Is the "I AM" that you experience the same "I AM" that I experience? Or is it unique within each form.?

Greetings Sunny Girl!

The "I am" is the common thread in manifest consciousness. "I am" can also be refered to as the "I" thought. The sense "I am" is the same within all human beings and the "I am" is responsible for the sense of individuality. Thus ego arises with "I am" and we inherit a sense of individuality from our parents, society, culture etc....when we are infants. "I am" can only be sensed with the mind/body apparatus and recedes with the term we call death. Ask yourself "What was I prior to conception"? You cannot remember I am sure. But how do you know you did not exist? When the sense of individuality dies (so-called individual death) consciousness is always present since the multiplicity of humanity is experiencing "I am" therefore as sense of individuality. Through countless births and deaths (manifest to unmanifest, unmanifest to manifest:the principle of spanda) "consciousness is". I am cannot be experienced in the state prior to the arising of consciousness because prior to the arising of consciousness there is no mechanism to experience "I am". Ephemeral consciousness arises and sets within immutable awareness which permeates consciousness from within and without.

Watch or be aware of the sense "I am" as a habit. Pay attention to the sense of individuality, the mind and it's motives. Be mindful. The sense "I am" has been with you from first memory and something within you has never changed as your sense of individuality has gone through various identities. Within the the "I am" there is something you cannot not put your finger on, but you know it is there if you pay attention. I am holds the key to dissolving the sense of individuality (jivatman). It appears that you are ripe for self inqiry thus ask "Who am I? You know that you are. All people know that the are, but so many ideas and indentities have been placed upon that very basic fact. These are nothing more than concepts and That in which the "I am" and it's innumerable concepts appear is not a concept. It just is and is not percievable nor is it concievable.

Yes, we are infinitesimal parts of the infinite whole. So at the spiritual level we are all same in quality but not in quantity. Since we taken physical form to experience everything we know, we are limited by the physical body we have accepted. We are different at the material platform by the nature and the deeds we have performed. Hence at material level we all seem to be different from one another. That is the illusion. And the illusion is so strong that most of us are carried away by the illusion of material nature, that we think we are separate from one another. Hence we try to enjoy more, control more and more and try to better than the next person.

But the moment we realize that since we are all one, when we take away from the 'other', we are taking away from ourselves. Then then we realise that there is no 'other' to take away from.

The more we give to others, the more we get it back. That is the universal law.

So for every problem, love is the solution. For every question, love is the answer.

But to understand it fully, Neale Donald Walsch has written a Trilogy on "Conversations with God"

which is like a new age Bible for the younger generation. The books explain that first there was nothing but Consciousness which divided itself into infinitesimal parts but still remained whole. To experience itself it had to slow down its vibration to come in physical form to experience itself as Consciousness.

This illustration is brought out best in this link below of "The Little Soul and the Sun"

http://www.sapphyr.net/largegems/littlesoul-thesun...

I think, the experience of " I am " is different in different individuals

and " the self or the consciousness " of each and every being is unique,

because every being has a different set of senses, mind and the intellect,

though the ultimate universal source is one and the same.

I think, uniqueness within the consciousness is being contributed

by the uniqueness of the senses, the mind and the intellect

and it ends within only after the existential enlightenment of the being

in which the being transcends the senses, the mind and the intellect,

though the outward expression of the being still remains unique

due to the same uniqueness.

I think, the experience of " I am " is inherent to the consciousness

and it manifests itself

when the consciousness achieves certain level or concentration

and it's experience is closest to the ultimate source or the enlightenment.

Sunny Girl, we cannot possibly give a definitive answer to that question because we are not that pure, undifferentiated consciousnes of which you speak. This is the dream state and we, as unenlightened beings, are characters in the dream. We are, if you like, thoughts in the mind of God. Thoughts cannot define nor even describe the thinker.

I too have met a few people in whom that awakening has taken place and have read the accounts of others. Yet the stories they tell on their return differ in some ways as the reality is relayed through each individual consciousness.

This understanding does seem to be universal, however, that the I AM exists as unity, beyond the boundaries of time and dimension, totally aware and totally in love with "all this" no matter the state of wakefulness of the individual.

There are so many accounts of those who abide in the state of Oneness and who perceive the One in the many that I could not add anything to the accounts. Vivekananda used to say if there are a thousand souls there should be a thousand religions for every soul is a unique relationship with God. Every wave upon the ocean is its own self while remaining the same ocean. It is only when it sinks back into the substance from which it arose that it's separateness disappears. But while it is in form only those who's vision is turned within see the oneness that unites them with all 'others'.

Namaste'

A perfectly cut diamond has many facets spreading out from the bottom. When light is shown on the top where the facets are, light comes through it to the bottom as a single point. If light is shown through the bottom to the top, the light is dispersed in all directions. Such is the universe and all things, consciousness included.

Separation is an illusion created by the idea of an individual I.

Consciousness is one. For the purpose of Communication and exploration through interaction consciousness subdivides it's self into seemingly individuated Aspects of consciousness that appear to be separate individuals.

This separate existence does not truly exist outside of the individuated framework that we experience as the individual I.

In truth we are still one with the whole.

I hope that helps. If not my email is open.

Love and blessings don

I found this article for you - I hope you find it useful.

http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Meditation/osho_...

The 'I AM' you mention is something that becomes clear when you realise you are not separate from the world around you. You are consciousness and always have been. Separation is an illusion which arises from the ego. One this realisation has come to pass, this can be regarded as enlightenment.

Aside from Exodus 3:14, God does not identify himself as, "I AM", nor did Jesus ever use this phrase as a name. He used it in everyday speech, just as anyone else does.

"I AM", as it is used in some religions, is nothing but an ungrammatical concept. Just as we cannot speak or write any other tense of an English verb as if it were in the present tense, we cannot change the tense of a Greek phrase that has no inherent tense, just to please a pet theological concept.

For example, in John 8:58: "εἶπεν αὐτοῖς Ἰησοῦς· ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, πρὶν Ἀβραὰμ γενέσθαι ἐγὼ εἰμί.", the tense of ἐγὼ εἰμί is indicated entirely by the context. The tense of the rest of the sentence is past; therefore, this phrase must also be translated in the past tense.

Some people use eisegesic translations of this scripture to claim that Jesus is the same "I AM" as in Exodus 3. However, obscuring the identities of the Father and the Son is dangerous. Just as literal Israel had no access to Jehovah except through their mediator Moses, spiritual Israel, or Christianity, has no access to the Father except through our Mediator:

"6Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." - John 14 (KJV)

If Jesus were Jehovah, we would have no mediator; no messiah. We know our Mediator and Messiah, and approach Jehovah through him. Any who deny that Jesus is the mediator between us and Jehovah, cannot come to Jehovah.

Likewise:

"44No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day." - John 6 (KJV)

Any who deny that there is a Father with whom we need a mediator, have no one to draw them to the mediator. Neither the Father nor the Son has any more use for us, than we have for the other of them.

Your understanding of life in general and "consciousness" is not correct. There is nothing to indicate that consciousness is anything other than a gradient (sliding scale) in various life forms. Nothingness is not applicable to consciousness in any way, and despite many flowery, deep sounding "justifications" from many people there is nothing other than a very steep inverse relationship between the two.

You are free to group around, doing your best to avid facing reality, but I prefer to face reality no matter how many of my dreams and beliefs it shatters.