Only the direct Self performing Their own Self-Awareness is ultimately Real in each moment, the one true experience, The Presence and Performer of the Universe and the Agent within are not Two.
It is a beautiful form of grace to realize that We are ultimately the unchanging Presence or Real aspect of Reality, performing as nature in the form of a person, and all things, but it is also horrible that the forms of performance that we are all so attached to as a false self, a persona, are not ultimately real because they ultimately come to an end. The dance always ends but We are the immortal Performer of the dance! The Real Presence performing as the person and awareness can be experienced most directly as the involuntary aspects of living. The nature, or behavior, of reality is beating your heart and generating the context of witnessing awareness and behavior that you call a mind but you feel like you are the agent choosing to move the body and think a thought. This is because you are the Agent performing as the body and mind and then performing as the witnessing behavior and actor from within. You, the Real, are appearing self-embodied! The true Self, the Agent of Reality, is the formless Presence. This can also be experienced in a dream. The dreamer is the space, or context, of consciousness which performs as the entire dream including the witnessing awareness within and all the while remains unchanged. You are That!
Coming to terms with the mortality of My performance as a person is horrible but also filled with wonderful freedom and grace. What I once considered my self is but a dance that will soon come to an end, and all of the relationships that I’ve come to know were but a performance and will also come to an end. Only the True Self performing all dances will Be and Live as the universe until even the performance as the universe comes to an end. In truth, what happened yesterday is no different than a dream. Yes, the memory of it will last longer but will also eventually fade. We are not this fading behavior as memory, we are the Real Agent behaving as all experiences and memories. That said, in essence, only Reality performing as awareness of itSelf is ultimately really happening.
The direct experience of grace that Our True Self IS and will always BE and is performing as this dancer within HimSelf right now and the direct experience of that non-dual moment of and as reality being aware of itself is timeless and sublime. You are the Real performing as all of nature, the entire flow of witnessing and all apparent forms witnessed, right now!
Ultimately, the form of our relationships are not real because there is only one Performer. Differentiated agency is an illusion, but the direct awareness of the Self performing as Their own reflection as awareness and the agent within is really happening, and although a solitary experience, it is a sublime experience of wholeness. In that moment, when we embrace our true Self as the presence that contains everything, it can be experienced first hand that I Am the Agent and supreme Performer of my own Awareness of Self from within My Self and the ideas of a separate person fade for that moment. It is here recognized, in this solitary moment, that the Agent of awareness within the context of awareness and behavior is the Agent performing as the universe. They are not two. Quite simply, the one Real Agent, You, performs as the entire active universe and lives in it, Their own Self, Your own Self! It doesn’t get more simple than that.
As soon as you leave this direct solitary experience, the mind will constantly tell you that there are multiple agents based on appearances. We must find solitary time to return to this direct non-dual experience often until the appearances are always recognized as just that, appearances.
The Agent performing as the mask of body-mind-universe and the Agent living within are not two! That said, relativity and relationships are a story that the mind tells us about apparent forms that are ultimately made of Our own behavior as energy, and in essence, We have only ever been aware of our own Presence and nature, our behavior as the universe within our own Presence.
See the post at the following link for a step by step guided meditation on the principles of the non-dual, holistic, Self: We are dancing within our own Self…
– Shiva performing behind the mask of El Govinda Sat
