My philosophy is simple. That of which the universe is actually composed is not other than that which is aware of the universe.
The universe seems to be composed of space and objects, whereas that which is aware of the universe is not an object, but is more like the empty space in which objects reside.
Objects have form, space is formless, or at least appears formless. (Space actually has a subtle cellular form that science has yet to recognize, but which subtle cellular form Buckminster Fuller recognized as the cubic closepacking arrangement of spheres. )
On the other hand, that which is aware of the universe, and that of which the universe of forms is actually composed, is itself completely formless, completely devoid of form, although it gives rise to all forms.
The human condition is that, although we are the formlessness of which the universe of forms is actually composed, and so are also the formless awareness that is aware of the universe of forms, we think and so believe that what we are is a form, that what we are has form.
That is, we harbor within ourselves, within our awareness, within our formlessness, a form, an object, a thought, an idea, that tells us that what we are is a form.
It is not that we are a form, it is only that we think that we are a form. And all a thought is is itself a form. That is, a thought itself is nothing but a form. And so we have a form of which we are aware telling us that what we are is some other form of which we are aware, when all the while what we actually are is the formless awareness that is aware of those forms and gives rise to those forms.
Now all these forms are ultimately composed of what we are, composed of formlessness, composed of formless awareness, but that does not mean that what we are as that formless awareness is itself a form. Forms are created, we are not created, formless awareness is not created. Formless awareness is just what is.
Our identification of ourselves as forms would be as if water thought that it was just a whirlpool, just the pattern of flow, and not that which is flowing. This is a subtle but vital distinction, and is the difference between knowing what you are and being deluded with regard to what you are.
In our misidentification with form it is not just that we do not know what we are, it is that we do know what we are, only what we know ourselves to be is not what we actually are, and is the opposite of what we actually are. If we had no knowledge of our nature this would be innocence. But what we have is ignorance, false knowledge, knowledge of ourselves as we are not, knowledge of ourselves as the opposite of what we are, knowledge of ourselves as form when what we are is formless. Thus we are not innocent with regard to our nature, we are ignorant and deluded with regard to our nature.
Were we only innocent it would be quite simple for us to realize our true nature. But because we harbor false knowledge of our nature, acquiring true knowledge is quite difficult, since we cannot acquire that true knowledge until we release our grip upon the false knowledge, and therein lies the difficulty.
The false knowledge we harbor regarding our nature, our idea of ourselves as forms, is mutually exclusive of the true knowledge of our nature as formlessness. That is, we cannot be simultaneously aware of ourselves as both form and formlessness. As long as we cling to the idea, to the form, that tells us that what we are is a form, we cannot become aware of our true nature as formless awareness.
To let go of the idea of ourself as a form while still believing ourself to be a form seems like an act of self-annihilation, and so we do not and will not do it. And so we spend our lives clinging to what is only an illusion, clinging to what is only an idea, clinging to what is only a form that arises within the formless awareness that we truly are, and which idea while clung to hides from us our nature as that formless awareness.
How can one stop knowing themselves as a form while still believing that what they are is a form? It cannot be done. It is like asking someone to let go of a rope to which they cling when it seems to them that if they let go they will plummet into a chasm of non-being. It is in our nature to be, since we are what is, and so it is not in our nature to act in a way that seems to us will lead to our not being.
In this way our very nature, our true nature as formless Beingness, functions to perpetuate the illusion of our false nature once that false nature has been accepted as real.
We need make no effort to continue to be, nor to continue to be what we truly are, for what we truly are is what is. Effort is only needed to continue to cling to and sustain what we mistakenly think we are, and it is that effort to cling to and sustain our mistaken idea of ourselves, our idea of ourselves as form, that is the source of all suffering. For it is this effort that places us in conflict with our nature, and it is conflict with our nature, with our self, that is the essence of suffering.
Effort = E-fort = the protection and fortification of what we consider to be our existence. The fortification and protection of our existence, or what we think is our existence, which is really only an idea or form that we have mistaken for ourselves.
Effortless being, that is what we truly are. Beings engaged in a constant effort to fortify and maintain a false identity is what we are doing. When Beingness recognizes its essential Beingness, it stops doing, and yet still acts. But when Beingness does not recognize its essential Beingness, continuous doing seems necessary to maintain the form identity, to maintain the false identity.
This continuous doing, or the seeming need for continuous doing, is what keeps the mind churning, is what keeps the mind producing an endless stream of thoughts, an endless stream of forms that seem more real and more important than the formless awareness that apprehends those thoughts.
Effort is needed to know yourself as you are not. No effort is needed to know yourself as you are.
One cannot, through some effort, cease effort, for that is itself an effort and so sustains the illusion of form-identity.
The rope of form-identity to which we cling is not saving us from annihilation, rather it is keeping us from realizing that our annihilation is not even possible.
We create the form to which we then cling, thinking that our continued being depends on our continued clinging. But how can our being depend upon something that we ourselves create, something that in the absence of our being, in the absence of our awareness, cannot even be known?
Take away awareness and there is no form, but take away form and awareness remains.