Nature Of The Self Session 8 - Animation Of The World

Listen to Ektaji talk about Ramana Maharshi's teachings on non-duality. These teachings are aimed at the experiential understanding of the true nature of the self and that consciousness is the only existing reality.

Transcript

Salaam.

Salaam.

Salaam.

Salaam.

Salaam.

So the next questioner asks,

As the bodies and the cells animating them?

The self is animating the body as in it forgets itself,

It thinks I am the mind,

The mind projects a physical body and there is a physical world projected.

That is the meaning of animating.

You animate in your dreams also.

You project a dream character and that dream character is experiencing a dream world.

So please understand the questioner first.

The questioner is talking about how we project.

Suppose this is your dream.

You are the dreamer.

You are actually lying in your bed.

You forget that you are the dreamer lying in bed.

You project or animate yourself into the dream character.

This dream character is dreaming this dream world where he is flying in space with all his friends.

So this is the dream world.

This is the dream character.

That is you only.

You are actually lying in bed.

But you are animating this dream character who is seeing through those two eyes and experiencing this dream world.

So that is the meaning of the question right there.

As the bodies and the cells animating them,

Means animating the bodies are everywhere actually observed to be innumerable,

How can it be said that the self is only one?

Understood the question?

How can there be one self?

Why can't we all say we are 100 plus people here?

So we are 100 plus personal individual cells.

Why can't we say that?

That is the main question.

Answer.

If the idea I am the body is accepted,

The cells are multiple.

In this dream world,

In this space dream,

You the dreamer who is sleeping in bed has forgotten himself.

You completely forget yourself.

You have no memory of yourself.

Forgetting yourself,

You become the dream character.

This dream character is fearful.

He has wrapped himself in a candy wrapper to feel safer.

You are experiencing this dream world through the eyes of this dream character.

So you cannot see yourself the way you are seeing this picture.

You are inside this dream character and you are looking at this dream world through those two eyes.

So you can see the wrapper.

You'll have to do a little bit of imagination here.

You can see your wrapper and through that you can see the dream world and you can see your friends floating in space.

When you the dream character were in that space dream,

You were flying in space along with your friends.

And you were fearful that this body will get hurt.

When you are fearful,

Oh this body will get hurt.

Let me wrap it in something.

It will get hurt.

What is the stand you are taking?

What are you taking yourself to be?

Do you remember that you are the knowing presence,

The field of knowingness?

Do you remember yourself as the sense of I am?

What do you remember yourself as?

I am this physical body.

So do you understand what he means by the first sentence that if you take yourself to be the body,

Then you see the world as physical objects.

I'll elaborate that a little more.

When you've taken the stand of the physical body,

How do you see your friends?

The friends flying in space.

They also appear like physical bodies and you're worried because you're in fear of your own body.

You are worried what if somebody falls down and hurts his body?

What will happen?

So you are seeing them as physical bodies.

You're seeing the world full of physical objects.

You've taken the stand of the physical body and you see your friends and the world as physical objects.

Now let's say you are not the person in the wrapper.

You're not this fearful person.

You are the person with the balloon up there.

Even the kid with the balloon,

What is he feeling?

What is that person feeling?

I need the hydrogen balloon to keep me afloat.

I'm going to fall.

I'm going to hurt myself.

So what is his stand?

He's taking the stand as the physical body.

He has forgotten that he is the awareness.

Let's say you are the kid up here who feels he's drowning in space.

He feels he's falling.

He's sinking.

His physical body will get hurt.

What is his stand?

Again,

I am the body.

There the stand is I am the body.

The stand is I am the body.

The stand is I am the body.

Now look at this kid.

He has forgotten about the body.

He's swimming in space.

He's enjoying.

Is his stand I am the body?

He's probably lost in some wonderful imagination.

He's floating,

Swimming.

Maybe he's imagining,

Oh,

I'm that planet.

Maybe there is something on that planet.

Let me swim towards it.

Can I get there?

Whatever the imagination is.

What has he become?

What is his stand?

I am the mind.

Now apply it to yourself.

When do you take a stand as the body?

When do you take a stand as the mind?

Somebody tells you,

Oh,

You know,

Your hair is greying.

What happens to you immediately?

Oh,

My hair is greying.

You start looking at the mirror.

Oh,

I'm getting wrinkles.

Oh,

I'm getting old.

I have immediately taken the stand as the body.

If there is pain in the body somewhere.

What happens to me immediately?

I take the stand as the physical body.

I consider myself to be the body.

These are just a couple of examples I give you.

You see,

Moment to moment,

This happens.

When somebody says something about the past,

Remember how we used to have fun in our teenage and we used to go here,

Go there,

Paint the town red.

Then how you get lost in the memory of your teenage.

When you're lost in the memory,

You forget that you are the person sitting here.

You have become that memory.

You have again become that teenager in the mind.

So you took a stand as I am the mind.

You see this?

So do you understand?

Stand as the body and stand as the mind.

Whenever the body will go through its ups and downs,

You start feeling,

Oh,

I am suffering or I am enjoying.

When the mind goes through its ups and downs,

I feel I am suffering.

I am enjoying.

Why do I get consumed by the suffering and enjoyment?

Because of this wrong understanding,

I am the body or I am the mind.

When actually in reality,

When you were dreaming this and you suddenly wake up from the dream,

Was the fear that you were experiencing here real?

Was this dream world real?

None of it is real.

You just awaken and it's all gone.

Exactly in the same manner.

This is a waking dream.

In this waking dream,

You have forgotten that I am the awareness and you have taken the assumption or you assume that I am this body.

I am the mind.

And then when the body and mind goes through its ups and downs,

I suffer or I say I am enjoying.

And then that only continuous cycle of suffering and enjoyment,

Suffering and enjoyment now bugs me and now I want to get away from it.

Then I look for an Advaita Tras.

I find an Advaita Tras and I realise,

Oh,

I was not the body and not the mind to begin with.

Then I recognise my true self.

We keep forgetting again and again,

Even after an Advaita session.

I assure you that you are the field of nothingness,

Awareness,

Consciousness.

Again you forget and you become the body.

Again you become the mind.

You just did a self-exploration where you understood,

Oh,

It's only Turiyatita,

There is nothing else.

But again and again,

You get consumed by the body,

Get consumed by the mind.

Our job is again and again just be a witness,

Again and again be a witness.

Are you aware of your breath?

See now you became aware.

That means right now you became a witness.

Till now you had got consumed,

You had become one with it.

So make an attempt to again and again just perceive something,

That is the breath,

The body,

The sensations in the body.

When I perceive it,

I naturally distance myself from it and I become the witness.

I don't get consumed in it.

Similarly,

The mind will come up with its thoughts and feelings,

Some memory from the past.

All this will come up.

This is a part of my habit pattern.

I have encouraged it in the past,

So naturally they are going to come up.

All I need to do is distance myself from it again.

It's a natural distancing.

There is no real distancing happening.

I'm using this poetically.

It means just witness.

Oh there is this feeling coming up now.

There is this memory coming up now.

And when I get lost in this memory,

I usually label it as suffering.

Can I just be a witness to it?

What is,

Is.

I cannot stop this feeling or this sensation or this particular thought.

It arises of its own accord.

I cannot stop the waves from rising in the ocean.

But I can be a witness to it instead of getting consumed in the waves.

That little freedom I have at this stage.

Can I just be a witness?

Stop assuming yourself to be the body.

Stop assuming yourself to be the mind.

When you assume yourself to be the body,

You see everybody else as physical bodies.

The world becomes a world full of objects.

When you assume yourself to be the mind,

You see everybody as just subtle images.

People have a difficulty understanding this subtle image.

Take your mind back to when you were a teenager.

Remember the fun you had with your friends.

Now do you see your friends in your mind?

They are subtle images.

You also have an image of yourself there.

You've forgotten that you're the person sitting here in the chair and you've become that teenager in the mind.

This is the meaning of seeing the world as subtle objects,

Full of subtle images.

But immediately become aware,

Become the awareness or the witness.

Right now,

The way you are sitting,

The way the book is in front of you,

The pen is,

The hand is.

Observe your breath.

Be a witness to the body.

You notice the moment you perceive it,

There is a natural distancing happening.

Similarly,

Observe the thoughts,

The perception of the sound of this voice,

The perception of sight on the computer and see there's a natural distancing happening the moment you perceive it.

Recognise yourself as the field of awareness,

As the field of consciousness or the self or the knowing presence.

You see everyone else as the field of awareness.

That is the explanation only for the first sentence.

So I'll read that sentence again.

If the idea,

I am the body is accepted,

The cells are multiple.

The state in which this idea vanishes is the self since in that state there are no other objects.

And the moment you take that step behind,

You become the witness,

You become the awareness,

There are no physical objects,

There are no mental objects.

So that idea vanishes there.

It is for this reason that the self is regarded as one only.

In that state of awareness,

When you are in the state of knowing presence,

Even right now the knowing presence is there.

Can you say that the knowing presence has a border?

Can you demarcate your knowing presence?

I can see everything,

I can hear everything,

I can touch,

Taste,

Smell.

I am aware of everything in the so-called waking dream and I am aware of the thoughts and feelings and sensations arising in this body and mind.

Everything is that field of awareness.

I cannot draw a line and say that it is personal.

I cannot say it is mine.

It is an infinite field.

Can you divide infinity?

So that is why it is that it is one self.

Do you remember the question?

Why is it one self?

Why is it not personal individual selves?

That was the question.

It is infinite.

It is one single field of infinity.

I cannot divide it.

For example,

Space is the same.

The space here in Germany,

Is this space different from the space in America,

The space in India,

Space in Australia?

Space is space.

You cannot divide it.

Whatever you do,

You cannot divide space.

Just like that.

This awareness,

This knowingness cannot be divided.

I am recognizing it only through these peepholes.

These peepholes are not just these two eyes but eyes,

Ears,

All my five senses,

Touch,

Taste,

Smell.

Through these,

I peep out into this dream world.

It is a waking dream world.

I experience it through these peepholes.

Who is this eye?

Look,

Is there an individual eye?

I cannot find an individual eye.

It is a field of knowingness and awareness,

A presence like the space.

It cannot be divided.

It cannot be embodied.

I cannot say it is inside this body and that's why I cannot say there are multiple selves.

It's not possible.

It is for this reason that the self is regarded as one only.

Since the body itself does not exist in the natural outlook of the real self but only in the extroverted outlook of the mind which is deluded by the power of illusion,

To call self the space of consciousness,

Dehi is wrong.

We go back to our dream example to understand the meaning of extroverted outlook.

When I am dreaming,

I forget myself and I project a dream character.

That is who I am in the dream.

Do you notice,

Even in the dream,

You have to experience the dream world through the eyes and ears and the nose and the tongue and skin of this dream character.

So you have to project yourself as a dream character through the five limited senses only you can experience the dream world.

Very clear?

So let's say this is consciousness.

Consciousness forgets itself.

It projects itself as a mind first.

First there is no body.

It just projects itself as the mind.

There is no physical body in the extroverted outlook of the consciousness.

Extroverted outlook simply means in its projection,

In its way of projecting outwards.

So consciousness projects the mind.

The mind now comes up with some idea and projects a physical body.

So the extroverted outlook of the mind results in a physical body.

The physical body exists only for the mind.

It does not exist for the consciousness.

Is that clear?

Now we read that first line again.

First part of the same long line again.

The body itself does not exist in the natural outlook of the real self.

Very clear?

The physical body does not exist for the consciousness.

The consciousness first projects the mind.

Then the mind decides what kind of a dream and it projects the dream.

Same thing happens with you.

When you sleep at night,

Do you have a plan?

This is what I am going to dream today.

This is what is going to happen in the dream.

The dream is going to begin at this time and end at this time.

And exactly at this point in the dream the tiger is going to start chasing me and exactly at this point the tiger is going to stop chasing me.

No,

You don't have any plan.

The dream does not exist from your point of view.

But from your point of view what exists?

Your cravings,

Your aversions.

During the day you wanted to eat pizza.

You could not eat pizza the entire day.

You had no time to go out.

The delivery was not working.

The guy said no your house is too far away.

Somehow you didn't get pizza but you kept thinking about pizza.

Only.

When you wanted suddenly a pineapple topping pizza and then you wanted no cheese topping.

No no no.

Maybe this time only mushrooms.

You came up with different different and you are constantly consumed by your craving and you don't get a chance to eat it and you go to sleep without pizza.

Consciousness does not know the dream.

Consciousness only has got consumed in its craving.

Has forgotten itself.

Got consumed in the craving.

Consciousness goes to sleep.

Forgets everything.

Craving is there.

That craving gives birth to the pizza in the dream.

Very clear?

So the pizza is the extroverted outlook of that craving.

Very big words but that's the real meaning of projection.

How projection happens.

He'll explain as we go ahead.

The body itself does not exist in the natural outlook of the real self but only in the extroverted outlook of the mind which is deluded by the power of illusion.

The mind is deluded by the power of illusion.

Mind has cravings and aversions.

It's lost in its illusion.

To call self the space of consciousness.

Dehi means the possessor of body is wrong.

Suppose this is consciousness that is sleeping that has forgotten itself.

It has no idea about this dream character.

It does not coin a plan to bring about the dream character.

All this consciousness did is got lost in illusion of the mind.

It's craving.

So it's got nothing to do with the body of this dream character.

So calling this body as being possessed by this is a wrong idea.

Basically he is saying to call the consciousness as Dehi.

The possessor of the body is wrong.

There are two kinds of wrong understandings.

First wrong understanding is consciousness is embodied.

Embodied means what?

This is a physical body.

Inside that there is a smaller mind and inside the mind there is a small little consciousness.

That is the meaning of consciousness is embodied.

The second misconception on the path of Dvaita is that consciousness is Dehi.

Is the possessor of the body.

Means the consciousness,

Suppose whatever you are born at a particular time.

At that time the consciousness possesses the body and stays for however long,

70,

80,

90,

100 years and then it leaves the body.

So consciousness is the possessor of the body.

Dehi.

That is the meaning of the Sanskrit word Dehi.

These are two misconceptions on the path of Dvaita which is duality.

So he is just removing that misconception of this person because this person says why can't there be an individual soul?

His direct question is I am an individual soul,

You are an individual soul,

He is an individual soul.

Why are we one?

How can we be one?

We are multiple individual souls.

He has come from the path of Dvaita.

So,

Maharishi is helping him get out of that restricted idea of Dvaita path.

Next line explains projection perfectly.

The world does not exist without the body.

Can this dream world be experienced without this dream character in this dream body?

Look,

You have to come into this dream body and see through the eyes of this dream character then only you will experience this dream world.

So the world does not exist without the body.

Very clear?

The body never exists without the mind.

This dream character could not have come into this particular form without the mind having that kind of craving.

Before sleeping,

This person had a chocolate truffle.

The chocolate truffle came in a beautiful wrapper bag.

A very pretty transparent wrapper bag.

It's sitting by the bed.

He enjoyed his chocolate truffle and he was probably talking to his friends about space.

So the cravings have been generated.

That is the mind.

Those cravings are what led to this dream.

Flying in space with friends and because of the fear,

He wraps himself in the truffle bag.

Mind generated.

Consciousness has nothing to do with it.

Is this very clear?

So the dream world cannot exist without the body.

The body cannot exist without the mind.

Means the craving.

The craving of the chocolate,

The craving of flying in space with friends.

The mind never exists without consciousness.

We just did that in our self-exploration.

Mind is nothing but thoughts,

Feelings,

Sensations,

Perceptions.

They arise,

They fall.

They arise,

They fall.

They arise and they fall on the same background.

Just like waves arise and fall.

The mind cannot exist without the consciousness.

This consciousness is the field of nothingness,

The field of awareness,

The field of chunyata.

Consciousness never exists without the reality.

So reality is that Turiya Theta that we did today in our self-exploration.

What is the reality?

That the wave is not different from the ocean.

Wave,

Ocean are only labels.

What is the only substance there?

H2O,

Water.

Like that only.

Physical form,

Mental form,

Thoughts,

Feelings,

Perceptions,

Everything are only names,

Labels.

What is there only?

Just awareness.

Just consciousness.

And that is reality.

Turiya Theta.

So don't stop till you get there.

What is the reality?

For the wise one who has known self by diving within himself,

There is nothing other than self to be known.

Why?

Because since the ego which identifies the form of a body as I has perished,

He,

The wise one,

Is the formless existence consciousness.

The jnani,

One who has realized the self,

Knows he is the self and that nothing,

Neither his body nor anything else exists but the self.

To such a one,

What difference could the presence or absence of a body make?

When you recognize that everything is this Turiya Theta,

There is no separate wave,

Separate ocean.

There is no separate witness,

Separate pure consciousness,

Separate mind,

Separate body,

Separate world.

Oh it is all just one.

When you can start recognizing the one,

You have recognized the reality.

When you recognize that,

That person is called jnani,

The wise one.

And then when you have recognized that,

You just keep diving into your own self.

You know it is a dream.

For example,

You go watch a very emotional drama.

You are in the theatre,

You are watching this emotional drama.

For some time you lose yourself and you start crying.

Have you noticed?

You become one with that emotional drama and suddenly your friend or partner who has come to the movie with you taps you and says,

Hello what?

Why are you crying so much?

You wipe your tears,

Suddenly you are aware,

You are suddenly awake and you are like,

Yeah,

Weird,

Why did I get so consumed?

And then you started crying you know.

You suddenly awoken to your own self.

It is exactly the same thing.

Now you will not get lost so much.

The movie will still go on but you will know it is a movie.

Now you don't get so lost.

This happens with maturity even.

When you are younger,

You get very consumed.

When you mature,

You don't get so consumed by the same things.

So you have a taste of what I am seeing.

It is exactly the same thing when you recognize your true self.

Everything will continue.

Husband,

Wife,

Parent,

Child,

Everything will continue.

Boss,

Job,

Money,

Everything will be there.

But now I do not get consumed in this.

I don't let it pull me away.

That is the only difference that will happen.

That state is called jnana and that person is the wise one,

He is a jnani.

Now when you recognize,

It is a dream.

Does the dream continue?

Tell me in the night when you wake up suddenly,

What happens to the dream?

Okay,

It was a dream.

Do you feel equally fearful again if the dream starts now?

You don't really go back into the full dreaming state.

You are kind of awake,

Lucid dreaming.

Now you don't feel the same intensity that you were feeling earlier.

The same thing will happen.

Now that intensity,

The way the world was actually pulling me away and I was getting depressed and angry and hateful and fully pulled into emotional drama.

Now it does not consume me.

It does not bother me.

I know this is a dream.

It is not to be taken very seriously.

So,

From the dream world,

You start recognizing this waking world is also a dream.

Now you don't get consumed.

So now it doesn't matter to you whether the body is there or not.

Because now you recognize I am the witness.

So,

This is also now just a pointer in that direction.

Sense of I am good,

The sense of being.

I am the presence and the feel of noteness.

Next line is very important.

Please highlight.

It is false to speak of realization.

What is there to realize?

The real is as it is always.

We are not creating anything new or achieving something which we did not have before.

Please highlight this.

Nothing new is going to be discovered.

Sometimes the ego does not listen to this.

The ego says,

No,

There might be something.

I will find something.

No,

It's exactly what it is right now.

What you are experiencing as I am right now.

That is what is the self.

The only difference is you are wrongly thinking I as this body and mind.

You take a step back and recognize I am the awareness.

Nothing special is going to happen.

Even the body-mind does not exist without the awareness.

So you have glimpses of the awareness all day long,

All your life,

Every single day.

But now only I recognize the awareness.

First I was ignoring it.

Nothing special is going to happen.

I will read that again.

It is false to speak of realization.

What is there to realize?

The real is as it is always.

We are not creating anything new or achieving something which we did not have before.

The illustration given in the books is this.

We dig a well.

We create a huge pit.

The space in the pit or well has not been created by us.

We have just removed the earth that was filling the space there.

I will stop here.

Did I create the space?

Can I create space?

Look at space.

Can you create space?

No.

When I am saying I am digging a well,

All I am doing is I am removing earth.

I should say I am removing earth.

I cannot say I am creating space.

There are two ways to look at it.

I am removing earth and we assume that removing earth is equal to creation of space.

No.

Space exists.

In the existing space,

There was earth.

I removed earth.

Space was always there from the beginning.

Is this very clear?

If this is clear,

Then what he is saying ahead will be clear.

The space was there then and is also there now.

Similarly,

We have simply to throw out all the age-long sanskaras,

Innate tendencies which are inside us.

When all of them have been given up,

The Self will shine alone.

There is nothing to do.

Nothing.

Even saying that I have to get rid of sanskaras.

You don't have to get rid of sanskaras.

It's not like a doing.

It's just recognising,

Oh wrong identification with the body.

Because of wrong identification with the body,

Attachment to the body.

Because of attachment to the body,

Attachment to kip and kin of this body.

Oh,

You just wake up to the truth.

It's that simple.

You don't even have to remove sanskaras one by one by one by one.

No,

You have to just recognise this attachment with the child,

With the spouse,

With the parent is actually attachment to this body.

Attachment to this body means what?

I have taken the wrong stand.

I have taken the stand as I am the body.

Let me just correct the stand.

The moment I correct the stand,

I recognise it's just a waking dream world.

The body is just a projection of the mind.

The mind is a projection of the consciousness that is what I am.

The awareness.

I cannot stop this projection right now and kill the body.

It's not possible to kill the body and kill the dream right now.

Have you been in a dream in the night where you are dreaming and you want to get out of the dream but you cannot get out of the dream?

Yes?

Sometimes you just want to like,

Oh I don't like this.

I want to get out of this.

You are struggling in the dream.

You actually start moving in your bed.

You cannot get out of the dream.

You are exactly in that situation right now.

This is the phase when an Advaita starts feeling very stuck because he is not fully awake and now he is not fully asleep.

He is in the middle.

I am telling you beforehand,

Before you reach that stage,

Don't struggle.

You cannot get out of the dream.

It's pointless to even try to kill the body.

It will again come from attachment to the body,

Taking the stand as the body.

Very simple.

Again,

Just take that step beyond.

Be the witness.

From the witness,

Drop the I and be the knowing presence.

Just give up the wrong identification with the body and the world.

It's that simple.

That is the meaning of getting rid of sanskaras or innate tendencies.

I don't really have to work on every single raga and every single duetia.

It's good to recognise them.

It's good to accept them.

Acknowledge,

Yes this is wrong.

Why?

Because that humbles the ego and then the ego starts listening to you.

Yes,

I will follow this path.

I will choose good over bad.

I will choose right over wrong.

So,

At least the ego starts crumbling.

So,

It's good to do that exercise but recognise you don't have to get rid of every single raga duetia.

You have to just do one master stroke.

Master stroke is move from the stand as the body to the stand as awareness,

The knowing presence.

When all of them have been given up,

The self will shine alone.

Just like the space shines.

Just like that.

But how to do this and attain liberation?

Liberation is our very nature.

We are that.

The very fact that we wish for liberation shows that freedom from all bondage is our real nature.

It is not to be freshly acquired.

All that is necessary is to get rid of the false notion that we are bound.

Please highlight that.

There is nothing to acquire or achieve.

We have to only lose that wrong notion,

The false notion that I am bound.

When we achieve that,

There will be no desire or thought of any sort.

So long as one desires liberation,

So long you may take it,

One is in bondage.

This last line is important for people who start feeling,

Ah I recognise the awareness.

Yes,

I am home.

I have reached there.

I am enlightened.

Then they come and ask me,

Am I enlightened?

Why did you come and ask me this question?

If you came to ask me this question,

It means something is not clear.

Right?

So,

Again,

Read the last line.

So long as one desires liberation,

So long you may take it,

One is in bondage.

So,

You can only recognise it.

How?

If there is still that desire in you,

I want to be free.

I want to be free.

I want to be free.

That means you are still bound and bound by what?

My own false notion.

Nobody else has bound me.

My own false notion that I am the body or I am the mind.

The wrong stands that I have taken,

Those are the ones that are binding me.

I hope that is clear.

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