Maybe I should clarify a couple of things.

First, everything that I write is from my own experience and not the Vedas or some teaching I have listened to. It's from my own enquiry.

Next, when I wrote that the mind of the self must have answers, I meant that the mind believes or thinks it must have answers. It does not like a mystery, especially because it has been conditioned to find an answer for the unknown. The reason for this is that the self is insecure and fearful and therefore does not do well with the possibility that it is kept n the dark.

Having said this, the self does not necessarily have to have the correct answer, but only one that soothes its fears and insecurities. This is why religion, cults, and other institutions have proved so useful for people.

While many people say they want to know who they are, there are very few who actually go the distance with an enquiry. Instead, they settle for some answer or practice that sates the self's desire. Or they simply find ways to distract themselves.

Although the fact that even the question must be abandoned is taught by Buddhists (I wouldn't know if it is), it was true for me. It's not something I learned, but rather that I discovered.

Regarding how consciousness arises out of emptiness (I don't remember if I used the word "popping;" it doesn't sound like a word I'd use), this is a mystery because it is beyond the mind to know it. This gets us into an area that needs a slow approach, because, according to my experience, there is no thought in the Absolute, and when awareness returns (or arises) with consciousness only then can thought occur. Therefore there is no way to remember, per se, or even conceptualize, how something arises out of nothing.

Have you ever personally had this experience? Have you ever had the complete dissolution of everything, including the body, mind, and all else while still in awareness until nothing was left, including awareness? When this occurs there is a "return" to awareness, but not in the way that can easily be explained, because the state prior to awareness is ineffable. There is another subtle point to be made about this that is too often overlooked: There is a big difference between having an intellectual understanding of this versus knowing it to be so. Further, there is a difference between experiencing this versus realizing that that you are the Absolute and not someone who has had something happen TO them. So the identification switches from the self to the no-self state. And this is a state that can be spoken of but the listener will not truly understand because it takes a personal realization to do so.

I am not sure if you think I follow Buddhism. I do not. I do not follow anything, any path, nor do I subscribe to a religion or any other organized program, religion, or institution. I have read some things in Buddhism over the years, but there is no way that one can come to the Absolute state, or even the totality of consciousness, through ideas and teachings. It just does not work that way. Enquiring into the self, persistently, is the only way that has worked. I am not hear to tell you of my own state, but just want to clarify what I have written, because it's difficult to describe something that is beyond words and concepts.

What you write about a Supreme Father does not resonate at all with my experience, because there is no separation to cause or create something supreme or something lesser. There is no Father, God, self, higher consciousness, soul, or any other separate entity. And the idea of uniting is also just a figment of the self's mind. All is already one, singular, and therefore nothing unites; there is only the shedding of the self and then this becomes clear when all that you see, whether people, rocks, or ducks, are reflections of your own essence. This is my experience and I will go so far to say that the only proof of what I am is me. Otherwise we slip into the problem of having others determine what we are by their own biases, teachings, beliefs, and expertise in areas that have no way of realizing the truth.

The self abides in belief, because it is a belief. The self fragments the world into higher, lower, and better and worse, because it itself is a fragment.

I could go on further, but it's not necessary. I am in the midst of finishing a book detailing my experiences over the past 68 years in this area with the intent of helping others who need to answer this question "Who am I?" The point is never to answer the questions, but to guide one back to her own source beyond the self.

You speak of a person needing to go through a tremendous number of lifetimes before she can awaken. Is this true? I cannot say. I can only say what my life has been like and that I seem to have been born with some state of readiness because I have never seen life or people the way most people seem to in regard to both my experiences and perspective of reality.