Question: If all arising are consciousness arising, is there a difference between the “error messages” and the “clean messages”? 

That’s a really good question. Ultimately speaking: No, there is no difference. Yet provisionally speaking: Yes, there appears to be a difference.

What’s An Error Message? 

An error message indicates that I (aham) have inadvertently mixed myself (aham) up with the content of objective experience. 

This is easy to tell: I suffer whenever I mix myself up with the content of objective experience. I’ve sometimes called this “kickback” or “recoil.”

Consider two examples: “I am really afraid” and “I am the doer.” In both cases, I suffer because I experience, right here, right now, dis-ease.

Let’s look at two simple approaches to transcending this misunderstanding:

Approach #1: Welcoming

Take any aversion you have. There should be a few!

Then ask yourself, “Can I welcome this aversion-arising wholeheartedly?” 

• Case A: You can. Then see what it’s like to welcome this arising.
• Case B: You feel that you cannot.
  • Then welcome this resistance-arising.
  • After you’ve welcomed this resistance-arising, then return to the original aversion-arising. See whether, at this point, you can welcome this aversion-arising.
• Finally: Knowingly be the welcoming (with which any arising is welcoming). This welcoming is the Self.

Approach #2: Pointing Back

Start with any objective experience (thought, feeling, sensation, activity, or perception). Or, again, take an aversion–which is just a thought or a subtle thought or a feeling or a subtle feeling.

See that this objective experience points straight back to ME. 

Be Me knowingly.

Ultimately, There’s Only The Self

Now, let’s return to the first answer. Ultimately: No.

Once it’s clear that all arisings are made of the Self, then there’s neither an error message nor a clear message. There’s no message because there’s no recipient. In fact, there’s not even such a thing, ultimately, as an arising; there’s only the Self. There’s only Abiding Peace. You are THAT.

The Need For Exploration

Now, so long as there seems to be a difference between Consciousness and arisings, between error messages and clean messages, the teaching tells us to explore this apparent difference.

We come back, e.g., to Approaches #1 and #2, which were outlined above.