Ai: This text [the book by Francis Lucille] explores the nature of consciousness, arguing that true self is not the body or mind but rather an impersonal, universal consciousness. It suggests that suffering arises from identifying with a separate self and proposes a path to liberation involving welcoming all experiences—thoughts, feelings, sensations—without judgment or resistance.
This process, described using metaphors like a television screen and an ocean with waves, aims to uncover the underlying unity of all things, leading to a state of effortless awareness, peace, and joy. The text emphasizes the importance of self-inquiry and letting go of beliefs, ultimately urging readers towards a life lived in the present moment, celebrating the inherent freedom of consciousness.
Overall Theme:
The core theme of “Perfume of Silence” revolves around the nature of consciousness, self, and reality. It’s a guide to self-discovery that deconstructs the illusion of a separate, individual self (the ego) and points towards the realization of one’s true nature as timeless, limitless consciousness. This realization is not a mental concept but a direct experience that transforms understanding. The book emphasizes the importance of presence, non-resistance, and the exploration of one’s own experience as paths to this understanding.
Key Concepts and Ideas:
The Nature of Questions and Answers:
- Openness: True questioning arises from a state of openness, “I don’t know.” This openness is the true essence, not the conceptual form of the question.
- Presence: Answers are received not through intellectual understanding but when the question is met with pure presence and openness.
- Concept as a Shape: Concepts are just the shape the “I don’t know” takes in the mind. “We could say that a question is this openness in the form of a concept, it is the shape that I don’t know takes in the mind.”
The Illusion of Separation (Ego):
- Arbitrary Distinction: The distinction between “me” and “not me” is an artificial construct, a result of conditioned habits. “It is simply because you choose to call some me and some not me. You make an artificial distinction as a result of the conditioned habit.”
- Body and Mind as Appearances: The body (sensations and feelings) and mind (thoughts and images) are all appearances within the same space of consciousness, with no actual separation between them and the world. “In fact, there is no separation between the world, the mind, and the body. They’re all appearances within this space.”
- The “Small I” and “Real I”: The “small I” refers to the conceptualized, limited self (the ego), while the “real I” is the boundless consciousness that perceives it. “Small I is that which appears. The real I is that in which it appears.”
- Ego as a Thought or Feeling: “This entity does not exist other than the thought or feeling I.” The ego is not a thing, but an identified thought or feeling.
Consciousness as the True Self:
- Limitless Space: Consciousness is the limitless, timeless space in which all experiences, including the world, mind, and body, arise. “The space is unlimited, and therefore timeless.”
- Mirror Analogy: Consciousness is like a mirror without borders, reflecting all experiences without being affected by them. “This presence is like a mirror without borders. Everything is reflected within it. Nothing limits it.”
- Perceiver, Not the Perceived: Consciousness is the perceiver, the “real I,” and everything else, including the ego, is the perceived. “Consciousness is the perceiver. The Moon seems to illumine objects on Earth during the night, but it doesn’t illuminate them by its own light.”
- Witness: We are the witness of our experience, not the experience itself. “I am the witness, not the witnessed.”
The Importance of Presence (The Now):
- Enlightenment in the Now: Every moment is an opportunity for enlightenment, not something to be achieved in the future. “Every now moment is an opportunity for enlightenment. Every future or past moment is a non opportunity for enlightenment.”
- Flowing with Experience: Instead of resisting or grasping at experience, simply allow whatever arises spontaneously to flow through you. “Allow whatever arises spontaneously in the now to flow through you without trying to grasp it, resist it, or memorize it.”
- Ego in Past/Future: The ego cannot exist in the present moment; it always operates in the realm of past or future. “In the now, there is no room for the ego. The ego is always in the past or in the future.”
- Timeless Now: The now is the timeless presence of consciousness, “If we have an experience of happiness, at the moment of happiness itself, we are beyond the mind, beyond time. We are in our timeless presence.”
Welcoming and Non-Resistance:
- Exploring Lack: Instead of trying to eliminate feelings of lack or boredom, explore them by welcoming them fully. “Explore the lack when it arises, welcome it. Do not do anything to eliminate it, just be interested in it.”
- Welcoming as an Exploration: True welcoming involves seeing feelings clearly for what they are without psychological attachment. It is not an activity by a “doer”. “As long as you understand this welcoming as an activity, don’t do it. As long as there is a doer, a person doing it, don’t do it.”
- Dissolving Resistance: Welcoming all experiences, including resistance to those experiences, dissolves their power. “We pile up sensations in this way, at some point there is no further resistance, and we start to move in the opposite direction.”
- Neutralizing Feelings: Completely welcomed feelings become neutralized, losing their separating power and revealing subtler layers of feeling.
The Nature of Thought and Mind:
- Thought as a Tool: The mind is a tool for survival and understanding but not an ultimate reality. “The function of mind is to create. It is a tool to survive.”
- Thought Doesn’t Lead to Reality: “Thought doesn’t lead to reality. It only takes us to its own ending.” Thought is merely a theory about reality, not reality itself.
- Mind as a Concept: The mind itself is just a concept, not a container of thoughts. “There is no mind other than the concept of mind.”
- Mind as a Creation Tool: The function of mind is to create – “It is also a tool to find happiness and to celebrate it.” However, at some point reasoning ceases and celebration remains.
The Path to Understanding:
- Intelligence Through Understanding: Understanding arises from letting go of past opinions and through intelligence, not just thinking. “Understanding is always the result of giving up some past opinions.”
- Gaps in Experience: Gaps in our experience, initially seen as spaces between thoughts, are actually our original openness. “Later, we recognize these gaps as our original openness.”
- Non-doing: Realization comes from the absence of doing, where all residual doing is revealed layer by layer. “It is the complete absence of doing in which all residual doing is revealed layer by layer.”
- Falling in Love with the Void: The “void” or emptiness is not a lack but the space that makes all experiences possible, like the infinite mirror. “Fall in love with the void, the emptiness of the now, which makes everything possible, which has room for everything.”
- The “I AM” Mantra: Using the “I” thought can be a tool to return to the source of consciousness, the feeling of “I AMness”. “In using it in this way, we avoid boring repetitions…The I mantra is only used in the presence of dryness, doubt, or lack.”
Impersonal Nature of Consciousness and Actions:
- Universal Consciousness: Consciousness is not personal; it’s a universal presence in which all things appear. “We have to realize that this consciousness is not personal.”
- Acts of God: Actions and decisions are not willed by individuals but arise spontaneously from consciousness. “Everything is an act of God, that is, it comes to you spontaneously out of consciousness, without your having willed or created it as a person.”
- No Choice as an Individual: “You do not choose your thoughts or your actions as a person…The person is chosen. It does not choose.”
- Innocence: Everything is innocent, a part of “God’s innocence” “If I feel I am a person, then I project a person onto the other so called individual and judge him guilty. However, no one is guilty because God has done everything.”
The Nature of Reality:
- Miracle of Objects: Objects are not inherently real as independent entities; they are “a permanent miracle” because there are no objects as such, just appearances within consciousness.
- Everything is God: “Everything is God, so everything is an avatar of God. Everything is the son of God.”
- No Inherent Duality: The experience of duality is not actual, merely an interpretation by the mind. “At the time of hearing, there is no hearer, and there are no words. There is only hearing.”
Freedom and Surrender:
- Absolute Freedom: At the level of consciousness, we are absolute freedom, beyond the limitations of the personal entity. “At the level of the personal entity, we have no freedom at all; at the level of consciousness, we are absolute freedom.”
- Surrender as Going All the Way: Going “all the way” means complete surrender to the present moment, not striving or resisting what is. “It means complete surrender. Therefore, if there is discomfort, it is no big deal because, if we are ready to go all the way, ready to die for this, a little discomfort is nothing.”
- Detachment: Understanding naturally leads to detachment. “In understanding, a natural detachment takes place.”
States vs. Being:
- Indifference to States: We should be indifferent to all states of mind and body, including pleasurable ones, as they are impermanent. “We should be indifferent to all states, including states of the body.”
- The Mirror, Not the Reflection: Know that you are the mirror (consciousness) at all times, not the reflections (states) within it. “Don’t worry about states. Know that you are the mirror at all times.”
The Importance of Happiness:
- Happiness as the Highest Good: Happiness is sacred and should be followed. “Happiness is the highest good. It is sacred.”
- Happiness as the Place of the Heart: “Follow your bliss. Follow your happiness, knowing that happiness is always the place of the heart, the place of God.”
- Not Repeated: Happiness is in the moment and should not be repeated as a goal.
Meditation:
- Intentionality: Pure intention is required for true meditation. If intention is less than the divine, there will be no meditation. “If the intention is for anything less than the divine, for less than that which is beyond all limitations, there won’t be meditation.”
- Freedom from Objects: Actualized meditation requires attention free from objects. “For meditation to become actualized, our attention has to be free from any object.”
- Beyond Hypnotization: State of meditation means that objects are present, but we are not hypnotized by them. “State of meditation means that objects are present, but we are not hypnotized by them.”
Key Quotes:
- “The true essence of the question is the openness from which it originates.”
- “It is simply because you choose to call some me and some not me. You make an artificial distinction as a result of the conditioned habit.”
- “In fact, there is no separation between the world, the mind, and the body. They’re all appearances within this space.”
- “This presence is like a mirror without borders. Everything is reflected within it. Nothing limits it.”
- “Every now moment is an opportunity for enlightenment.”
- “Don’t fall back into thinking or feeling that something should be different, that enlightenment is for tomorrow.”
- “The small I is that which appears. The real I is that in which it appears.”
- “This entity does not exist other than the thought or feeling I.”
- “When we ask ourselves, am I a conscious being? We pause for a moment, and then answer with absolute certainty yes. What happens in that pause? The mind cannot say because the experience has no objective qualities that can be remembered or formulated.”
- “The body and the mind are perceived. Consciousness is that which perceives all things, all thoughts and feelings.”
- “It is the complete absence of doing in which all residual doing is revealed layer by layer.”
- “Fall in love with the void, the emptiness of the now, which makes everything possible, which has room for everything.”
- “We are both nothing and everything.”
- “The mind itself is just one more thought. There is no mind other than the concept of mind.”
- “We are that in which the I thought, the I feeling, and all the thoughts, feelings, and perceptions of all sentient beings, past, present, and future, in this universe and all universes, in all dimensions, appear.”
- “Don’t focus on the doer. Let go of the doer whenever something else arises in consciousness.”
- “Understanding is always the result of giving up some past opinions.”
- “Thought doesn’t lead to reality. It only takes us to its own ending.”
- “We are not the I thought or the I feeling. We are that in which they appear.”
- “Everything is God, so everything is an avatar of God.”
- “At the level of the personal entity, we have no freedom at all at the level of consciousness, we are absolute freedom.”
- “We are the witness, not the witnessed.”
- “Follow your bliss. Follow your happiness, knowing that happiness is always the place of the heart, the place of God.”
- “The message is that the origin of the message is not the channel, that the receiver of the message is not the receiving channel, and that the origin and the receiver of the message are one and the same.”
- “A thought is silence with a shape. It is made of silence, and is a continuation of silence.”
- “Everything is innocent, God’s innocence.”
- “You do not choose your thoughts or your actions as a person…The person is chosen. It does not choose.”
- “We have to realize that this consciousness is not personal.”
Implications:
“Perfume of Silence” challenges our fundamental beliefs about self and reality. By understanding the nature of consciousness, letting go of the illusion of a separate self, and embracing the present moment, we can potentially experience a profound shift in our perception, leading to freedom, peace, and a deeper understanding of our true nature. This realization is not a destination but an ongoing journey of self-discovery and non-resistance. The document emphasizes the importance of direct experience over intellectual understanding, encouraging the reader to explore their own inner landscape.
This briefing document should provide a comprehensive overview of the key themes and ideas found in the provided excerpts from “Perfume of Silence.”
Leave a Reply