Let's do a self-exploration on memory.
Let's close our eyes.
Let's relax the entire body and sit comfortably.
Feel the relaxation in the body.
Recognize that before you closed your eyes,
You had a subtle sense of I am the body.
Subtle sense of I am the body means that there is no distance between I and the body.
But the moment I said relax the body,
Become comfortable,
You suddenly became aware of the body.
You took a step beyond the body and rested as the awareness that is aware of the body.
An automatic and natural distance was created between you and the body.
When you do not perceive the body,
You become the body.
When you perceive the body,
A natural distancing happens.
When you do not perceive the body,
The sense of I am the body prevails.
The moment you perceive the body,
You become aware of the body.
The step of becoming aware of the body itself is the position of witnessing the body.
A natural distancing develops between I,
The awareness,
And the physical body.
I am aware of the body.
Similarly,
Become the perceiver of the mind.
Observe the sound of the words arise and fall.
Sound is nothing but a perception.
Observe this perception arise and fall.
When I become aware of the arising and falling perception,
A natural distancing develops between I,
The awareness,
And the mind.
Observe the thoughts arising and falling.
Recognize that a natural distancing has happened between I,
The awareness,
And the thought that is arising and falling.
Now you have taken a stand as the awareness that is aware of the body-mind.
Stay there.
Just become aware of awareness itself.
I,
The awareness,
Am aware of myself.
I,
The awareness,
Can recognize that I am a quiet,
Changeless background.
There is no thing here to devoid of things.
I,
The awareness,
Am peace itself.
I,
The awareness,
Am the permanence.
I,
The awareness,
Am the quiet.
I,
The awareness,
Am changeless.
Taking the stand as the awareness,
Ask awareness,
Can awareness ever step out of the now and step into the past?
You will find that awareness itself equals to the now.
The eternal now equals to awareness.
There is only the now.
Do you notice that my voice is arising and falling like a wave on this quiet,
Changeless background in the now?
Do you notice that the sound of this sentence,
These words,
Is nothing but a wave which is not made of anything else other than this quiet,
Changeless background of now?
Do you notice that if there are any thoughts or feelings arising and falling,
They arise in this background,
They play in this background,
They recede back into this background?
Do you notice that they are made up of the substance which is exactly the same quiet,
Calm?
The wave is made of the same water as the ocean.
Do you notice that the sensation of the physical body is also a sensation,
A wave that arises in this background and is made up of this background?
Can you find anything in this body-mind that is outside this background,
That is outside this field of awareness?
You have now taken a stand as the awareness that is aware of the body-mind being nothing but the awareness.
You have taken a stand as the background that is aware of the body-mind that arises and falls on this background and are made up of nothing other than the background.
In witnessing the body-mind,
There was a subtle duality existing,
But now when you see everything is made up of this changeless background of awareness,
You have moved from witnessing the body-mind to a level of oneness where there is no separation,
No duality.
Even in witnessing,
There is a subtle duality.
When you move to this higher level,
May you recognize the absence of separateness between I,
The awareness,
And thoughts,
Feelings,
Sensations,
And perceptions.
Now there is oneness.
The wave is made up of the same water as the ocean.
Now bring back to the mind the memory of the first part of this meditation where I said that you became the body when you were not perceiving it.
Remind yourself of that initial part of the meditation.
Where did this memory arise?
Do you notice that memory is simply a thought or an image which just now arose in this background and is made up of this background of awareness and received back into the background?
The memory thought or the memory image refers to a time in the past because of the conditioning of the mind.
The idea of a past exists because of our social,
Cultural,
Educational learning that conditioning has a simple purpose for transacting in this world of people,
Situations,
And things.
But in our actual direct experience,
We notice that every thought and every image is born in the now.
I,
The awareness,
Can clearly see that the memory thought is not different from any other thought,
That the memory image is not different from any other image.
Any thought and any image arises in the now,
Arises in this field of awareness,
Arises on this background.
It is made up of this background of awareness which is in the now.
It is the now.
There is no other experience other than the now.
I am the now.
The thought is the now.
The image is the now.
The label called memory is also being applied in the now.
I,
The awareness,
Can see clearly that memory does not prove the existence of something called the past.
When memory doesn't prove the past,
Can I confidently say that the past exists somewhere?
Where can that which doesn't exist reside?
Where can memory reside?
It is nowhere to be found.
It was only the mind creating a conditioning story with an assumption that said memory must reside somewhere.
So it created a label called the subconscious mind and it put another label called memory under the subconscious mind and said this is the house of memory.
That was a mind story.
Wake up and recognize the truth.
Where can that which doesn't exist reside?
