Nisargadatta Maharaj

The sense I am

is the manifestation of a deeper cause, which you may call self, God, reality, or by any other name, but it is beyond thoughts.

There can be no knowledge of the unmanifested.

The potential is unknowable.

Only the actual can be known.

Nature will take its course.

It is only to be observed and understood.

Nothing is to be done.

All manifestation is conceptual.

The I am-ness, the primary concept, is the highest reality as far as this manifestation is concerned.

but it has come in with time and will go out with time.

In your original state, there is no awareness of awareness.

As the absolute, you are infinite, timeless,

As infinity you express yourself as space.

As timelessness you express yourself as time.

Unless there is space and time you cannot be conscious of yourself.

When space and time are present

there is consciousness.

You descend into this consciousness and express yourself in manifold ways, in innumerable forms.

In that total manifestation, various phenomena come into being, but there is nothing separate.