The world is full of paradox, isn't it?

"Everything is me" and "Everything is not me" are only techniques. They dissolve the ego, the sense of individuality, and lead to a deeper truth. The technique itself is not the truth.

If "ultimate truth" could be expressed so easily through words and concepts such as "I am all", then everyone would have already reached it. But it can't be given to people so easily. Only maps can be given ... techniques. It's up to each individual to actually follow the map and reach the end for themselves.

"Everything is me" and "Nothing is me" are positive and negative poles, and practicing either one will lead to the same ultimate realization. Both lead to nonduality, absolution, dissolution of ego. Neither is "better", neither is "more true". "Everything is me" is just more popular, but I talk about "Nothing is me" because this is the technique I am deeply familiar with. I know it very intimately, and I can speak about it with absolute confidence and "knowledge" of the various phases that one will go through while practicing it. It's not an "opinion". I'm not attached to it. It's just the method I KNOW.... from experience (haha....) Why get attached to a map? Just use it for its intended purpose. How well do you know your own map? Are you following it without becoming attached, or is it just something you "believe"?

It sure does look like I'm too much "in the head", doesn't it? This is just my most potent tool currently. But it is just that -- a tool. I manipulate it in this world, but I am not it. I am not "stuck" in it as you think. But from your vantage point, you only see these things coming from a particular form ("my" intellect, in this case), and misinterpret that form itself as being the source. But it is not the source... it is only a chosen form that I am expressing through.

Am I saying that experience is useless? No, absolutely not. Experience is a necessary contrast. How can you know the gap between sounds without the sound? The sound provides the contrast. Similarily, experience provides the necessary contrast in order to see the "gap" that is you. My only point is for people not to get so caught up in the experience, because then they miss the point.

A boat is needed to cross a river, but if you get attached to the boat you miss the original point of simply crossing the river.

As for "internal" vs "external", both are only relative concepts. Again, neither is "truth", they are only different concepts that suit different styles of minds. The point in me saying all of "this" is "external", is to create the sense of separation/detachment. What is the point in this detachment? To create a gap. To take a step back from the "screen" and realize that you are not the screen. To become disentangled with all the entrapments of the world. To become unattached from the body, the mind, the ego, the "soul", etc. etc. etc.

Whether all of this really is "me" or not, makes absolutely no difference. The crucial point lies in attachment and awareness.

Yes, all experience, all of the whole universe, is an extension of "me" -- of God -- of the Self. But it is only a manifestation, not the core source. You can look at your arms and legs as "extensions" of the "core" organs of the body (heart, lungs, brain, stomach). You can lose a finger, or even a whole limb, and still the core will remain functional. This shows that the core is not DEPENDANT on the extension. The extension is not a fundamental necessity of the core. However, if the core is lost, the extension dies as well.

Similarily, all of Creation is an extension, or a manifestation of "God", or of "me"... whatever word you want to use. All experience comes out of "me", and it is deeply connected to me. BUT, just because it comes from me, does not mean that it IS me as my pure self. Somewhere in there, "I" am separate from the Creation, even though the Creation is a deeply integrated extension pouring out from me.

Ultimately, "everything is me" and "nothing is me" are also true, as should be obvious from what I just explained. Everything is me because I am the source of it all. But, everything is also not me, because I am not dependant on that Creation, that manifestation. If it fades away, I still remain.

Stop getting so caught up in words. These are only a chosen form of expression. Look between the words and find the meat. Don't fall prey to "believing" in these various techniques. Believing in them leads nowhere. Instead, just DO them, follow them, find the end of your map and then throw it away.

--James