Nisargadatta Contemplation - The Living Present

Listen to Ektaji's meditation on Nisargadatta Contemplation: The Living Present from the book 'I am That.' This contemplation is allowing the being devoid of thinking and analysis - simply diving deep into yourself.

Transcript

Contemplation Meditation from the book I am that by Nisarkadatta Maharaj.

Chapter 3 The Living Present As we do a contemplation,

Remember to let go of evaluation,

Judgment,

Analysis.

Relax and just let the world seep in.

You can do contemplation either with eyes open or closed.

The Living Present Questioner As I can see,

There is nothing wrong with my body nor with my real being.

Both are not of my making and need not be improved upon.

What has gone wrong is the inner body,

Call it mind,

Consciousness,

Antakarna,

Whatever the name.

Maharaj responds,

What do you consider to be wrong with your mind?

Questioner says,

It is restless,

Greedy of the pleasant and afraid of the unpleasant.

Maharaj says,

What is wrong with it seeking the pleasant and shocking the unpleasant?

Between the banks of pain and pleasure,

The river of life flows.

It is only when the mind refuses to flow with life and gets stuck at the banks that it becomes a problem.

By flowing with life,

I mean acceptance,

Letting come what comes and go what goes.

Between the banks of pain and pleasure,

The river of life flows.

It is only when the mind refuses to flow with life and gets stuck at the banks that it becomes a problem.

By flowing with life,

I mean acceptance,

Letting come what comes and go what goes.

Desire not,

Fear not,

Observe the actual as and when it happens.

For you are not what happens,

You are to whom it happens.

Desire not,

Fear not,

Observe the actual as and when it happens,

For you are not what happens,

You are to whom it happens.

Ultimately,

Even the observer,

You are not.

You are the ultimate potentiality of which the all-embracing consciousness is the manifestation and expression.

You are the ultimate potentiality of which the all-embracing consciousness is the manifestation and expression.

The questioner asks,

Yet between the body and the self,

There lies a cloud of thoughts and feelings which neither serve the body nor the self.

These thoughts and feelings are flimsy,

Transient,

Meaningless,

Mere mental dust that blinds and jokes,

Yet they are there,

Obscuring and destroying.

Maharaj says,

Surely the memory of an event cannot pass for the event itself.

The memory of an event cannot pass for the event itself,

Nor can the anticipation.

There is something exceptional,

Unique about the present event which the previous or the coming do not have.

There is a livingness about it,

An actual,

It stands out as if ill-imined.

There is the stamp of reality on the actual which the past and future do not have.

Questioner asks,

What gives the present that the present is the present?

Questioner asks,

What gives the present that stamp of reality?

Maharaj responds,

There is nothing peculiar in the present event to make it different from the past and future.

For a moment,

The past was actual and the future will become so.

What makes the present so different?

Obviously,

My presence,

I am real for I am always now in the present and what is with me now shares in my reality.

There is nothing peculiar in the present event to make it different from the past and future.

For a moment,

The past was actual and the future will become so.

What makes the present so different?

Obviously,

My presence,

I am real for I am always now in the present and what is with me now shares in my reality.

The past is in memory,

The future in imagination.

There is nothing in the present event itself that makes it stand out as real.

It may be some simple periodical occurrence like the striking of the clock.

In spite of our knowing that the successive strokes are identical,

The present stroke is quite different from the previous one and the next as remembered or expected.

A thing focused in the now is with me for I am ever present.

It is my own reality that I impart to the present event.

Questioner asks,

But we deal with things remembered as if they were real.

Maharaj responds,

We consider memories.

Only when they come into the present,

The forgotten is not counted until one is reminded,

Which implies bringing into the now.

We consider memories only when they come into the present.

The forgotten is not counted until one is reminded,

Which implies bringing it into the now.

Questioner asks,

Yes,

I can see there is in the now some unknown factor that gives momentary reality to the transient actuality.

Yes,

I can see there is in the now some unknown factor that gives momentary reality to the transient actuality.

Maharaj responds,

You need not say it is unknown for you see it in constant operation.

Since you were born,

Has it ever changed?

Things and thoughts have been changing all the time,

But the feeling that what is now is real has never changed even in dream.

You need not say it is unknown for you see it in constant operation.

Since you were born,

Has it ever changed?

Things and thoughts have been changing all the time,

But the feeling that what is now is real has never changed even in dream.

Questioner asks,

In deep sleep,

There is no experience of the present reality.

Maharaj responds,

The blankness of deep sleep is due entirely to the lack of specific memories,

But a general memory of well-being is there.

There is a difference in feeling when we say I was deeply asleep from I was absent.

The blankness of deep sleep is due entirely to the lack of specific memories,

But the general memory of well-being is there.

There is a difference in feeling when we say I was deeply asleep from I was absent.

Questioner says,

We shall repeat the question we began with.

In life source and life's expression,

Which is the body,

There is the mind and its ever changeful states.

The stream of mental states is endless,

Meaningless,

Painful.

Pain is the constant factor.

What we call pleasure is but a gap,

An interval between two painful states.

Desire and fear are the weft and warp of living,

And both are made of pain.

Our question is,

Can there be a happy mind?

Maharaj responds,

Desire is the memory of pleasure and fear is the memory of pain.

Both make the mind restless.

Moments of pleasure are merely gaps in the stream of pain.

How can the mind be happy?

Questioner says that is true when we desire pleasure or expect pain,

But there are moments of unexpected,

Unanticipated joy,

Pure joy,

Uncontaminated by desire,

Unsought,

Undeserved,

God-given.

Maharaj says,

Still joy is joy only against a background of pain.

Questioner says,

Is pain a cosmic fact or purely mental?

Maharaj responds,

The universe is complete and where there is completeness,

Where nothing lacks,

What can give pain?

Questioner says,

The universe may be complete as a whole,

But incomplete in details.

Maharaj responds,

A part of the whole,

Seen in relation to the whole,

Is also complete.

Only when seen in isolation,

It becomes deficient and thus a seat of pain.

What makes for isolation?

Questioner,

Limitations of the mind of course.

The mind cannot see the whole for the part.

Maharaj,

Good enough.

The mind by its very nature divides and opposes.

Can there be some other mind which unites and harmonizes,

Which sees the whole in the part and the part as totally related to the whole?

Questioner,

The other mind,

Where to look for it?

Maharaj,

In the going beyond the limiting,

Dividing and opposing mind,

In ending the mental process as we know it,

When this comes to an end,

That mind is born.

In the going beyond the limiting,

Dividing and opposing mind,

In ending the mental process as we know it,

When this comes to an end,

That mind is born.

Questioner,

In that mind,

The problem of joy and sorrow exists no longer?

Maharaj,

Not as we know them as desirable or repugnant,

It becomes rather a question of love,

Seeking expression and meeting with obstacles.

The inclusive mind is love in action,

Battling against circumstances,

Initially frustrated,

Ultimately victorious.

Spontaneity is a commitment to self-meditation in each animal.

The inclusive mind is love in action,

Battling against circumstances,

Initially frustrated,

Ultimately victorious.

Questioner,

Between the spirit and the body,

Is it love that provides the bridge?

Maharaj,

What else?

Mind creates the abyss,

The heart crosses it.

Mind creates the abyss,

The heart crosses it.

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