When Once I Understood – Franklin Jones, 1970

When once I understood who I am, the Heart, the same Self that is the consciousness of all beings, their very existence, timeless and spaceless bliss, whose form is that same form that is the form in which all forms are reflected, perceiving themselves and being perceived, I also wondered: How is it then that I, being the Heart, have become contained and seem to function nearly always in this one form, Franklin, in relation to others? And then I saw that the one in whom this question and this very perception arose was not myself, the Heart, but Franklin, that limitation itself! Therefore, it is not so! I am not contained or born, and only Franklin perceives itself as Franklin apart from me.

Since then, it is also true that I have experienced myself arising and functioning in the form of countless beings other than Franklin, and I also realize my nature here, so that many beings are finding themselves in this understanding apart from great effort.

It is Franklin who needed to be enlightened, who sought to be free, who endured these experiences, performing the question and the answer, who wonders now about his relationship to me. It is Franklin who has been my point of view, my trouble, the field of my dilemma, the problem itself.

But I have never been this one, never wondered or sought, never entered the precincts of this dilemma, never even understood. Therefore, what I have realized has even nothing to do with him, except that, knowing this, I can use him with abandon, never assuming his is not free.

When I am present as myself, then Franklin and all who know me as I am never turn to the mind of separate living, but they abide and survive in the powered mystery of real consciousness. This because remaining present as I am, I do not give the power of my consciousness to the indulgence of problematic life. And if I reserve this consciousness to myself, there is no consciousness abroad to be apart, for I am that one who is present everywhere.

Franklin Jones (Adi Da Samraj), 1970