Let's do a self-exploration meditation on I Am That,
Chapter 3,
Living the Present Reality on the topic,
Can the Mind Be Happy?
Let's look into the possibility of the mind being happy.
Let's close our eyes and simply observe the mind.
What is the mind?
Do you find an entity called the mind in your direct experience?
Can you locate a box inside that is labeled as the mind?
And do you recognize that a stream of mental states has been labeled as the mind?
Thought,
Feeling,
The associating drama of the two together constitute a mental state.
Now let's observe a thought.
I will ask you a question.
Observe carefully when the answer arises in your mind.
What is 2 plus 2?
Did you observe the number thought just arose and fell away?
Do you notice that the thought is not alive?
Do you notice that thought does not feel?
Do you notice that the thought is not conscious?
Can that which is not alive,
Not conscious,
That which cannot feel,
Ever be happy or sad?
No,
The thought cannot be happy or sad.
Mind is nothing but a label given to a cluster of thoughts.
Mind cannot be happy or sad.
Let's examine a feeling.
A feeling is simply a sensation experienced at the mind level or the mental level.
Remember how you felt when you first fell in love.
Discard the thoughts and images about your beloved.
Simply hold on to the feeling of love.
Now examine this feeling.
Does it have a label called love on it?
Does it have happiness written on it?
Does the feeling convey to you in any way that it is a happy feeling as opposed to an unhappy feeling?
Can a feeling speak?
Is the feeling conscious?
Is the feeling alive?
That which is not conscious,
Not alive,
That which does not come with a pre-written label.
Can that simple sensation be happy or sad?
What is mind?
Mind is nothing but a cluster of feelings.
Can this cluster of feelings communicate to you that they are a happy cluster or an unhappy cluster?
The mind cannot be happy or sad.
Both thoughts and feelings are simply a wave in awareness.
Just a movement.
They are simply arisings.
Not conscious,
Not alive.
Therefore,
The mind is not conscious,
Not alive.
How can that which is not conscious,
Not alive,
Be happy or sad?
Then who is happy and who is sad?
Let's look for that I that claims to be happy or claims to be sad.
Look for it.
Look within.
Can you find the I?
Follow the I if you found it.
Does it not disappear?
Do you recognise that I is simply a thought that arises and falls away?
So an I thought claiming that it is happy,
Which is another thought.
One thought claiming another thought.
Is that even possible?
Thoughts are unconscious,
Not alive.
The I is nowhere to be found.
Who is happy?
Who is sad?
Let's look at that background where the I disappeared.
Sink back further and see where the I continuously disappears into.
Can this background be happy or sad?
This quiet background does not speak.
It is simply a field of knowingness.
There is nothing outside this field of knowingness.
Thoughts,
Feelings,
Breath,
Mind,
Body,
Memory,
Intellect all arise and fall on this quiet background of knowingness or awareness.
The body does not say it is happy or sad.
The breath does not claim to be happy or sad.
We just saw that thoughts also do not claim to be happy thoughts or sad thoughts.
Neither do feelings say that they are happy or sad.
And this background is utterly silent.
When looked at in its completeness,
As a whole,
In its grand totality,
There is nothing like happiness or sadness.
There is no sorrow.
There is no suffering.
There is no joy even.
There is simply an absence of all ups and downs.
In the grand totality,
There is simply a straight line graph of equanimity.
