Is There A True Self?

Certainly.

It has many names, and it has no name.
I call it pure consciousness or pure awareness.

Sometimes, ‘pure consciousness’ sounds like a thing that we have, and sometimes it may sound too aloof. It’s simply what we are. It’s the happiness we seek. It is just that which sees, without attachments. Some call it ‘Atman’ or ‘soul’, so may ask, “Well, is there a God or Brahman then?”

All is revealed through personal realisation of non-fixation. God or Brahman is the universal principle of enlightened pure consciousness. The little self we call ‘me’, has to let go of selfishness to realise its greater pure self, pure consciousness or pure awareness.

In this non-state, words and meaning vanish into non-duality. Those who become stuck on names and -isms, have not reached the oneness (non-duality) of appearance and realisation as a unity.

If we still think that we are part of God or Brahman – or universal consciousness – then we are still deluded in exoteric thinking. The esoteric experience is pure, beyond division.

True self or pure consciousness is true happiness that never changes. If there was happiness in the outer world then, by now, you would have found it. Happiness will only come from that which is complete and absolute.

Pure awareness has no name or form; it is pure knowledge, pure wisdom that is neither created nor destroyed.

It is our expectations and presumptions that give rise to confusion and unhappiness. Pure consciousness is above worldly knowledge. Detachment from the world/phenomena/thoughts becomes our true teacher.

Meditation is awareness that is self-aware. Wherever we go and whatever we do, pure awareness is always present, even when we ignore it. We don’t have to go to a special place – going somewhere special is based on desire. Self-awareness doesn’t have to go anywhere to be happy.

If we don’t realise this, we will wander, and keep searching for what we already are. We need a teacher to help with this realisation but, once realised, we become the self-teacher.

How do teachers help?
A word or gesture – perhaps something unpleasant, as in crazy wisdom.
We learn by seeing what is wrong.

A teacher may irritate us, but that is a constant reminder!
When we see everything as genuinely positive, we are well on our way.

As long as we doubt, we will need a teacher.
Once all doubts are cleared, we are free.

How does a teacher become a teacher? Through study, and practice by testing. It is through the practice of testing that we understand and realise, not by talking and discussing.

When we know true awareness, we know true knowledge.
This is self-realisation.

A lotus flower opens above the water,
as realisation opens above world knowledge.
The lotus does not touch the water.

Those who realise their true essence remain detached from the world
while living within it.