When liberation or enlightenment is mentioned, you will usually hear terms like stillness, silence, spaciousness, etc. They are something you would feel. Spaciousness. An enlightened being is aware of spaciousness; something not normally even noticed although always present. Some teachers say it is because we focus on and identify too much with what is "not-Self" and therefore can't notice the "Self" that is always present.
In an analogous experiment, get a glass filled to the brim with water. Where is the space? Can you sense it? When you empty the glass it is easy to see the space, but it was only the matter and our concepts about matter that impeded our ability to sense the space. Each atom is mostly empty space. Each molecule also has empty space. Matter is mostly empty space...something you might remember being told in school. One could recognize the space in an empty glass and a full glass, for there is little "real" matter that separates the two.
We are the same. The Self is always present...as some call it, spaciousness. The problem is that we are focused on what is not Self...the little bit of matter and form. We identify with our bodies, our minds, our possessions, our troubles, etc, etc. What lies underneath all this is spaciousness. The enlightened feel this spaciousness and realize the Self that is always present. Be aware of space. Boxes, cups, bowls, pipes, etc. are only useful because of their "empty space". The space around you and within you...from our normal prospective and the space at the atomic level. You can feel the spaciousness in your hand...it is mostly space after-all. This space is the same space found outside your physical form as well. Of course space is far from empty because energy is always present. So in another sense, you are feeling the energy of our bodies and the energy around us.
It is like the light of a projector when you are watching a movie. With all its varied forms, it is all still really the same light underneath it all. You could identify yourself as one of the characters on the screen and think anything that is not this character is not you and separate from you, but in reality all is one and the same light.
Copyright © 2006 Eric Putkonen