“…Including Me” I understand that the very nature of the Absolute must mean that everything is That, including me. It could not possibly be otherwise; otherwise the Absolute would be something less than absolute. So the world which I am experiencing is not a world of separate forms, but a world which just appears as separate forms. And yet even after I contemplate this, and understand that it must be the case, there is the continued perception of separation. There is no shift in perspective that gives a first-hand experience of this being the truth/reality. My moment-by-moment experience remains one of separation. If the illusion is seen as an illusion, then why does it not end immediately?
Your query is well-stated. It is perhaps the most prominent of the quandaries posed. Every explanation, or response (a roshi pounds his staff on the floor) is directed to it. All of my books speak directly to it. “Everything is that, including me.” If it’s truly “understood,” it’s recognized that anything “you” say, do, or think is That doing what is done. As the Vedas say, “You are not the doer.” So, to whom is any “continued sense of separation” occurring? To whom would a “shift in perspective”— or lack of it—be perceived? By whom is an “illusion” seen— or conceived? The concluding sentence in the main paragraph begins “My.” But it’s been asserted that the “me” is That. To have
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