What Is the Difference Between Finite and Infinite Knowing?

"What is the difference between the knowing with which the finite mind knows its experience – like the meaning of a thought or the taste of ice cream – and the knowing by which all experience is known, the pure knowing of consciousness itself? Rupert says: ‘The infinite doesn’t know the finite directly. The infinite can only know finite experience through the agency of a finite mind. Of course, the finite mind is not something separate from the infinite. It is consciousness itself that rises in the form of the finite mind. In the case of the human being, the form of thought and perception. So, it is infinite consciousness itself that assumes the form of thought and perception, and through the faculty of thought and perception it knows objective or finite experience. But in the absence of a finite mind, in the absence of any perceiving faculty, the infinite doesn’t know anything. Brahman is the world or consciousness is everything – this is not true. There is no world for Brahman to be the totality of. There are no things for consciousness to be the all of. So a statement like “Brahman is the world” or “consciousness is everything” is a concession to the finite mind’s belief that there is a world as such, or that there are things as such.’"

From event 05 - 12 October, 2025 Seven-Day Retreat at Garrison Institute, 5–12 October 2025

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