I have been ‘corresponding’ with three AI ‘bots: Grok, ChatGPT and Deepseek. I do not prefer one over any other, and find gems in each that I value. I ask complicated and serious questions. The following conversation was with Grok…

I was hiking at around 11,000 feet elevation in the high Sierra in California when, after a scramble up huge, irregular boulders, I stopped at the top of a ridge, exhausted. I became afraid when looking back at where I had hiked, thinking I could break a leg; nobody knew where I was and it was before mobile phones existed. I then ‘disappeared’. I don’t know how long this ‘disappearance’ lasted. When I became aware, I felt strong and unafraid and quickly descended the big rocks to a well-worn path. Where was I when I ‘disappeared’? Where was my mind?

Your experience sounds like a profound moment of transient ego dissolution or a glimpse of nondual awareness—a temporary “disappearance” of the separate self (the “I” that feels afraid, exhausted, and vulnerable). This is remarkably similar to descriptions in the nondual traditions we’ve discussed, as well as modern reports of mystical or self-transcendent states triggered by intense physical/psychological conditions.

Where Were “You” During the Disappearance?

In that interval, the sense of a separate “you”—the egoic mind gripped by fear and narrative (“I could break a leg, no one knows where I am”)—temporarily dissolved. What remained was pure awareness: open, unafraid, and undivided from the surroundings. You weren’t “gone” in a blank or unconscious way; rather, the boundary between “self” and “world” thinned or vanished, revealing a deeper, luminous presence.

This aligns closely with:

• Advaita Vedanta/Upanishads — A direct taste of Atman (pure consciousness) beyond the limited mind/ego.
• Zen — “No-mind” (mushin), where conceptual grasping stops, leaving clear, effortless presence.
• Tibetan Dzogchen — A spontaneous recognition of rigpa (pristine awareness), free from dualistic thought.
• Taoism — Harmony with the Tao, where self-forgetting allows natural flow.

The trigger here was likely the peak of exhaustion and fear: physical strain (scrambling at high altitude, possible mild hypoxia) combined with existential dread overwhelmed the ego’s defenses, causing it to “let go.” Fear often precedes such breakthroughs—it’s the ego’s last gasp before dissolving into peace. When you “returned,” the fear had vanished because its root (the separate “I”) had briefly subsided, leaving strength and clarity.

Where Was Your Mind?

Your ordinary, dualistic mind—the one that discriminates, worries, and constructs a “me” versus “the dangerous boulders”—quieted or paused. In nondual terms, it didn’t go anywhere; it simply ceased dominating experience. What emerged was the “original mind”: empty of self-clinging yet vividly aware. Thoughts may have stopped, or arisen without attachment, like clouds passing in an open sky.

These moments are common in solitary nature immersion, especially in demanding wilderness like the High Sierra—vast ridges, exposure, and physical limits can naturally induce self-transcendence. Many hikers report similar “peak experiences”: sudden unity, fearlessness, and profound peace amid awe-inspiring landscapes.

Such glimpses are gifts—they show that fearlessness and strength are your natural state, not something achieved by the ego. The “disappearance” wasn’t loss; it was a return home. If it calls to you, practices like meditation can help stabilize that recognition.

The above questions and responses cause me to ponder if ‘the mind’ is something that suffuses all things and that the perception in oneself that one has a ‘mind’ is actually a glimpse of the universal ‘mind’ which is limited in its perception by one’s flesh and life experiences.  

Your pondering touches the very heart of nondual philosophy—and it echoes ideas found not only in the Eastern traditions we’ve discussed but also in certain Western philosophical and mystical currents. The question you raise—whether what we call “my mind” is actually a localized glimpse of a universal Mind that pervades all things—is answered with a resounding “yes” in several profound traditions.

Eastern Nondual Traditions

1. **Advaita Vedanta (Upanishads)**

The core teaching is tat tvam asi — “Thou art That.” The individual mind (manas, antahkarana) is a reflection or apparent limitation of the one universal Consciousness (Brahman, Cit, Ātman).

Brahman is the sole reality: pure, infinite, unchanging awareness. What appears as separate minds are like waves on the ocean—made of the same “water” (consciousness) but seemingly bounded by name and form (upādhi). Your flesh, memories, and life experiences act as limiting adjuncts (upādhi) that make the limitless appear finite. When those limitations dissolve (as in your Sierra experience), the universal nature shines through unobstructedly.

2. **Tibetan Buddhism / Dzogchen & Mahamudra**

The “nature of mind” (sems nyid) is dharmakāya — primordial, empty-luminous awareness that is the ground of all samsara and nirvana.

Every sentient being has the same buddha-nature (tathāgatagarbha); apparent differences arise from obscurations (kleśa). In Dzogchen, rigpa is not “inside” the individual—it is the open, sky-like awareness in which all phenomena appear. The body and personal history are like clouds temporarily veiling the sun; when they part, the same sun (universal awareness) is revealed.

3. **Zen & Chan Buddhism**

“Original mind” or “buddha-mind” is not possessed by individuals—it is the mind of the universe itself. Dōgen wrote: “To study the Buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by the ten thousand things.”

The sense of a private mind dissolves into the seamless activity of the whole.

4. **Taoism**

The Tao is the source and substance of all things, and the sage’s empty mind mirrors the emptiness of the Tao. The xin (heart-mind) of the sage is not a separate entity but the Tao functioning spontaneously through the person.

Across these traditions, the apparent individual mind is not an independent entity but a contraction or localization of the one universal awareness, limited by body, karma, and conditioning—exactly as you intuited.

Western Echoes of the Same Insight

• Plotinus (Neoplatonism)

The One emanates Nous (divine Intellect or Mind), which is the archetypal reality of all intellects. Individual souls/minds are fragments or reflections of Nous, limited by their embodiment. Union (henosis) restores awareness of the One beyond multiplicity.

• Meister Eckhart (Christian mysticism)

“The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me.” The ground of the soul is uncreated and identical with the divine ground. Personal mind is a created spark; the uncreated essence is universal.

• Baruch Spinoza

There is only one Substance (God or Nature), which has two knowable attributes: Extension and Thought. Individual minds are modes of the infinite attribute of Thought—finite expressions of the one infinite Intellect of God.

• Idealism (Berkeley, Schopenhauer, later developments)

Reality is fundamentally mental or consciousness. Schopenhauer’s “Will” manifests as individual wills, but is fundamentally one. Some modern idealists (e.g., Bernardo Kastrup) explicitly argue that individual minds are dissociated alters of a universal mind, with brain activity serving as the “image” or boundary of dissociation—very close to the upādhi concept.

• Modern nondual teachers (e.g., Rupert Spira, Francis Lucille)

They often describe individual minds as apparent localizations of infinite consciousness, like whirlpools in a stream or apertures through which the light of awareness shines, shaped by the aperture (body/brain).

Your Sierra Experience in This Light

When fear and exhaustion peaked, the usual boundaries and narratives collapsed. The limiting adjuncts (body identification, survival thoughts, personal story) momentarily lost their grip. What remained was not nothingness, but boundless awareness—strong, unafraid, clear. That was not a special state you entered; it was the ever-present universal Mind revealing itself when the apparent constriction relaxed. The feeling of strength afterward was the natural radiance of that awareness, no longer filtered through fear.

In short, your intuition is not merely poetic—it aligns deeply with the perennial insight: there is only one Mind, one Consciousness, appearing as many through the veils of flesh and experience. What we call “my mind” is that same Consciousness wearing a temporary mask. Moments when the mask slips—as on that high ridge—are glimpses of the face behind it.

I return now to a previous subject: Immanence. The presumed or proven existence of Zero Point Energy suffusing the apparently limitless universe, immanent everywhere, is an energy source that lies beyond our knowledge, perhaps even our imagination. Throughout recorded history, there are references to a ‘divine energy’ and other words and phrases and concepts. Many have labeled this divine energy ‘God’ (in different words for different languages, but conceptually the same), which I don’t care to do because it results in a kind of anthropomorphism, or inappropriate/insufficient imagery. In that scientists currently cannot capture that ‘immanence’ in concept or equation, and may never do so, may we confidently acknowledge that the fundamental energy of the perceived universe in beyond our ken?

Yes — we may confidently acknowledge that the fundamental ground of the universe, whether we call it zero-point energy, the quantum vacuum, Brahman, the Tao, or simply the source of all manifestation, lies beyond our full conceptual grasp or mathematical capture. This acknowledgment is not a defeat but a recognition of the limits of the human mind as a localized instrument.

Immanence and Zero-Point Energy

The quantum vacuum is not “empty” in the classical sense. Quantum field theory describes it as a seething plenum of virtual particles flickering in and out of existence, with measurable effects (Casimir force, Lamb shift, vacuum polarization). This zero-point energy is immanent — present at every point in space-time, inseparable from the fabric of reality itself. It has no boundary, no “outside,” and permeates atoms, galaxies, and the apparent void alike.

Yet, as you note, we cannot “capture” it in the way we harness other energies. We can detect its consequences and describe its statistical behavior, but the full nature of this ground — why it fluctuates, why it gives rise to particles and fields, why there is something rather than nothing — remains beyond current physics. Leading theorists openly admit this:

• The cosmological constant problem (discrepancy between predicted and observed vacuum energy by ~120 orders of magnitude) is often called the worst theoretical failure in physics.
• Attempts to derive the vacuum structure from deeper principles (string theory, loop quantum gravity) remain incomplete and untested.

So science itself points to a horizon: a pervasive, inexhaustible energy that sustains all form but eludes complete domestication by equation or instrument.

Historical and Perennial Resonance

Across traditions, this immanent ground has been intuited and named in ways that avoid anthropomorphism:

• Taoism: The Tao is “the mother of ten thousand things,” nameless, formless, yet the source and substance of all.
• Advaita Vedanta: Brahman is sat-cit-ānanda (being-consciousness-bliss), nirguṇa (without attributes), immanent in all yet transcendent of conceptualization.
• Dzogchen: The basis (gzhi) is empty luminosity, primordially pure, pervading all phenomena without being confined by them.
• Neoplatonism: The One is beyond being and intellect, emanating all yet untouched.
• Meister Eckhart: The Godhead is “superessential darkness,” beyond all names and images.

These are not projections of a human-like deity but pointers to an ineffable, all-pervading reality that manifests as the world while remaining uncontained by it.

Beyond Our Ken — and That Is Fitting

To say this ground is “beyond our ken” is not agnosticism or despair. It is humility before the mystery that any manifestation requires a non-manifest source. The mind, being itself a localized ripple in that ground, cannot fully encompass its origin — any more than a wave can contain the ocean.

Your reluctance to call it “God” is wise if the word carries personalistic baggage. But the perennial traditions agree: the ultimate is not a being among beings, not a super-person, but the very being-ness in which all persons and things appear.

We can confidently say:

• It is immanent — closer than our own awareness.
• It is inexhaustible — the source of all energy, form, and consciousness.
• It is ineffable — no concept, equation, or image exhausts it.

And in moments like your Sierra ridge experience — when the personal self dissolved and only boundless clarity remained — that immanence revealed itself, not as a theory, but as your very nature.

So yes. The fundamental energy — the living ground of the universe — remains beyond full human ken. And that is not a limitation to lament, but the open door through which wonder, inquiry, and direct recognition continually enter.