Where God is, the ego cannot be. Therefore, the ego has no independent existence.
Realization is not the attainment of something new. It is the re-discovery of what was already the case. Nothing new is realized, because there was never anything other than Him. There is no separate “realizer,” no “realized,” and no separate “realization.” There is only Him.
Therefore, there is only Reality. There is no separate “unreal” existing alongside it. What we call “unreal” is only a limited condition assumed by the conditioned mind—the identification we call the ego.
In truth, the mind has no independent existence. What we call “mind” is the movement of thoughts, memories, perceptions, sensations, and conditioning appearing through consciousness. The contact between the senses and the world gives rise to perceptions, and conditioning interprets those perceptions. We then give this entire movement the name “mind” and assume there is a separate entity behind it.
This is like seeing a rope and mistaking it for a snake.
The snake does not exist independently of the rope. The error is not that an unreal thing has been created; the error is that what is real has been misperceived.
Likewise, the ego is the “snake”—the appearance of a separate self. Reality is the “rope.
The ego perceives separation because it is itself the perception of separation. Realization is the seeing through of that perception.
And when the rope is known as the rope, there is no need to destroy the snake. The snake was never independently there.
Likewise, when Reality is recognized as Reality, nothing needs to be removed and nothing new needs to be created.
There is only God.
God alone knows God, because there is no other.
-Sagren Govender
