The Meaning of Truth, Consciousness and Bliss – Satchitananda

Conscious first-person experience is the absolute truth.

The objective world you see outside and the internal world that you see inside happens in your conscious first-person experience. Without a consciousness that knows the existence of an object in the objective world or in the internal conscious field, there is no one else to confirm the existence of such object.

This first-person conscious experience is like a pure screen of awareness where the movie of your life is being played. The scenes in the movie keep changing; there is no permanence found in the contents of the screen. The screen is experiencing itself and is also consciously aware of its contents.

The contents of the screen include the following:

• The information you gather from the five senses.
• The information after it is processed in your internal monologue of thoughts, concepts, and words.
• The likes and dislikes that arise from the association of such objects.
• Your conceptual past and agenda filled conceptual future.
• The sense of separation from the world.
• All the conceptual, episodic and semantic information that you have gathered in the memory
• The intellect which helps to discriminate things between the contents, decisions and intends to do action.

Because of the sense of separation in the world, a separate illusory self arises which identifies with the contents of the screen, clings to them and feels in its bones that it is the doer of the actions, knower of the knowledge and the experiencer of the experiences.

This illusory self is an illusion created by thoughts. During the moments when the thoughts are absent and during deep sleep, this illusory thinker of thoughts is not there. All that exists then is a conscious experience of life or being.

But when the illusory self arises, there arises a craving for pleasure, becoming and non- becoming. The craving arises from a sense of lack; the separate illusory self needs protection and enhancement. This lack motivates a seeking towards the unknown, a longing from the bottom of the heart to unite with the truth.

But, without this separate illusory self, there is really no separation in the existence; Then what is left is your true Self, the Absolute, the Truth, the inner guru or satguru, the Tao, Dhammakaya or the Kingdom of God. This union of everything is Yoga, the mystical union with God or Fitra.

But in order to realize the truth in the experience, the illusory separate self has to be recognized as non-existent. Once a disciple with the prepared and purified mind recognizes the illusion as illusion,  there is freedom and there is the extinction of the fire of craving.

Once the illusory separate self- is realized as non-existent, the illusory walls between the following are also realized as non-existent:

• The knower, the known and the knowledge.
• The experiencer, experiencing and  the experience.
• The doer, the doing and the action.

Then there is no distinction between action, knowledge or experience either.

It is like an extremely self-conscious wave realizing that it is indeed the infinite ocean of consciousness itself and that there was never a separation!

So, the fact that ‘Conscious first-person experience is the absolute truth’ is recognized in the experience of reality only when this ‘first person’ is dropped. When this first person, the illusory sense of self is clearly recognized as non-existent, all that is left is the conscious experience which is the absolute truth.

The Absolute truth is the conscious experience of being. This conscious experience without the illusion of the ‘first person’ is bliss. This is your true nature.

So, Your true nature is the Absolute truth which is conscious and blissful. It is all that exists.

This is what we call as the Truth – Consciousness – Bliss or Satchitananda! You are that!

Author: Shanmugam P

I am a blogger and a self-published author. My book "The Truth About Spiritual Enlightenment: Bridging Science, Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta" is a guide to the ultimate freedom, bliss and oneness. The book is based on my own experience. My book "Discovering God: Bridging Christianity, Hinduism and Islam" shows how all three major religions of the world lead to the same truth. I am a past student of Sri Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal Golden Jubilee Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Sankarnagar, Tirunelveli District. View all posts by Shanmugam P