Advaita SE Meditations - Who Is The Knower?

Listen to Ektaji guide us through an Advaita self-exploration meditation, ‘Who is the knower?’ Do you recognize that there is a knower of a thought, feeling, sensation or perception. The knower is beyond the body and the mind. Do you recognize that which says ‘ I know’ disappears into the changeless background? That changeless background is Knowingness or Awareness or Consciousness itself.

Transcript

Let's do an inner exploration to figure out who or what in me knows. Who is knowing? Let's close our eyes for this exploration. Take your attention to any point of the body where you are experiencing some sensation. Sensation of pain, Discomfort, Crawling, Tingling, Vibrating, Sweaty, Hot, Cold, All these are sensations. Who is knowing that sensation? Can the body claim that it is knowing the sensation? Can the body say that it is knowing something that is happening in the body? Then who knows? Does the mind know? Let's look at the different components of the mind. Can a thought know? What I am saying might arise like a wave of thought, Play in the mind and recede. Did you notice the thought arise, Play and recede? Can the thought know itself? Can the thought know the body? Let's examine feelings. If you're feeling interested, There is a sense of excitement inside. If you're feeling not interested, There is a sense of non-excitement. Observe whatever feeling is there. Observe the feeling rise like a whirlpool and recede. Does the feeling know? Perception of sound is another function of the mind. The sound is heard, The wave of the perception of sound arises and falls. Does perception itself know? Who is knowing? In all these cases, Wasn't there a knower of the thought, A knower of the feeling, A knower of the perception? So there is a knower that knows each of these arise like a wave, Play for a while and vanish. The knower is definitely beyond the mind. Who is knowing? That which says, I know, What is it? Can you follow that sense of I know? Locate the I. Can you pinpoint exactly where is the I? Follow the I and see. Can you find the source? Did you notice that the I disappeared the moment you started following it? What did it disappear into? Can you recognize the changeless background into which it disappeared? This changeless background does not speak. It is just that sense of I am that appears like an I thought. That sense refers to this changeless background. When you find the changeless background, The I sense disappears. Can you notice that there is just a sense of knowing? A field of knowing. There is no individual I that you can point out there that moves. This field is the knower. This is the knowingness. The changeless background. This is where the sense of I am loses its continuity and simply an amness prevails. Can you recognize the isness or amness or knowingness or awareness? Whatever word you like. This changeless background is the one that moves. That is why it is called knowingness. That is why it is called the witness. In Sanskrit, It is called Chid. Chid means that which is conscious and knows. You are Chidakasha, The field of knowingness. In fact, There is no you and no I. It is a universal Chidakasha. We are all the Chidakasha, The field of knowingness itself. So what is mind's attention? The changeless background cannot enjoy this dream world or perceive this dream world without the faculty of sight, Sound, Smell, Taste and touch. Sight, Sound, Smell, Taste and touch are a part of the body-mind personality. But sight, Sound, Smell, Taste and touch themselves can only perceive or receive data. They cannot process and know of their own accord. So the combination of the awareness or the field of knowingness with the finite body-mind together gives the ability to experience this waking dream world. Then knowingness or awareness or consciousness voluntarily, Willingly forgets about its infinite nature and uses the finite body-mind to experience this dream world, To know this dream world. It is very similar to your experience of dreaming in the night. When you lie down in bed and go into the dream state, Your mind cannot experience the tiger in the dream without localizing itself as a subject or a dream character in the dream world. Similarly, The consciousness, The awareness, The all-pervading knowingness cannot experience this dream world without localizing itself as the dream characters. The only special power this consciousness has is that it can see multiple dream worlds all at the same time through multiple dream characters. We are all the dream characters of one single dreamer's mind, The consciousness, Chidakasha. So finally, We are Chidakasha. We have no existence, No reality by our own selves. That is what the dreamer's mind is. That is what is the reality of the dream character. Our reality is consciousness, Knowingness, Awareness. Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved. No part of this recording may be reproduced without Mooji Media Ltd. 's express consent.