V

Vasanas (Latent Tendencies)

All the age long vasanas (impressions) carry the mind outwards and turn it to external objects. All such thoughts have to be given up and the mind turned inward. For that effort is necessary, for most people. (Ramana Maharshi, GFB, chapter 8.)

There are not two minds - one good and the other evil; the mind is only one. It is the residual impressions that are of two kinds - auspicious and inauspicious. When the mind is under the influence of auspicious impressions it is called good; and when it is under the influence of inauspicious impressions it is regarded as evil. (Ramana Maharshi, WHO,16.)

Such an experience of Identity [as the young Ramana Maharshi had] does not always, or even normally, result in Liberation. It comes to a seeker but the inherent tendencies of the ego cloud it over again. ... The miracle was that in the Maharshi's case there was no clouding over, no relapse into ignorance: he remained thenceforward in constant awareness of identity with the One Self. (Osborne in CWRM, iii.)

Bhagavan [Sri Ramana Maharshi] pointed out that it was a good thing to let the Vasanas ... come out. It is useless to bottle them up and let them go on gathering strength inside. The consequence of doing [this] would prove fatal in the end. (Sadhu Arunachala [A.W. Chadwick] in SRRM, 22.)

In the "Talks" [Sri Ramana Maharshi] explains how egos are reborn into a succession of bodies; so long as the individual idea persists there must be some form for it to take until the individual ceases to exist, and this continued individualization consists in a constant change of form. For as one set of Vasanas is worn away another takes its place. (Sadhu Arunachala [A.W. Chadwick] in SRRM, 40.)

To a large extent progress in spiritual life depends on the intensity of one's effort. Yet it still takes time to eradicate past samskaras (impressions of the mind). (Swami Chetanananda in TLWG, 275.)

Vasanas - Only after the vasanas are eliminated can one realize the Self

Moksa or liberation is the total abandonment of all vasanas or mental conditioning, without the least reserve. Mental conditioning is of two types - the pure and the impure. The impure is the cause of birth; the pure liberates one from birth. The impure is of the nature of nescience and ego-sense; these are the seeds, as it were, for the tree of re-birth. On the other hand, when these seeds are abandoned, the mental conditioning that merely sustains the body is of a pure nature. Such mental conditioning exists even in those who have been liberated while living: it does not lead to re-birth, as it is sustained only by past moment, and not by present motivation. (Sage Vasistha, CYV, 5.)

The flame of illumination ... is kindled by discrimination between Atman and non-Atman. [It] will burn away the effects of ignorance [i.e., the vasanas], down to their very roots. (Shankara in CJD, 39.)

Only one who is free from all the latent tendencies (vasanas) is a Sage. That being so how can the tendencies of karma affect him who is entirely unattached to activity? (Ramana Maharshi, SI, Chapter 2, Question 26.)

In kevala nirvikalpa samadhi one is not free from vasanas and does not, therefore, attain mukti.

Only after the samskaras have been destroyed can one attain salvation.

D: When can one practice sahaja samadhi?

B: Even from the beginning. Even though one practices kevala nirvikalpa samadhi for years together, if one has not rooted out the vasanas, he will not attain salvation. (Sri Ramana Maharshi, CFHT, n.p.)

Just as water in the pot reflects the enormous sun within the narrow limits of the pot, even so the vasanas or latent tendencies of the mind of the individual, acting as the reflecting medium, catch the all-pervading Light of Consciousness arising from the Heart and present in the form of a reflection the phenomenon called the mind. Seeing only this reflection, the ajnani is deluded into the belief that he is a finite being, the jiva.

If the mind becomes introverted through enquiry into the Source of Aham-vritti, the vasanas become extinct and in the absence of the reflecting medium the phenomenon of reflection, namely, the mind, also disappears being absorbed into the Light of the one Reality, the Heart. (Sri Ramana Maharshi, MG, 87.)

He for whom the atman alone shines, within, without and everywhere, as (clearly as) objects to the ignorant, is called one who has cut the nexus.

The nexus is twofold; one the bond of the nadis, dwells in one nadi alone, the bond (between awareness and the body) is sundered and the light abides in the Self.

As a heated iron-ball appears as a ball of fire, this (body) heated in the fire of Self-enquiry shines as the Self.

The old vasanas pertaining to the body, (mind and so on) are destroyed. Being free from body-consciousness one never has the sense of doership.

Since such a one has no sense of doership, his karma, it is said, is completely destroyed. As nothing but the Self exists, no doubts arise for him.

Once the knot is cut, one is never bound again. This is considered the state of power supreme and peace supreme. (Sri Ramana Maharshi in SRG, 49-55.)

Good and bad are found eventually to be only relative terms. Self-enquiry is found to be no more than the discarding of Vasanas. So long as one single Vasana remains, good or bad, so long must we remain unrealized. (Sadhu Arunachala [A.W. Chadwick], SRRM, 22.)

Before I came to India I had read of such people as Edward Carpenter, Tennyson and many more who had had flashes of what they called "Cosmic Consciousness." I asked Bhagavan [Sri Ramana Maharshi] about this. Was it possible that once having gained Self-Realization [for the individual] to lose it again? Certainly it was. To support this view Bhagavan took up a copy of Kaivalya Navanita and told the interpreter to read a page of it to me. In the early stages of Sadhana this was quite possible and even probable. So long as the least desire or tie was left, a person would be pulled back again into the phenomenal world, he explained. After all it is our Vasanas that prevent us from always being in our natural state, and Vasanas were not got rid of all of a sudden by a flash of Cosmic Consciousness. One may have worked them out in a previous existence leaving a little to be done in the present life, but in any case they must first be destroyed. (Sadhu Arunachala [A.W. Chadwick], SRRM, 45.)

The sun gets concealed by the clouds. In a like manner, God is concealed by the vasanas. He becomes visible when the dirt of latent tendencies [is] removed. (Mata Amritanandamayi, AC, I, 45.)

Vasanas - Some Vasanas remain even after sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi or liberation

One visitor queried if the vasanas could be got rid of if [the] senses were surfeited to satiation point. Sri Bhagawan replied that such indulgence will be like pouring petrol to put of [a] burning fire. (Narayana Aiyer, TMY, 38.)

Vasanas which do not obstruct Self-Realization remain [after Self-Realization]. In Yoga Vasistha two classes of vasanas are distinguished: those of enjoyment and those of bondage. The former remain even after Mukti (1) is attained, but the latter are destroyed by it. Attachment is the cause of binding vasanas, but enjoyment without attachment does not bind and continues even in Sahaja. (Ramana Maharshi, GR, 89.)

(1) Liberation.

Vasanas - Example of the elimination of vasanas before death - Sri Ramana's mother

[Ramana Maharshi's] Mother's health declined from 1920. The best medical attention was of no use. On 19th May 1922, her condition became critical. Bhagavan knew that the time had come. He went inside her room in the morning and sat by her side. Throughout the day He had His right hand on her spiritual heart [Steve: this is the hridayam and not the physical heart or heart chakra] on the right side and His left hand on her head. What happened was later described by Bhagavan thus:

"The vasanas of the previous births and latent tendencies which are the seeds of future births came out. She was observing the scenes of the experience of vasanas one after another. As a result of a series of such experiences, she was working them out." ...

At eight at night Mother attained Mahasamadhi. Bhagavan had literally battled with the Mother's tendencies and succeeded in directing the mind back to the Heart. At the time of the merging of the mind in the heart, there was a slight sound. Bhagavan waited for some time. On an earlier occasion, when he similarly tried to help Palaniswami, an attendant who had looked after Him for many years, He had removed his hand immediately after life passed out. Palaniswami's life force escaped through the eyes indicating higher birth and not liberation. Bhagavan did not want to take any risk. When he got up, His face radiated His happiness at Mother's liberation.

Mother's face shone like that of a yogini in meditation. The brightness was dazzling. When someone said that Mother had passed away, Bhagavan corrected, "No, she did not pass away, she was absorbed." (BRAM, 39-40.)

Innate tendencies (vasanas) and the subtle memory of past experiences leading to future possibilities became very active. Scene after scene rolled before her in the subtle consciousness, the outer senses having already gone. The soul was passing through a series of experiences, thus avoiding the need for re-birth and so effecting union with Supreme Spirit. The soul was at last disrobed of the subtle sheaths before it reached the final; Destination, the Supreme Peace of Liberation from which there is no return to ignorance. (Ramana Maharshi in SMSLS, 24-5.)

The Vasanas - Sexuality

See Sexuality - Lust

The Virtues

I think it best that a man should have a little bit of all the virtues. Therefore, get up early every day and acquire the beginning of every virtue and every commandment of God. Use great patience, with fear and long-suffering, in the love of God, with all the fervour of your soul and body. Exercise great humility, bear with interior distress; be vigilant and pray often with reverence and groaning, with purity of speech and control of your eyes. When you are despised, do not get angry; be at peace, and do not render evil for evil. Do not pay attention to the faults of others, and do not try to compare yourself with others, knowing you are less than every created thing. Renounce everything material and that which is of the flesh. Live by the cross, in warfare, in poverty of spirit, in voluntary spiritual asceticism, in fasting, penitence and tears, in discernment, in purity of soul, taking hold of that which is good. Do your work in peace. Persevere in keeping vigil, in hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness, and in sufferings. Shut yourself in a tomb as though you were already dead, so that at all times you will think death is near. (Abba John the Dwarf, SDF, 92.)

Vision - Physical vs. spiritual sight

No physical eyes can see the Omnipresent, Invisible Father and know of his secret work in all creation. (Paramahansa Yogananda in SCC, 2, 2.)

This ... king of secrets [is] Only made plain To the eye of the mystic.(1) (Sri Krishna in Bhagavad-Gita, 79.)

(1) That is, the awakened Third Eye.

O God (my Lord), let [Love] blaze up through Thy Spirit, which is evermore the same! Then, O God, shall I in my mind realize Thee as the First and Last, the Father of Love, when with the eye I perceive Thee as true Parent of Righteousness and Lord of (all) life's deeds. (Zarathustra in GZ, 187.)

The soul of every man does possess the power of learning the truth and the organ to see it with; (1) and that, just as one might have to turn the whole body round in order that the eye should see light instead of darkness, so the entire soul must be turned away from this changing world, until its eye can bear to contemplate reality and that supreme splendour which we have called the Good. Hence there may well be an art whose aim would be to effect this very thing, the conversion of the soul, in the readiest way; not to put the power of sight into the soul's eye, which already has it, but to ensure that, instead of looking in the wrong direction, it is turned the way it ought to be. (Socrates in REP, 232.)

(1) The Third Eye.

Only the mind's eye can contemplate this mighty beauty. But if it comes to contemplation purblind with vice, impure, weak, without the strength to look upon brilliant objects, it then sees nothing even if it is placed in the presence of an object that can be seen. For the eye must be adapted to what is to be seen, have some likeness to it, if it would give itself to contemplation. No eye that has not become like unto the sun will ever look upon the sun; nor will any that is not beautiful look upon the beautiful. Let each one therefore become godlike and beautiful who would contemplate the divine and beautiful. (Plotinus in EP, 43.)

[Brahman] is beyond the expression of speech; but it is known by the eye of pure illumination. (Shankara in CJD, 75.)

Those ignoramuses who think that they shall understand the meanings with the eye of the senses simply dissolve in hope. And this is known by those who know.

Advance, find an eye. (1) Remedy by it. And now, look from Him to Him.

To be able to see him, you have to have eyes that have reached him. (Ibn Arabi, Kernel of the Kernel, 23.)

(1) Open the Third Eye.

God cannot be seen with these physical eyes. In the course of spiritual discipline one gets a 'love body', endowed with 'love eyes', 'love ears', and so on. One sees God with those 'love eyes'. (1) One hears the voice of God with those 'love ears'. One even gets a sexual organ made of love. ... With this 'love body' the soul communes with God.

But this is not possible without intense love of God. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 115.)

(1) Cf. Walt Whitman, speaking of the Holy Spirit's transformative effect on him:

... With her presence she endowed Him with new senses, faculties and powers, That far surpassed the limits of the old. (Walt Whitman in Bucke, Cosmic Consciousness, 64.)

God can be seen. (1) One can talk to Him as I am talking to you. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 109.)

(1) By the vijnani or very advanced spiritual seeker.

The spiritual or astral eye is the eye of the astral body. The astral eye is the individualized cosmic energy in the human body. In meditation, first the life force must be withdrawn from the body, and must cross the portals of cosmic energy represented by the golden ring [representing the Holy Spirit]. Then it must plunge in the blue light representing Christ Consciousness. (1) Then it must penetrate through the silver star representing Spirit, in the region of the Infinite. These three -- golden, blue, and silver light -- contain all walls of rays ... of cosmic energy through which one has to penetrate before one can reach Heaven. ... The outer golden light is the Holy Ghost or Cosmic Energy or Nature, the blue represents God the Son or Christ, and the silver star represents God the Father. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, I, 18-9.)

(1) The sense in which Christ is the door.

Through the divine eye in the forehead (east), the yogi sails his consciousness into omnipresence, hearing the Word or Aum, divine sound of "many waters": the vibrations of light that constitute the sole reality of creation. (Paramahansa Yogananda, AY, 267-8.)

Visions - Visions and revelations

[On the subject of revelations sent by God to the heart:] From the union of that visitor which is God's [revelation] with the Reality in the heart, a holy beauty appears. ... The wisdom in the words returns to God and arrives there. This coming and going is not from the side of the spirit. This is a descent transcendent from everything. And the going is equally in the same manner, and with a transcendent return. Neither the intelligence of the heavenly spheres nor that of the angels reach this coming and going. If they saw anything, they would see just a light transcendent from everything, and they would not know more. (Ibn Arabi, KK, 43.)

One should not disclose one's visions to others, because it stops further visions. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna, TLWG, 346.)

Once before she passed away, [Lakshmi] described to Swami Saradananda a vision she had had: 'I saw a mountain of dazzling mica. On one side of the mountain was Lakshmi and Narayana, and on the other side was Sri Ramakrishna. I saw that the Master was surrounded by Holy Mother, Swamiji, Rakhal Maharaj, and others. Then I saw Yogin-didi and Golap-didi, and they told me: 'O Lakshmi, here there is no problem of food and sleep or disease and grief. Living with the Master gives us uninterrupted bliss.' (Lakshmi Devi in TLWG, 69.)

One early morning at three o'clock, ... Gopal Ma was about to finish her daily devotions, when she was startled to find Sri Ramakrishna sitting on her left, with his right hand clenched, like the hand of the image of Gopala. (1) She was amazed and caught hold of the hand, whereupon the figure vanished and in its place appeared the real Gopala, her Ideal Deity. She cried aloud with joy. (Swami Nikhilananda in GSR, 64.)

(1) Gopala is an epithet of the baby Krishna.

Visions - Great Chain of Being or Causation

Sri Krishna, Master of all yogis, revealed to Arjuna his transcendent, divine Form, speaking from innumerable mouths, seeing with a myriad eyes, of many marvellous aspects, adorned with countless divine ornaments, brandishing all kinds of heavenly weapons, wearing celestial garlands and the raiment of paradise, anointed with perfumes of heavenly fragrances, full of revelations, resplendent, boundless, of ubiquitous regard.

... Then the son of Pandu beheld the entire universe, in all its multitudinous diversity, lodged as one being within the body of the God of gods. (1) (Sri Krishna in BG, 91-2.)

(1) This is the cosmic vision.

During [three watches] of the night ... [Buddha] fixed his mind upon the chain of causation. [Maha Parinibbana-Sutta in Bucke, CC, 137.) When Dante awoke into the Cosmic Sense, into the new Cosmos, the first thing to strike him ... was the vision of the "Eternal Wheels" -- the "Chain of Causation" -- the universal order -- a vision infinitely beyond expression by human words. His new self ... had its eyes fixed on this, the Cosmic unfolding. Gazing thereupon the Cosmic vision and the Cosmic rapture transhumanized him into a god. (1) It is this vision of the universal order coming instantaneously, lighting the world as lightning illumines the landscape, but, unlike lightning, remaining, that has led the present writer to adopt the name "Cosmic Consciousness" -- a Consciousness of the Cosmos. (Maurice Bucke, CC, 137.) :(1) While Bucke claims this experience to be the equivalent of God-realization, which occurs when the spiritual energy reaches the seventh chakra, it may be a sixth-chakra experience; witness the persistence of the subject-object relationship, which would usually disappears in seventh-chakra nirvikalpa samadhi. In the winter, seeing a tree stripped of its leaves, and considering that within a little time the leaves would be renewed, and after that the flowers and fruit appear, he received a high view of the providence and power of God, which has never since been effaced from his soul. (Attributed to Brother Lawrence in PPG, 5.) To know God -- in other words, to know the order of nature and regard the universe as orderly -- is the highest function of the mind. (Benedict Spinoza in Bucke, CC, 278.) <nowiki>[In the] inner illumination ... we can ultimately see things as they are, beholding all creation -- the animals, the angels, the plants, the figures of our friends, and all the ranks and races of human kind -- in their true being and order. (Edward Carpenter in Bucke, CC, 85.)

Among [the] things he (1) did not come to believe, he saw and knew that the Cosmos is not dead matter but a living Presence, that the soul of man is immortal, that the universe is so built and ordered that without any peradventure all things work for the good of each and all, that the foundation principle of the world is what we call love and that the happiness of every one is in the long run absolutely certain. He claims that he learned more within the few seconds during which the illumination lasted than in previous months or even years of study, and that he learned much that no study could ever have taught. (Bucke of himself in CC, 9-10.)

(1) Bucke is describing himself in the third person. Again this experience seems of a sixth-chakra type, rather than seventh-chakra, as Bucke surmises.

Visions - Forms of God

Fix your attention on that form [of God] which appeals to you most; but know for certain that all forms are the forms of one God alone. ... Siva, Kali, and Hari are but different forms of that One. He is blessed indeed who has known all as one. (Sri Ramakrishna in GSR, 184.)

Under the cooling influence, so to say, of the deep love of Its worshipper, the Infinite reduces Itself to the finite and appears before the worshipper as God with form. Again, as on the rising of the sun, the ice melts away, so, on the awakening of Knowledge, God with form melts away into the same Infinite and Formless. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 802.)

Once, while I was meditating in the temple, screen after screen of Maya [the Mother] was removed from my consciousness. Mother showed me a Light more brilliant than a million suns. From that Light came forth a spiritual Form. Then this Form melted away into the Light itself. The Formless had taken Form and then melted again into the Formless. (Yogeshananda, VSR, 86.)

Visions - Examples of visions of the Forms of God

The first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.

And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.

And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. (St. John in Revelation 4:1-4.)

"Didn't you see anything?" [Bernadette Soubirous] asked.

"No," [her two companions] replied. ...

"Did you see anything, Bernadette?" ...

"Yes, it was a girl dressed in white, a girl of sixteen or seventeen years old. She had a white dress on, drawn in at the waist by a blue sash. She had a white veil on her head and falling down her back. You could barely see her hair at all. Her feet were bare, and there was a yellow rose on each of them. On her right arm there was a rosary of white beads ... and the chain was golden, all shining like the two roses at her feet."

"Where did you see her?"

"On the rocks when I looked at the Grotto."

Suddenly as though transported she exclaimed: "There she is! There she is!" ... Bernadette's joy was inexpressible. ... "Waves of happiness" passed over her face. She was exalted, "carried away" in the full meaning of the term -- as though Heaven [had] taken her from the earth. (M. de Saint-Pierre, BL, 26.)

... The Lady who stood in the niche above the bush bent down and smiled at her in supreme graciousness and affection. (M. de Saint-Pierre, BL, 27.)

"[The Lady] said, 'Will you do me the favor of coming here for a fortnight?'" ...

"Did she say anything else to you?"

"Yes," she said, 'I do not promise you happiness in this world, but in the next.'" (M. de Saint-Pierre, BL, 31-2.)

The following day, Friday, February 19, [1858] about a hundred people were waiting around the Grotto at the early morning hour when Bernadette arrived accompanied by her mother and her Aunt Bernarde....

Bernadette knelt down and made the sign of the cross.... Almost immediately she was "carried away." Smiles lit up the child's face, disappeared and reappeared as lights go on and off. According to the statements of those who were present, "waves of joy" passed over her face, and "thrills of happiness" made her whole body tremble. She was radiant. Suddenly her expression was seen to become concentratedly attentive. She seemed to be receiving a message; her lips moved and a sudden smile appeared on her face like the break of day. She was leaning forward like a bird about to spread its wings and fly. ...

Half an hour later Bernadette emerged from her ecstacy, rubbing her eyes. Almost numbed with happiness, she began to take in the world around her. Then she went up to her mother and flung herself into her arms. (M. de Saint-Pierre, BL, 34.)

At dawn on Saturday, February 20, between four and five hundred people were waiting for the arrival of Bernadette at the Grotto. The child arrived at Massabieille with her mother at about half-past six. ... Taking her rosary, she began to pray.

Before long her transfiguration took place. She trembled with joy. Her whole being was animated as though by the grace which flowed from the gestures of the invisible being above her and from the exchanges of a dialogue beyond the perceptions of the spectators. (M. de Saint-Pierre, BL, 41.)

Suddenly, "as though she had been struck by lightning," as one eyewitness put it, she was "transfixed by a thrill of admiration and seemed to be born into a second life." And the rest was joy, illumination, and changing expressions, like the fluttering of a flower in the breeze. ... The ecstacy lasted an hour. (M. de Saint-Pierre, BL, 55.)

"When I was kneeling in front of the Lady ... I was unable to keep it back any longer, the words just came out of my mouth: I asked the Lady to be so good and tell me who she was.

Just as she had done when I asked her before, she bowed her head and smiled but she didn't answer. I felt quite brave and again I asked her to tell me her name. She smiled and nodded graciously again but she still said nothing. For the third time I joined my hands and begged her.....

"The Lady stood upright above the wild rose and she was just like she is on the miraculous medal. When I asked her the third time she looked grave and seemed to become humble. She joined her hands and lifted them to her breast. She looked up at the sky.... Then slowly separating her hands -- like this -- she leaned down towards me and said in a trembling voice, 'I am the Immaculate Conception.'" (M. de Saint-Pierre, BL, 75-7.)

One early morning at three o'clock, ... Gopal Ma was about to finish her daily devotions, when she was startled to find Sri Ramakrishna sitting on her left, with his right hand clenched, like the hand of the image of Gopala. (1) She was amazed and caught hold of the hand, whereupon the figure vanished and in its place appeared the real Gopala, her Ideal Deity. She cried aloud with joy. (Swami Nikhilananda in GSR, 64.)

(1) Gopala is an epithet of the baby Krishna.

[Swami] Turiyananda has told us that whenever Maharaj (1) entered any shrine he would be filled with ecstatic devotion for that particular aspect of God to which the temple was dedicated, and that, ultimately he would have direct vision of the living deity within that temple. In later years, when Maharaj was asked by a disciple if the gods and goddesses are real, he answered: "The one Godhead has many spiritual forms. All these forms are real. A seer can see them and talk to them." (Prabhavananda in EC, 44.)

(1) Swami Brahmananda.

The Void

The Void is really letting ourselves go and sinking into the mystery of our being, into a place that is totally dark because it's a total mystery. Everything we learned, everything we know, everything we hoped and believed and wanted -- finally at a point of grace we are willing to let go into the Void, the darkness, that Total Unknown. When we let go into that, completely, then we can awaken as that, as the Void, as the pure potential. When we awaken as the Void, then the Void is finally not scarey, because we're not in relationship with the Void, not a separate "me" who's afraid of the Void. We've seen our true nature and it is the Void itself. It is the emptiness. Then the emptiness is seen and experienced to be who we are. Then it is actually full of the potential of everything we will ever be. And this is the fullness within the Void. (Adyashanti, AWM.)

You see, it has the potential to create itself into anything and everything, this whole universe. This universe is the Void. It's not just an empty thing. When you look at a tree, you're not just seeing a tree but you're seeing how the Void has presented itself as. When you look in the mirror and you see that face of yours, that's how the Void has presented itself as. And there it is looking through those eyes, looking at itself. This is the Void. (Adyashanti, AWM.)

You see, [the Void] has the potential to create itself into anything and everything, this whole universe. This universe is the Void. It's not just an empty thing. When you look at a tree, you're not just seeing a tree but you're seeing how the Void has presented itself as. When you look in the mirror and you see that face of yours, that's how the Void has presented itself as. And there it is looking through those eyes, looking at itself. This is the Void. (Adyashanti, AWM.)

The Void - We are avoiding experiencing the emptiness

I like to call [the avoidance of emptiness] the dirty little secret of humanity. It's the emptiness, the abyss, that's right in the middle of every human being ... just waiting for some recognition of it. We tend to do everything in our power to dance around it. (Adyashanti, SM.)

The Void - Experience the gap

There can be a gap of quietness between thoughts, and if you are very present in that gap, you stop acting out your familiar identity.

As soon as identity jumps into the gap, you don't feel present anymore.

Being nobody is usually so baffling to the mind that it starts filling that gap very quickly. "How can I be nobody?" But to fill it up with a somebody is meaningless.

If you really want to know what you are, just experience the gap, experience the openness, and let it bloom inside. There is no better way to find out what you are. (Adyashanti, ED.)