Todd:

Thank you for your last two reports on “What I have been experiencing in contemplating Reality—experiencing whatever was taking place, knowing that then and every moment I am That. I was sitting still this morning and reflecting on how radically different my outlook on life is now versus, say, even six months ago. The worshipper worshipping the worshipped are all One. None of these are a higher or lower state than the other. They are all the One.”

This is what, as you indicated, Krishnamurti would call “choiceless awareness”. We can’t help but be aware of what appears to be occurring around us, but difficulties can arise when we are attached to opinions or ideas about “differences” among those things: they are all the same. And “you” are not apart from, or distant from, that sameness. “Sameness,” or suchness, is also a Zen expression.

And here’s the most important realization you’ve had: “Coming to understand true Reality, or ‘my’ real condition of not-two-not-one, has worked in me. What I would call the death or removal of hope.”

“Hope” is an idea about the future. But “the future” itself is merely an idea, or concept. A wise person has transcended all “expectations”, and that includes such ideals as hope, mercy, justice, fairness—even up to expectations of health and longevity. A death of hope, then, is a sign of realization.

The consequence is (in your words): “falling back into the void, into the nameless indescribable unmanifested unborn.”

This is where one is unreachable, from the Dream we call conventional “life”. It is evident when we recognize that all things and seemingly occurrences are empty of ultimate reality. In the final analysis, not anything really matters. This can be known to us when we perceive (as opposed to simply believing) that from the empty ultimate reality not anything can ever have emerged as “real”. Even “you” are simply a dreamer of the Dream you are in—not apart even from your emptiness.

Re. your question: “If everything and everyone is the one Absolute in all its manifested condition, why the compassionate concern to point people to the truth and end of suffering?”

This is done (in the Dream) for those who believe that suffering is a reality—and who hope for “better”.