When we are witnessing within the manifestation but still being the absolute, we can perceive our body moving, doing what it does—eating, talking, and so on. However, all this is seen as completely spontaneous functioning, not belonging to a person or a self. There is no doer whatsoever. Everything is happening as functioning, each part is doing its functioning smoothly and spontaneously. The functioning is not related to a doer, a person, or a self. And it is not seen as separate from other functioning in the environment, for all functioning is a unified dynamic field. Furthermore, the functioning is the same as the phenomena, the perceived reality, the logos whose dynamic pattern is the universe. However, there is no I, no self, no center. The awareness and perception originate from the darkness of the absolute. We feel unknown and unknowable, and in front of us phenomena appear with functioning. There is awareness of phenomena and functioning, but there is no involvement in it whatsoever. It does not feel like there is someone observing or aware of phenomena. It is as if Reality has two sides. The front is all of existence, the back is the darkness of the absolute. All of appearance, as the divine logos or being, is seen as external to the absolute. There is no one who feels he is doing. The doing is present, without being related to doer. The interesting thing is that there are functioning and perception without a sense of self. We realize that usually there is a continuous sense of self or “I.” Now there is experience and perception of experience, but it is not related to an “I.” The experience is far or distant from who I am, without who I am feeling like an “I.”  

The relation of the Personal Essence to this nonconceptual reality is again seen in functioning. Functioning in this realm is like that in the state of Absence, in the sense that it is not related to a doer or a center. However, there is no duality, no differentiation between the presence of Nameless Reality and functioning. The experience is of the ultimate reality, which is everything and beyond everything, and is seen to be the source of functioning, without functioning being any different from the presence of the Nameless Reality. One is the Nameless all, without the mind saying so. One is the functioning, without the mind saying that one is functioning. The Reality is functioning, and functioning is the Reality. In other words, the Nonconceptual Reality is what functions, without functioning being perceived as separate in any way from the presence of Reality. There is no conceptualization whatsoever, so there is no differentiation between functioning and what functions. It is as if when the hand moves it is not your hand, but the hand of the true Reality, which is nothing but the true Reality. The Nameless Reality is you, is the hand, and is the movement of the hand. 

This is a surprising and, of course, rare condition. There is no doer whatsoever. Everything is happening as functioning; each part, body or mind, is doing its functioning smoothly, and spontaneously, without a center. The experience of ego is that functioning, including perceiving, is the doing of the ego individuality, at the center of which is the sense of self, the I. Ego never experiences functioning differently; as far as it can remember, functioning has been the manifestation of parts of its structure. Now, in this condition of Absence, one realizes that this is not the case, that the feeling “I am doing, I am perceiving,” and so on, is not an objective perception of the situation. It is only a subjective feeling based on a belief in the existence of a sense of self. When this belief is gone, and the sense of self or I is seen only to be a concept, functioning is seen to happen on its own, independent of any center. We are quite aware of the fact that this state cannot be imagined or conceived by ego or mind. The conviction that one is at the center of functioning is so deep, total and crystallized that it is taken by the mind to be an absolute natural law. However, it is important for us to describe this functioning which is free from a functioner in order to explore its relation to the Personal Essence. In the state of Absence there is no presence, consciousness or functioning. As functioning is needed there is then the awareness of consciousness arising. This consciousness is experienced as a loving presence, spontaneously arising in the voidness of the Absence. It is perceived to gradually transform itself into the presence of the Personal Essence.