Nisargadatta's I Am That Session 14 - The Mind Part 2

Listen to Ektaji talk about Nisargadatta Maharaj's book I Am That. Nisargadatta Maharaj was a teacher who did not propound any ideology or religion, but gently unwrapped the mystery of the self. I Am That preserves his dialogs with the followers who came from around the world seeking guidance in destroying false identities.

Transcript

Questioner, Surely you see the actual world as it surrounds you. You seem to behave quite normally. He's having all doubts about Maharaj. Maharaj says that is how it appears to you. What in your case occupies the entire field of consciousness is a mere speck in mind. Wait there. What occupies your entire field of consciousness? This waking state. This occupies your entire field of consciousness. So for you, That black dot is all you know. All you are consumed with. For Maharaj, It is just that small speck. It is just a small dot because he has taken the stand of the Paramakash. The world lasts but for a moment. It is your memory that makes you think that the world continues. Myself, I don't live by memory. I see the world as it is. A momentary appearance in consciousness. Why? Because he's constantly at the level of pure consciousness or primordial awareness. He's not at the level of this body-mind. Right now, You can notice this. Your hands are moving. You're making notes. You're writing. You're drawing. You're looking through the eyes. But you can really see that there is a part of you that is not doing anything. That is just witnessing. Yes. That is the witness consciousness. Stay there. Stay there. Stay there longer and you will notice that you get thrown automatically into that field of Paramakash where you notice the witness consciousness drop with the perception of body and mind and again arise with the next. You yourself can notice this falling and arising again and again. When this falls, There is no sense of I. It's just a void. When this arises, That is the time that is I am witnessing something. I am knowing something. When you notice that there are moments there's nothing to notice, The I also drops and there is just the void. You are in Paramakash. You might get a glimpse of this but Maharaj has taken a firm stand there. Why? Because he is not confused like you. He does not consider himself to be the body and mind. He knows that the body and mind operate automatically. I do not have to do something. I do not have to think. I do not have to be. It is an automatic program that works on its own. You are not ready to accept this truth. That is why you suffer. Maharaj knows this truth and has gone beyond all suffering. So the cause of the suffering is not the world. The cause of the suffering is I have forgotten I am Paramakash and I have fooled myself that I am doing. I am thinking. I am making this decision. I am making this happen in life. If I was not there then how would it happen? This whole assumption is the cause of your suffering. So why does this happen? Because it is your memory that makes you think that the world continues. Myself, I don't live by memory. So till now, Till this chapter Maharaj kept saying that I am separate. The body functions automatically. Now he is telling you I am not only separate from the body, I am separate from the mind and memory also. The mind functions automatically. The mind thinks. It makes its decisions. It drives certain solutions. It does its thing when it's required. I stand apart from that. That is why he does not live by memory. Very clear? What is our problem? We are stuck here at body-mind, No? No, I am the body and the mind. I have to do. If I don't do, It will not happen. Yes, This is the firm belief and because of this belief, I start assuming everything is continuous. The world is continuous. It is my memory that is making everything continuous. So he says, The world lasts but for a moment. It is your memory that makes you think that the world continues. Every morning you wake up, You wake up into the same memory. Have you noticed? You have held on to the memory of yesterday, The day before, The day before that, All the way up to n number of days. Maharaj wakes up every day fresh and new. No memory. No holding on to anything. It is your memory that makes you feel that Ekta is speaking continuously for the past 40 minutes. If you really go to see, There is no past and there is no future. Every sentence, Every word is happening in the now. There is just the now. There is no past, There is no future. Then how can there be anything called memory or imagination? Not applicable only. If again and again and again you recognize the now, You are the now. You don't have to recognize the now. You be the now. That is how you disassociate from this wrong understanding of I am the body, I am the mind. I have to hold on to this idea. I have to hold on to this. This memory creates continuity. I see the world as it is. A momentary appearance in consciousness. So what is momentary? Moment to moment it is the now. It is again the now. It's again the now. It's again the now. There is only the now. I can only experience the world for a moment. I cannot experience beyond this moment. So the world is momentary. You don't have to be in the now. He's telling you to go forward and be the now. There's a difference to be in the now and to be the now. So he says I see the world as it is. A momentary appearance in consciousness. So the questioner asks, In your consciousness? Maharaj says all idea of me and mine, Even of I am, Is in consciousness. Everything is inside the circle, The big circle. Everything is in pure consciousness. Even the small circle which is the sense of I am or the witness consciousness is inside pure consciousness. Clear? So I'll read that again. All idea of me and mine. Me and mine is the small black dot. Body mind world. Even of I am. I am is the witness, The circle around it, Is in consciousness. The bigger circle, The biggest circle. Questioner, Is then your absolute being, Paramakash, Unconsciousness? Very valid question, No? It cannot be known. So is it unconsciousness? Maharaj says the idea of unconsciousness exists in consciousness only. Unconsciousness cannot be something outside, Something different. There is no outside. Can we go outside space? There is space here in this room in Germany, It is there in that room in India, It is there in that room in US. Is this space different? We all exist in this space. Come let's make a journey to something called un-space. Is it possible? Even the idea of un-space exists in space? It's just an idea. This idea of unconsciousness exists only in consciousness. Means there is nothing outside this ocean of consciousness. The fish cannot live outside the water. There is nothing outside the ocean for the fish. Then how do you know you are in the supreme state? Maharaj says because I am in it. It is the only natural state. He says can you describe it? Says only by negation, As uncaused. Means there is no cause for it. Uncaused. Independent means it is not dependent on something else. It is independent. It stands alone by itself. It is unrelated. It's not related to the world, It's not related to the witness consciousness, Not related to the sense of I am, Not related to anything. It's unrelated. Undivided. Just like the space cannot be divided, That pure consciousness cannot be divided. This uncomposed means it is not organized. Unshakable. Cannot be shaken, Cannot be moved. Unquestionable. You cannot have a doubt about it once you're there. Unquestionable. Unreachable by effort. I'm going to get there, I'm going to get there. No. Who's going to get there? Who's saying I? Who's saying I? It's the black dot. Black dot is the body-mind world. Till the time I want to get it, I want to get it. That mind is feverish, You cannot get it. So it is unreachable by effort. Only when you drop the doing, The kartabhaav drops, Then only can you be a drishta. Only when the doership drops, Can you be a witness. Witness means not doing, Just being. So by effort, I cannot get there because effort belongs to doership. Just being, Just being. Not doing is also an effort. Remember this. Not doing is also an effort. So we're not talking about not doing here. By just being the drishta. So literal translation of drishta is seer, The one who sees, The one who witnesses. Just being the witness. Every positive definition is from memory and therefore inapplicable. Everything that you hear from the scriptures, All is your memory. So it is going to be inapplicable because you cannot really describe the void. You cannot describe nothingness. You cannot describe shunyata. And yet my state is supremely actual and therefore possible, Realizable, Attainable. I guess the questioner is totally stumped here. He says, Are you not immersed timelessly in an abstraction? Abstraction is lost in your Alice in Wonderland stories, All your ideas, All your own manohar kahani ki duniya. Aren't you lost in your own ideas? So he says, Abstraction is mental and verbal and disappears in sleep or swoon. It reappears in time. I am in my own state, Swaroopa, Timelessly in the now. Past and future are in the mind only. I am now. See his words. He's not saying, I am in the now. He says, I am now. So he's telling you why it is not just an idea. A lot of people have doubts on the path. Really? Is there something like enlightenment? Will I ever get there? Maybe they are just doing time pass, You know, Keeping us busy. Maybe there's nothing like that. So the mind can go on its own doubting journey. That's probably what happened to the questioner. He went on his own doubtful journey and he asked, Maharaj, Aren't you lost in your own ideas, In your own imaginative world? Maharaj says, Imagination lasts only till a certain amount of time. It's gone in sleep, In swoon. But this lasts even in sleep. So for those fortunate ones here who have reached this stage where you have learned to be just that witness and now you have managed to take one step beyond and observe the witness collapse along with the witnessed object, For those fortunate people, This particular paragraph is that you will notice that that state lasts even in sleep. You see the body-mind sleeping. You see the witness is resting. But this Paramakash is always there. You are witnessing that the witness is asleep. You are that void. The I being the body-mind and the witness, I being that experience has dropped. So he says that is called Svarupa. That is the true nature and it is timelessly in the now. He says, I am now.

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