Thinking is not fundamental to us.
Being,
Presence,
Awareness,
Consciousness,
Different names for you,
The real you,
Is fundamental to you.
For some reason,
Thinking has been pedestalized,
It is ranked superior than anything else,
Even your presence.
Because,
The presence that you are,
The awareness that you are,
Is secondary in comparison with thinking.
I don't know how,
But this model of adoption is rampant throughout the world,
Throughout the ages,
Regardless of gender,
Ethnicity,
Geography,
Education,
Etc.
This is referred to as illusion or maya in the Indian tradition.
Thinking is a very powerful tool.
And we have to understand,
The unique offering that thinking brings to us,
Which is of abstraction and isolation.
Because of our mind,
We are able to abstract things.
Apple,
The fruit apple,
Now has a name because of our mind,
And that name corresponds to an image of an apple in our mind.
And we can communicate with each other based on concepts,
Abstractions,
Language,
Ideas.
You don't need an apple to talk about an apple.
That's the power of the mind.
The power of memory,
The power of imagination are all coupled with this abstraction,
That we are able to string things together,
Innovate,
Create,
Plan,
Strategize,
Solve.
We are able to organize ourselves into groups around stories.
Everything is abstract.
Yet,
We can communicate with each other.
That's the power of the mind.
And because no other species around us seems to have this mind-boggling power,
It's understandable for us to pedestalize it.
Just like we don't need an apple to talk about an apple,
To think about an apple,
We don't need a tiger to think about a tiger.
So the same tool that can be used for creation,
Communication,
Can also be used to create.
It can also be used for suffering,
Unknowingly.
All of us are endowed with this unique faculty that most of us are unfamiliar with.
Just to be able to manage this beast of a tool called the mind,
It's the power,
It's the faculty of discrimination.
To separate the true versus the untrue.
The necessary from the unnecessary.
The apple from the tiger.
The mind can operate without our voluntary participation.
The power of discrimination,
However,
Cannot operate without our participation.
Without our conscious participation.
So this beast has been unleashed without the leash of the power of discrimination.
Something that starts off as cute and harmless quickly turns into a source of intense suffering for ourselves and those around us.
If we understood that the abstract is not the real,
What we see in our mind is only an abstraction,
Which can either be from what we have experienced in the past as a memory or an imagination.
Still,
It's not real.
Understanding,
Deeply understanding this one truth about ourselves,
About our minds,
Can free us from layers of suffering.
Just understanding that what I see in my mind is not real and living the repercussions of this understanding will decimate our suffering.
As my teacher likes to say that the map is not the territory.
The power of discrimination needs to be exercised to separate the territory from the map.
If we don't do that,
Suffering is inevitable.
Below the threshold suffering that goes on for all of us throughout the day that is tolerated as being a human being.
All the way to intense episodes of suffering.
Most of it if not all of it is the result of this leniency around what is real,
What is not.
When I say suffering,
I'm talking about psychological suffering.
I understand life for every living organism is difficult.
But we are talking about something existential for us that goes beyond survival,
That goes beyond the challenges that life throws at us.
All the way from being restless to being a maniac because of our mind is what I call suffering.
Maniac as in what you and I deal with on a daily basis in our own unique way.
Yes,
There could be some of us who are medically diagnosed.
But I'm talking about the everyday suffering that commoners like us go through and all the variations of it.
Power of hatred,
Power of discrimination.
We believe our thoughts,
Unvetted,
Unrestrained belief in our thoughts.
A fearful thought quickly induces fear.
A hateful thought quickly induces hate.
Anger.
Disappointment.
Low self-esteem.
Jealousy.
Cruelty.
The power of discrimination is you the presence exercising truth.
And this power of discrimination can only be exercised when you stand as presence.
If you are identified as the body or the mind or your thoughts or your accumulations or your intelligence,
The power of discrimination remains dormant.
To stand as the awareness,
The presence,
Untouched by my words,
Untouched by the thoughts,
Untouched by the sensations,
Untouched by the perceptions.
Recognize yourself as the witness of your thoughts.
Even though you are hearing my words,
Recognize yourself as the witness of my words.
Witness yourself breathing.
Witness the sensations in your body.
Witness the questions coming up.
Witness the images coming up.
And remain the witness.
Don't become the thoughts.
Don't become the image.
Don't become a person or a personality.
Recognize yourself as the witness of the inner and outer unfolding.
Find yourself as the unchanging witness,
Witnessing all the change.
Just like physical space cannot be cut,
Cannot be burned,
Cannot be wet,
The space of awareness that you are,
The presence that you are,
Cannot be hurt,
Cannot be touched,
Cannot be burnt.
It has never been hurt.
It can never be hurt.
Find yourself as the perfect presence.
If you cannot be touched,
You cannot be captured.
You cannot be imprisoned.
You cannot be stuck.
Wherever you are,
However your conditions are,
Find yourself as this free,
Unbound presence.
Find yourself as this free space of awareness.
Recognize yourself as the one in which all experience is unfolding,
Internal and external.
All the words are appearing in you.
All the thoughts and images are appearing in you.
All the sights are appearing in you.
You are not appearing.
You are perceiving.
Your nature is perceiving.
You can't but perceive.
What appears,
Disappears,
Has to disappear.
Have you ever had this experience of disappearing?
Notice how my words are coming and going.
Your thoughts and images are coming and going.
The various sensations in your body are evolving,
Changing.
But the changeless you,
Has that changed?
Although everything is appearing in you,
It is appearing in such a beautiful way that it doesn't even touch you.
When you take a shower,
The water touches your body but you,
The awareness,
Is never wet.
No matter what you think of,
Positive or negative thoughts,
It changes the quality of your mind and body but you,
The witness,
Is unaffected by the so-called positive or negative thoughts.
Everything that you have gotten in your life,
Everything that you have lost in your life,
Belongs to the world of objects and perceptions and thoughts.
You are beyond all of it.
Find yourself as the witness in the changing experience and also between experiences.
Find yourself in the gap between two breaths.
Find yourself in the breath,
Witnessing the breath.
Just like a movie on a TV screen pervades every pixel of the screen,
Your experience,
Your sight,
Sounds,
Tastes,
Textures,
Smells,
Thoughts and sensations,
You pervade all of them and yet you are beyond all of them.
You are the light that powers this body and mind.
Just like the moon doesn't have its own light and it borrows it from the sun and pretends to have its own light,
Your mind borrows the light from you,
The presence,
And pretends to be in charge.
See through this illusion and reclaim your power.
Instead of losing yourself in your experience in this world of people,
Situations and things,
Find yourself as the witness,
Not the one that is involved,
But the one that is untouched.
There is nothing but peace where you are.
Suffering belongs in the misunderstanding,
In the misidentification with the body,
With the mind,
With the thoughts.
The invincible space of awareness that you are becomes fragile and vulnerable as a body,
As a mind,
As a person,
As a personality.
Find yourself as the perceiver that cannot be perceived.
You cannot be seen but you can be.
The mind is drunk with arrogance and pride.
The result is separation,
Isolation,
Suffering.
This arrogance is based on untruth.
There is no point in me telling you to get rid of your mind because mind is a great tool.
What I can tell you is,
Just like a mermaid doesn't exist is untrue,
But you can believe in its truth.
Just like that,
You can believe yourself to be the mind.
But when this power of discrimination kindles in you,
Not the power of discrimination to separate facts from non-facts,
This power of discrimination is very nuanced.
It's about truth versus untruth.
It's about who we are and who we are not.
And because it's such an intimate exploration,
Nobody else can do this for us.
The peace is ours,
The suffering is ours.
The real identity is ours,
The false identities are ours.
Just because you think something doesn't mean you become that in reality.
You can lose yourself in that idea and become that idea.
And the moment you become something that you are not,
There is suffering.
Although we have all learnt,
We have all been exposed to the Maya,
To the illusion,
Of our mind,
Of the beast power of our mind.
We have also been endowed upon with the power of discrimination to start the journey of disentangling ourselves as the presence from everything that we are not.
Instead of our life vibrating at suffering,
The more we disentangle ourselves,
The more peace appears in our life.
The mind creates the imaginary world of worries and regrets.
And we believe it.
We don't have to.
Find yourself as the presence outside of life,
Outside of the five sense perceptions,
The five elements,
Thoughts and feelings.
You are the light that powers life.
Life is changing,
You are the changeless.
Mind is changing,
You are the changeless.
People,
Situations and things are changing,
You are the changeless witness of it all.
You,
The presence.
Consciousness.
Awareness.
Thank you.
