In the video “How Can Matter Be Made of Consciousness?“, the teacher character explains:
In order to manifest the universe I [infinite consciousness]… fell asleep to myself and divided myself not just into one subject of experience… but into numerous separate subjects of experience. I localized myself as numerous separate subjects of experience that is each of us (indicating the individuals in the audience).
The character is stating that all people are part of some imaginary greater infinite consciousness that has subdivided into all the individuals. This requires me to believe the following:
- There are separate but equal beings other than myself. Though I cannot access the experience of these separate beings, their experience is equivalent to mine in authenticity.
- I cannot in this moment access the greater infinite consciousness that is manifesting all these beings. I can only access my individual division.
- Since I cannot in my moment access the greater infinite consciousness, I do not know everything.
These convictions form the basis of demiself: that I am a limited being with only partial access to all that is. It is the trap I fall into from which I must escape. How does it work?
These convictions elevate the impotent contents of my secondself imagination over the potent content of my firstself experience. How? My direct experience of myself as the omnipresent epicenter of my awakening is the most potent part of my awakening. It is the one part of my awakening that I can both instantly and directly validate. I am here and I am present: I can directly validate that right now in my every moment. It is so potent it precedes the convictions of my secondself. I do not need to learn anything to know it is true because it is my firstself. My secondself convictions serve only to detach and distance me from this potent truth of my omnipresence.
As I focus away from my firstself omnipresence toward my secondself and finally thirdself, the contents become less potent. That is to say, I can no longer directly validate them because they exist in a continuum of uncertainty and ambiguity. It is their nature. They cannot be resolved in the same way that if I go left I cannot simultaneously go right. My omnipresence exists in no such realm of ambiguity. It precedes all ambiguity, and that is precisely what makes my omnipresence potent and all else impotent.
The idea of other people being equivalent beings to me is impotent because I can never validate it in my moment. It is a secondself, self-referencing conviction that I must exert effort to maintain. I must choose to believe that people exist separately from but equally to me. I arrive at that conclusion through secondself. My omnipresence is free of such burdens. I do not need to maintain any sort of conviction to know that I am here now. I do not choose that I am always here. That is my omnipresence, and I do not need any such secondself convictions or decisions to know it with complete certainty.
That my omnipresence is difficult to acknowledge is evidence — not of its ambiguity or uncertainty — but of the strength of the interference of my delusional secondself convictions. As long as I cling to the false and impotent belief that there are other beings like me experiencing this awakening, I will have a difficult time experiencing and accepting the divinity of my omnipresence. In that way, my secondself and thirdself convictions form a thick cloudy haze over my firstself, making it difficult for me to see, understand, and accept my firstself omnipresence.
When the teacher character posits that there are other beings (“people”) with equivalent experiences to my own, he is equating these imaginary and impotent secondself convictions with my unmistakable and potent experience of my omnipresence. This is a trap. That there are other people whose experience I cannot access simultaneously but separately experiencing a material world is a fantasy. And as long as I equate these transitory secondself convictions with my undeniable firstself omnipresence, I will be stuck here in my awakening.
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