I exist; therefore, I am. I exist aware of form and phenomenon. I am aware of being and moving in an evolving environment.
Within the personal form, a stillness pervades, an acute sense of ‘I am.’
What ‘I am’ and why ‘I am’ is a questionable mystery.
Indeed, we are more than the documented historical evolutionary science would like us to believe. What about our precious innate consciousness, that awareness of an ineffable, deep-seated simple ‘I am’ that goes beyond the form we experience? It has been untouchable and non-locatable from human birth, but a knowing consciousness and the sense of ‘I am’ is always here. And time and space, as we know them, do not bind our simple, pure awareness of ‘I am’ as they do our form and phenomena in the environment.
We know our outer self, the defining characteristics, and the names attributed to our person since birth. Still, since birth, if one remembers the quiet background of being aware of all experiences, the consciousness behind the living, then one can truly appreciate the sense of being the ‘I am.’ In piercing discriminative self-inquiry, the investigation of ‘I am’ brings us to the edge of what this pure ‘I’ is behind the ‘am-ness’ and the question of why and what I am. Indefinable, untouchable, non-locatable; a mystery. Yet we are here as consciousness and form.
Consciousness is untouchable and non-locatable, yet our awareness touches and locates everything. What a conundrum. Who and what is the ‘I am,’ the Self? What are the understandable qualities of consciousness, if any? Feel deeply into your sense of being, the pure value of existence, the indefinable ‘I am,’ the Self. As abstract as it may be, expand the imagination of nothingness, infinity, and the reality of the present here and now Self.
Non-duality proclaims in God’s consciousness or Unity Consciousness that the Self is everything, everywhere, at any time or space. This pure ‘I,’ the Self, transcends everything and is, at the same time, always everything. Endless, infinite possibilities of oneness disguised as many.
On the macro level of living life, historical science tells us we have been evolving since the Big Bang for 14 billion years. The earth is some 4.5 billion years old, and as humans in this body, we only participate in this planetary evolution for a hundred years, give and take our biological disposition. How much longer than the past 14 billion years will humanity continue infinitely? The answer is nobody knows. It could end tomorrow or go on seemingly forever. And what about the rest of this vast universe? Is it as infinite as some of our science postulates? Is it the eternal cycles within a cycle of immeasurable multi-verses?
Infinity is a concept that comes from finite values. For example, in mathematics, to count numbers or anything like objects, you can keep adding one to the previous, and essentially, you will never stop. It will not finish. There is no end to it. If this is the case, one can deduce that imagination can lead to a limitless expansion of space and time where the numbers are no longer relevant. Modern-day mathematics postulates many infinities from this single concept of infinity, one on top of another. Imagination can take one to endless conceptual conclusions. Such is the form, phenomena, and inescapable boundaries that map the interminable.
Actual conceptual infinity doesn’t exist; only “potential infinity” manifests in an ever-changing world we experience around us. However, this infinity is not merely quantitative but qualitative, implying that consciousness or the Self is beyond all boundaries and categories of thought. In Advaita Vedanta, this consciousness of Self is Brahman and is described as “Ananta” (endless) which signifies its infinite nature, devoid of any limitations or constraints.
What if nothing was here, not even the pure ‘I’ of consciousness? Non-duality does not assert an absolute nothingness in the nihilistic sense. Instead, it often refers to a state beyond conceptualization or relative existence. In Advaita Vedanta, “nothingness” (Shunya) can be understood as the transcendence of all dualistic distinctions, including the distinction between existence and non-existence. It does not imply a void or absence but points to a state of pure potentiality or the ultimate reality that transcends all limitations of form and perception.
Nothingness—a paradox is required, opposites. Consciousness is a physical and non-physical reality, the co-existence of realities from the absolute perspective of all possibilities contained and known as imagination and nothingness. Infinity partakes in nothingness, and nothingness lurks behind infinity—the presence of nothing gives a name to this absence, and we create a noun out of a quantity, emphasizing its existence.
Non-duality or Advaita Vedanta views nothingness as the transcendence of dualistic concepts rather than literal absence, infinity as the limitless nature of ultimate reality (Brahman), and existence as the absolute reality (Sat) that transcends the dualities of existence and non-existence. The true nature of existence (Sat) is the non-dual reality (Brahman), beyond the distinctions of existence and non-existence as we conventionally understand them. Brahman is described as “Sat” (existence), which denotes its absolute reality. It does not just exist in a temporal sense but is the essence of existence itself.
Existence refers to the state of being, the fact or reality of being present and having a sense of Self. Questions exist about what it means for something to exist, the nature of existence itself, and whether existence has inherent meaning or purpose. Individual existence and the freedom and responsibility that come with it often confront the challenges posed by awareness of existence and the search for authenticity in a world where meaning may not be inherently given.
Existence is porous; boundaries are permeable. Nothingness penetrates existence, yet it also serves as its foundational ground in consciousness. Consciousness allows us to create purpose in a seemingly meaningless world. We transcend predetermined nature, freeing ourselves from external pressures.
The fullness, glory, and infinity of nothingness is your existence blossoming in the personification of reality, inner and outer Self, and the liveliness of Oneness.