exists. When the Self vibrates with a fluctuation within consciousness, as a pulsation of consciousness, then thought arises and the mind exists. The mind is a form of consciousness. All thoughts, positive and negative, are a form of God. When mind turns toward an object it thinks, when it turns away it becomes formless Self.

9. The individual Self is a reflection of Divine Consciousness

The individual is the same as the supreme Self, the Divine. The wave is part of the ocean. Wrapped up in the limiting conditions of the body and mind, the Self no longer perceives the total unity of consciousness. Removing the limiting effects of density and false identity allow true realization of the Self.

10. It is the Self that brings life to the body

The Self is the consciousness that lights and enlivens the body. The nature of the Self is prana; the impulse to create, expand, move and evolve. It is the awareness and life force that makes the body alive. The Self is also the constituent of the body. The Self moves into denser vibration and creates the supra-causal, the causal (the storehouse of density), the astral and the physical bodies. It is the Self that becomes the 4 bodies and the Self that gives life to them.

11. The Self is the “I am”, the witness

The Self is the witness, the watcher, the observer. It is beyond time and space. The Self is pure illumination, pure consciousness, pure intelligence, pure awareness (Shiva) and the power that creates and knows its creation (Shakti). It is the reflective power of Shakti that allows you to know you are Shiva. Intelligence and power are always one, so while witnessing it you are also one with it. The experiencer, the act of experiencing and that which is being experienced are one.

12. The Self is pure

The Self is taintless. Consciousness never loses its state and pure status even as it creates the relative manifestation within itself, out of itself. As H2O becomes water or becomes ice or gas, it always retains its purity as H2O.

13. The Self is perfect

The Self, becoming everything, remains perfect. Consciousness remains in its perfect state. Perfect means it retains all qualities, its essence and highest properties that are requisite to its nature. It always remains complete.

Even in the relative world where you may judge one thing as good or bad, consciousness is unfolding its play perfectly in an act of expansion and Self-realization.

14. The Self is changeless

The Self is the foundation, the absolute changeless reality that upholds all existence. All relative existence changes, evolves, and expands. But its essential nature remains unchanged. This is why we refer to the Self as the essential Self. It is and always remains eternally the foundational essence of all that is.

15. The Self is all power

The Self is Shakti, the power of the universe. The Self, the intelligence and power of consciousness, is the cause of all that exists. The Self is the creator of the universe and its complete constituent.

Your power and creative capability comes from the Self as the one power that exists.

16. The Self is the only authority

Like fire radiating light, the Self sends out vibrations that allows it to perceive the world. As pure, taintless consciousness it is the only authority of knowing and knowledge. It is only the Self that understands what is. The Self is who makes sense of the world and experiences, internally and externally. It is the only authority because it is consciousness that creates and understands everything it perceives.

Good or bad qualities cannot affect the Self

17. The Self is neutral

The Self is like the mirror that reflects itself and its creation and, as a mirror, is only witnessing what is reflected. Consciousness is neither attracted nor repelled, pleased or displeased, feels one thing is greater or lesser. The activity of the relative world of motion, time or space does not alter the Self. The mirror is never concerned about what gets reflected in it. It remains neutral. This is experiencing reality from the perspective of the Self.

18. The light of the Self creates the universe out of itself

This relative universe is the light of the Self, of consciousness. The light of the Self is continuously giving rise to the universe. Within the Self’s Being, consciousness is and becomes. It manifests. It creates out of itself, using itself as the material. Out of formless consciousness, forms arise, within itself. At the same time the Self is beyond the relative universe and is the relative universe; both immanent and transcendent.

19. The Self is the foundation of all experience

You say, “I saw this, I did that, I am this way”. It is the I-principle that always remains one with your experience. It is the foundation, the base from which all experience issues. The I-principle can never separate from any experience. Your experience will always change and be colored by many things, but the “I” never changes, never increases or decreases, never becomes added to or subtracted from. Without the “I” no experience is possible.

20. The Self is the only cause for all appearances

No object or thing has creative, generative power. There is only one creative power and that is the Self, pure consciousness and energy, Shiva and Shakti, intelligence and power. Only divine consciousness, through its will, can manifest. Everything is constantly being created, maintained, destroyed, concealed and revealed and consciousness resorts to no other cause or means than its own intelligence and power. The only cause is the will of God.

21. The Self is the ultimate reality

Whether it is the ocean or the wave, whether it is frozen and solid, or a liquid or a gas, in motion or stably silent, it is all water.

There is one intelligence, one power, one Self, one existence. Whether it is absolute or relative, silent and unmoving or within time, space and causation, whether it is formless or taken form, manifesting in a body of consciousness, light, energy or matter or unmanifested, appearing as a mineral, plant, animal or person, it is all consciousness, the Self.