Rod: Hi, Ram.

Ram: “…but the big thing is to remove any sense of doubt that often arises from an awakening outside the ‘spiritual’ world like yours.”

Thus our exchanges and the constant reference to information at the website. That said, nothing is needed to understand that I am awareness. All else appears to or within it.

Ram: “This whole huge seeking scene that has developed in the last thirty years was nowhere to be found when I woke up in Waikiki in the sixties, and my journey was very much a lonely one, which in a way was fortunate.”

I was in New York when Life opened up, and when I set out looking for clarity for what was happening. I found the spiritual culture that I came in contact with to be as heavy as any fundamentalist religious culture. Standing in the reality of this shift, I knew I was not going to find clarity looking where I was looking. Life would have it that I live and digest this for a decade before any exposure to a non-dual teaching would surface and provide some inkling of a body of knowledge that spoke to this. The realization that the character I took myself to be was based on ideas and beliefs that were about as solid as smoke remained quite clear. Inquiry into this kept me in the game. A lonely journey… our exchange is the only (besides a few quick and general exchanges) and by far the most extensive exchange I have had about this understanding and without question the only direct validation. My sense is it was necessary to really look, not to mention the fact that this is not widely supported here in the States.

Ram: “The chair and everything in the gross and subtle planes are nothing but perception. And perception is nothing but you, awareness. The non-duality of things is simply ‘the knowing.’ It does not change the experience in the transactional reality.”

This has been coming into focus.

Ram: Secondly, love is you, awareness, willingly flowing as attention into the world. What you pay attention to you love. It is free of emotion. Like the word “God,” the word “love” has picked up so much baggage over the centuries it has become so abstracted from what it represents that it is a source of great confusion.

Rod: I know that emotions are the content of awareness. Does the heart echo or reflect the recognition of self/love/awareness? It seems so. Though experienced as sensations in the body, there has been an opening of the heart. Where once I was fairly closed, it now seems more open.

Ram: That’s right. The emotions reflect. If there is no self-knowledge, the love is there on the emotional level but it is contaminated by desires and fears. When you know you are awareness, you do not stand in your way emotionally and awareness shines unobstructed on the subtle body. The intellect is wise and discriminating, and love is unconditional and unemotional.

Rod: Ram, I am grateful for the exchange. No response is necessary. The validation I have received via our communications and the knowledge you share has been grounding. On numerous occasions I have sat down to email a question. Before sending I always set it aside and come back when I am quiet to qualify the question. Without fail they fall short of being worthy of your time by the simple fact I know I am awareness. The doubts I can conjure up seem more for validation or “is it possible?” and to be in communication with others of similar vision. Besides, most questions can be answered via the recourses you have made available. It is my hope that during a return to the U.S. we can one day enjoy a discussion of Truth over a burrito.

~ Love, Rod