You have posed a few very intelligent questions, but before I answer, I will say that I do not write from theory. Instead, what I write is from my more than 65 years of exploration into the depths of consciousness — not from books, articles, or other media, but from persistent observation and immersion into what comes from attention. There has only been one goal for me through my whole life, and that was to find out what I was at my essence, beyond experience, the mind, thoughts, phenomena, this mundane world, beauty, ugliness, suffering, joy, and so on.
There will always be other explanations available about how and why things are; but mine are only of my personal observation and immersion. And since I cannot possibly have experienced or observed all that is possible, I can only answer what I can answer.
To your question about experience…there is no point at all to experience. We can easily also question whether there is any point to a beautiful flower that has blossomed in the middle of the wilderness where no one has ever trekked. It is only the mind that attributes importance to experiences, phenomena, thoughts, actions, etc.
Everything flows out of one singular movement of consciousness in which all phenomena, thought, action, etc., is contained. It is only the sense of self that tries to find reason for what happens, including experiences. Experiences, though, are not beliefs. Beliefs are thoughts that are trusted to be true, but not actually known to be true. Beliefs are influenced and retained in hopes that something is true or even in fear that something may be true, but they are not founded on fact; they are implanted ideas to which certain people hold tight.
Experiences impress the mind as it tries to make sense of the movement to which it attends. In most of the teachings of spirituality (for lack of a better term), great importance is placed upon experience, such as out of body experiences, dreams, signs and symbols, near death experiences, visitations from entities or spirits, synchronicity, psychic impressions, etc. These, though, are merely passing artifacts of consciousness and have nothing to do with the essence of what one is.
Regarding separation… No amount of teaching, learning, hoping, praying, information, dogma, or inculcation can make it utterly apparent that there is no separation between ourselves and others. This is something that I cannot fully explain. The realization just occurs and washes over one, as if you awaken from a dream and everything makes sense.
And, yes, we are conditioned (not designed) to believe we are separate from others — people, animals, nature, etc. — because without such conditioning of the mind and brain we would not be able to navigate this world. We need the contrasts and complements. We need to know what hot is so we can appreciate cold. And we need the delineation between earth and air to keep from falling off a cliff. None of our senses would qualify as senses if they did not delineate between this and that, high and low, bright and dim, etc.
On a final note, consciousness, which is the totality of all that is, simply IS. It is a singular movement in which all appears to happen, be born, live, deteriorate, die, and so on. It is only the mind that parses this total movement into fragments. And it is the conditioned self that attributes qualities such as importance, good, bad, beneficial, dangerous, etc., in relation to “what am I going to get out of this, or what do I have to fear about this, or how can I use this to my benefit, or how can this keep me safe?”
Experience, then, simply happens. But it comes and then it goes. But beneath the experience, between the coming and going, life and death, change and temporary consistency, is something that is mostly overlooked — an ineffable depth of silent stillness. It is a stateless state that exists prior to the mind, thought, and even consciousness.
