Let's do a self-exploration on There Are No Persons,
I Am That,
Chapter 13,
The Supreme,
The Mind and The Body.
Let's sit comfortably,
Let's close our eyes.
Ask yourself the question,
When I think of a person,
What is it that I mean by a person?
What is a person?
The false sense of I am the body,
Which has a small mind inside the brain,
Which is conscious,
Is called a person.
The false sense of I am the body,
Which has a small mind inside the brain,
Which is conscious,
Is called a person.
Do you recognize that the sense of I am the body is a false sense?
Do you recognize that the body having a small mind inside it is a false idea?
Do you recognize that the brain having consciousness within it is nothing but a false conditioning?
The reason for a strong feeling of personhood is the experience of feelings,
Thoughts,
Sensations and perceptions bundled all together.
The reason for a strong feeling of personhood is the experience of feelings,
Thoughts,
Sensations and perceptions bundled all together.
Let's examine this personhood in depth.
Notice that my words repeat in your mind,
That is nothing but a thought.
These words evoke a feeling.
Feeling plus thought is equal to the mind.
Feeling plus thought has been labeled as the mind.
Feeling appears and disappears,
Thought appears and disappears,
That means mind appears and disappears.
How can that which appear and disappear be real?
A mirage in the desert appears and disappears,
Do we call it real?
The blue color of the sky appears and disappears,
Don't we call that an illusion?
How can feelings that appear and disappear be real?
How can thoughts that appear and disappear be real?
Aren't they like images on a screen?
When you watch a film,
You don't consider the image of the hero or the villain as real.
Why?
Because the hero and the villain appear for a little while and disappear,
They are not permanent.
Check if your thoughts are really permanent.
Is there any thought that has lasted forever?
Check if any of your feelings are permanent.
Has any feeling lasted forever,
Consistently being the same throughout,
Without changing at all?
Can you locate a permanent feeling?
No,
This means that the mind is impermanent,
The mind is constantly changing,
The mind is constantly appearing and disappearing.
If I consider myself as the mind,
It means I constantly appear and disappear.
Is that really your experience?
Do you constantly appear and disappear or is your experience that you are permanent?
Examine closely about how you actually sense your true self.
Do you really see yourself constantly appear and disappear?
No,
You will notice that you have a constant sense of permanence within,
Naturally.
You have a constant sense of changelessness within,
Naturally.
That is why when an old friend says that you have changed,
Something within you feels that you are the same.
You do not feel different at all.
However mature the ideas of the mind get,
However sensible your speech becomes,
However smart your ideas become,
You still sense the same changelessness and permanence within.
The same truth applies to the body.
Sensations plus perception of sight has been labelled as the body.
Sensation appears and disappears.
Perception of sight appears and disappears.
That means the body appears and disappears.
How can that which appears and disappears be real?
They are just like images on a screen.
When you watch a film,
You don't consider the image of the hero and the image of the villain as real.
Now open your eyes and look at the image of your own body.
Do you have proof that this image is more real than the image of the hero or the image of the villain in a film on a TV screen?
Just like the images in a film appear and disappear on a background screen,
Doesn't the image of this physical body also appear and disappear on the background screen of awareness?
How can that which appears and disappears be real?
Now close your eyes and notice any sensations that are arising and falling.
Pain,
Tingling,
Numbness,
Crawling,
Vibrating,
Throbbing,
Beating,
Comfortable or uncomfortable.
Whatever sensation is there,
Notice that it arises and falls.
It appears and it disappears.
How can sensations that appear and disappear be real?
Don't similar sensations arise in dream?
Do you consider the dream sensations as real?
Why don't you consider the dream sensations as real?
Simply because they appear and then they disappear.
Isn't the same happening right now?
Aren't the sensations appearing and disappearing?
Are these sensations more permanent than the dream sensations?
Is there any sensation that has lasted forever?
Anything,
Pain,
Pleasure,
Nothing lasts forever.
Has the perception of the sight of the body lasted forever without a break consistently there?
Doesn't the perception of sight of the body disappear every night in deep sleep?
This means that perception of sight of the body and sensations both are impermanent.
That is what has been labeled as the physical body.
So the physical body is impermanent.
The body is constantly changing.
It is constantly appearing and disappearing.
If I consider myself as the body,
It means I constantly appear and disappear.
Is that true?
Do you constantly appear and disappear?
Examine closely about how you actually sense your true self.
You will notice that you have a constant sense of permanence within naturally.
You will notice that you have a constant sense of changelessness within naturally.
That is why when an old friend says that you have aged,
You look old,
You look different.
You do not feel the same way.
You feel that you are the same.
You do not feel different.
However mature the body looks.
However aged the face looks.
However grey the hair becomes.
However weak the muscles.
However diseased the body.
You still have the same sense of changelessness.
You still have the same sense of permanence within.
Have you ever inquired why?
Why this is so?
Why do I feel a sense of changelessness and impermanence?
If I am the person,
It means I am the body plus the mind.
Then I should sense myself appearing and disappearing because the body and the mind appear and disappear.
Why do I not feel like that about myself?
Why is my own inner experience not congruent with my own belief of being the person?
It means clearly that I am something beyond.
I am not the person.
The person appears and disappears constantly.
How can the so-called person be real?
Because real means permanent.
How can the so-called person be called real?
Because real means permanent.
My own inner experience about myself is permanence.
That clearly means I am not the person.
The person does not exist.
How can that which appears and disappears be even called to exist?
There is no person.
So what about all the people around me in my personal world?
Do they exist?
Don't they appear and disappear constantly?
How can that which appears and disappears constantly be real?
Only that is real which is permanent.
All these persons in my life appear and disappear constantly.
There are no persons.
Person is only an idea,
An illusion.
There are no persons.
