Strange to say - and how rare it is! - the term 'phenomena' implies precisely what etymologically it says. Every thing, every conceivable thing, which our senses, and our mind (which interprets what our senses perceive) cognise, is exactly an 'appearance', i.e., an appearance in consciousness interpreted as an event extended in space and in duration and objectified in a world external to that which cognises it. And simultaneously that which cognises it assumes that it is the subject of the cognition and, as such, an entity apart from that which is cognised.
As long as these associated assumptions subsist, the correlated assumption of 'bondage', and the painful sensations accompanying that assumption, must necessarily remain intact.
Therefore release from this assumed 'bondage' can only be obtained by comprehending the falsity of these assumptions which are responsible for the presumed bondage, for both 'assumptions' and 'bondage' are apparent only, i.e. are purely phenomenal.
'Appearance' is precisely what the word implies, i.e., something that 'seems to be', not 'something that is'.
If this is realised - and how obvious it should be, since the terms themselves say it precisely! - the psychological elements of a purely psychological bondage are severed, and only the psychological conditioning occasioned by that 'bondage' remains, and this, like all conditioning, will dissolve as a result of a process of de-conditioning which consists in the establishment of the concept of 'appearance' (phenomenon) in place of the concept of 'reality'.
The dissolution of that which is cognised as 'real' and 'separate', as events extended in space and time, necessarily involves the dissolution of the assumed cognising entity, and both are then seen as phenomena, or appearance, in consciousness.
When this readjustment is effected both subject and object no longer exist as such, and no entity remains which could be conceived as being 'bound'. That is - bondage is no more.
How very simple indeed it is!
Note: 'Then who am I?' If anyone could tell you that, what you were told would necessarily be nonsense - for it would be just another object, as phenomenal as the rest. Some day you will know automatically what you are - which is what the Masters meant when they said so often, 'You will know of yourself whether water is tepid or cold' - or, you will just be that knowledge.
