Philatelists delight in looking at stamps. Sitting in front of a stamp that catches our eye can be a soulful experience. Meditative philately delves into the experience of observing stamps.
The sun illuminates the interior of our houses, without it being inside our homes. Its light allows us to observe the walls, ornaments, furniture, and people inside our rooms. Also, although the light of consciousness is not part of the experience, it illuminates each and every one of them. Every experience has the cognitive element that knows or grasps the experience. Human beings refer to the cognitive element that knows our experiences as “I.” We all know that we are the only ones that know our own experiences. When inquiring into this “I,” we discover that it is not “something” or “someone” but is only the cognitive element that knows each experience. This cognitive element that knows each experience is only “knowing.” It is the light of consciousness, the very basis or foundation of all experience. What we really are is the light of knowing. It is the place or space where every experience takes place, with which every experience is known, and the very substance of every experience.
It is possible to remove any object from our experiences and they will continue to exist as such. We can remove everything, even the stamp, and leave the experience completely void of content. So, we will say that there is absolutely nothing. But if it were possible to extract from the experience only the cognitive element of it, it would be impossible to imagine what would remain. If I could only extract the knowing from experience, which is the very basis of experience, there would be no experience. Because even in order to say that absolutely nothing remains, the presence of the cognitive element of experience is needed. Even if you want to say that you don’t experience anything, you need to be aware of it. In reality, the light of consciousness or the knowing of the experience is the only thing that really is. The light of consciousness or the knowing of the experience can never know anything apart from itself. All that exists is infinite consciousness and all that is experienced is that same consciousness in different shades, just like water, ice, snow, steam, and so on are just water at different temperatures. There has never been an object with an existence independent of consciousness.
