Atman is the word used in the teachings of advaita to denote the higher "I". Atman is not some mystical chimera, but a completely accessible and even obvious experience of one's own presence at the present moment in time. This is a psychic reality, a sensation of being, which in its pure form is experienced as unlimited freedom. Atman is what we are experiencing right now. This is the psychological present moment in time - the very moment in which life takes place - our true essence. The clearer the connection with the higher "I", the stronger the feeling of reality taking place, the feeling that all this is really happening right now. It may seem strange to some why this is even discussed, because the fact that reality exists is something that is understandable and taken for granted by default. In order to better clarify that paramount importance,which I attach to this "psychic aspect" of life, let's try to consider it in a comparative analysis.
During the day, we are awake, performing routine activities, being in a relatively conscious state. However, more often than not, if we are asked to retell what happened to us during the day, including all mental activity, feelings, movements, everything that our five organs of perception felt, we will not be able to remember even a fraction of a percent. A person remembers only the key moments, important for his further activity, connected with the projections of the small “I” - the ego. All other memory is repressed into the unconscious.
That is, our everyday awareness is very relative. And when a person goes to sleep, the level of awareness drops several times, and after sleep, he can remember very little - only the most vivid dreams, and often, nothing at all. During sleep, the "sensation" of reality diminishes so much that it is almost not fixed in any way.
And as if, in contrast to the night's sleep, there is another - a superconscious state, in comparison with which even daytime wakefulness will seem like a dream and an absence of life.
The average person is practically unaware of his “beingness”, and perceives these aspects through some kind of indirect experience - he fixes objects with his mind and concludes that he is, because otherwise there would be no one to perceive this world of forms. If we accept this simply as a logical fact, thoughts may arise: “Well, there is me, and then what? There is no additional money in your pocket … What is the practical value of realizing your own existence?"
Such questions, rightly arising from the surface mind, only indicate that a person is firmly hooked on this mind, and his attention at the moment is not able to break away from the surface and go into the depths, into the cause and essence of the processes taking place - at the present moment.
When we ask such questions, one should pay attention to the fundamental paradox that while the question arises, the questioner himself is absent. What is the point of being interested in the consequences if there is no understanding of the original cause of what is happening? What is the point in the secondary manifestations of "I" if a person is completely unaware of this "I"?
We are not aware of our own presence. There are some vague sensations of hard, soft, tasty, bitter, important, boring, some pictures, feelings, hundreds of superficial thoughts … But where am I among all this? What is "I"? If you try to calm yourself down with such a concept as “I am the totality of everything,” then what is our self missing? Where is the line that divides reality into "I" and its absence? Is the hair on the head our self? Our body? Mind? If you feel your “I”, it turns out - there are two “I”, one of which is watching the other? Or are they watching each other at the same time? Then a certain third “I” appears, capable of being an outside witness for the previous two, and so on. These are mind games, concepts. Our fragmented ego is woven from these mental clots.
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Any object that we feel in any way, including all our false “I”, is an external one for us, observed on an equal basis with other aspects of the world of forms. At a deep level, all forms, as a whole, are also Atman - the highest “I”.
For man, Atman is God and the highest transcendental reality. Even a fleeting realization of the fact of this connection gives joy, a glimpse of amazing freedom, independent of anything. After all, no one can ever take it away. Atman is life itself, in its absolute aspect, existence itself, an invisible background for everything - the true essence of man. This simple, pure and boundless, always fresh, life-filling beginning is the source, meaning and essence of reality itself.
Esoteric teachings call the awareness of your higher "I" enlightenment. Advaita speaks of the Higher Self as the Atman, who truly is. Yoga speaks of the higher "I" as a Purusha, which is endowed with the following properties: beginningless, subtle, omnipresent, conscious, transcendental, eternal, contemplating, knowing, eating, inactive, spotless, generating nothing. Contemplation and awareness contribute to the manifestation of these qualities, promote self-knowledge, bring us closer to the truth, to relaxation in the present and open the Atman - the higher "I".
In order for the Atman to open, one does not need to do anything, somehow strain, or strive for something. In the beginning it comes as a natural relaxation - as if everything is immersed in a dream, is released, but wakefulness, as a certain final point, always remains. Then the individual reality opens up, opens up to what is, always was and will be. And then you realize that nothing else has ever existed and could not exist. This is naturalness itself, a life that nothing can hinder. It simply is, it contains moments, and at the same time, nothing can touch it.
At the level of consciousness, something in us understands that energy has no beginning, or limitation, reality can neither increase nor decrease. There can be no attachment to anything, or rejection of something, because everything that happens is a spontaneous river of life, in the contemplation of which we accept everything as it is, without interference, without any distortion of the Truth, or even its interpretation. We only enjoy the voice of this river, listen to its song, give ourselves to it. Her movement picks up, penetrates into every action, in every moment. The only thing that is required of us is trust in life. Everything happens by itself in the only possible way.
If everything is existence, what doubt can there be? God, the Absolute, the Supreme, the higher "I" - words have no meaning, because life inside us does not depend on these symbols.
Doubt is an illusion, concepts are always illusory. Doubts are chained to mental activity, to private limited knowledge. Doubts make you worry, fear, give rise to instability, dissatisfaction. Trust in life makes the consciousness discerning, tasting, and bestows intuitive illumination thinking. This is a manifestation of the connection between the relative world and the paradoxical, timeless, a manifestation of the connection between a person and a higher authority, personality and the higher "I".
As an allegory, we can cite the example of a seeker who spent years looking for the magic talisman that all this time hung around his neck. A person torn by desires is engaged in paradoxical activities - in search of happiness, integrity and satisfaction, he turned the whole world upside down and even rushed to the stars, while the greatest mystery, containing the full coverage of the realization of life itself, was all this time in his own heart.
Selecting some objects, giving them your attention completely, is like choosing a separate point in infinity for yourself, and dedicating yourself to this point, which has no meaning against the background of absolute existence. Reality will tear us away from it at infinite distances, and again, in fear of losing a nonexistent support, we will strive to it. This is how a person acts when he gives himself up to identification with transitory forms - he misses something immeasurably more majestic, important, all-embracing than the myriads of vain transitory phenomena - he misses life itself.
The existence of any form, or even being in itself, is an inexplicable miracle. Why should there be reality at all? Not human, social, but reality as such, all-embracing, containing the infinity of space and time stretched out in eternity. Life itself … why is it? Could she not exist? This is a very important question! Think with your whole being, try to feel this question, because in itself it already contains an answer. Why does reality exist? At first, the answer will flicker, like something impossible, elusive, and only after awakening this answer will reveal its deep essence.
