The World is Unreal—as is Death

What happens when attention becomes love and awareness expands beyond the illusion of the individual self? In this Q&A, Shunyamurti explores the relationship between attention, will, love, and consciousness, revealing that sustained attention to the Self is an act of adoration that allows divine intelligence to become fully present.

The structure of time serves the needs of the great unfolding drama of history, dialectically surging toward its redemptive Eschaton. Dyads produce unstable triads. Truth and Beauty both disrupt the closed systems that congeal into social patterns that become rigid and obsolete. Our culture heroes manifest novelty and creativity that shift our values and perspectives into ever new paradigms of possibility. The first step always requires letting go and returning to freedom.

The maitre d’ suggests you start with the Dionysian appetizer. But, if the hot peppers go to your head, we can offer a quick decapitation and then a full recap with higher consciousness and a sweet Apollonian dessert. However, these days most customers prefer to end their beggars’ banquet with our devilish hot sauce. What kind of spirits would you like?

You are in nonduality right now, but your mental activity obscures the Real. To return to your original and eternal Buddha Nature and God-Self, you must only become fully present—by stopping the thought stream and staying as pure awareness. Then, you will begin to understand the whole river of time and all the lives of high adventure in divinized consciousness of your once and future Self.

The ego mind mistakes mental representations for the Real. The ego also excels at forgetting its resolutions and losing its clarity at key moments in which a decisive shift in the attitude could produce a change in the altitude of consciousness and give it a higher degree of freedom and power. The mental muscle is insufficient for the job. Only absorption of the sense of I into the infinite field of presence will avail.

We have all been traumatized by false and toxic forms of “love.” This has made many people fearful of taking the risk to open their hearts and being wounded yet again. We must make it safe to love anew, from the awakened Heart, to trust one another, and to build a new social order based on authentic wisdom and divine love, and activate our creative potentialities through collaboration in designing a cultural renaissance. This can manifest if we form communities protected by mutual acceptance of Dharma, if we actualize the ideal of egoless compassionate relationality, and we sustain the realization of the unified field of consciousness in which we all have our Being.