3. Know The Knower Of The Mind

This audio is the third in the series of the Eight Steps to Self-Realization. In the beginning stages of meditation, you focus on the breath or a mantra but to advance in your practice the focus moves towards the knower of the mind and breath, the one who is always there. So in the system of the Knower, knowingness, and known, or the subject, object, and relationship we start with the obvious which is the known or object such as breath or mantra and then turn the attention to the Knower.

Transcript

Satsang Podcast by Sri Know the knower of your mind.

We are progressing now from the first talk two podcasts ago,

Which I gave you the eight steps to self-realization.

On the last podcast that I recorded,

I spoke about know the peace in deep sleep,

That peace is unchanging and mind is changing.

So from that first step,

We get the sense that every night when you're in deep sleep,

There's peace.

But as soon as the mind is activated in the waking state,

Then the vrittis,

The waves of perception,

The thoughts,

The ideas,

They begin to become real for you.

But for the meditator,

For the one who is watching,

You can become aware of yourself as the one who is knowing the mind.

That's the first step in becoming free from the mind,

Because the mind borrows the power from its source,

From the self.

The mind is an instrument that the self uses to perceive the world.

So the power is there,

The self is unchanging,

And the mind,

The instrument of the human being,

Now uses that power and begins to generate thoughts,

Ideas,

Desires.

And the way the mind functions is that a desire is generated and the mind thinks about it,

Analyzes it,

Dwells on it,

Possibly ruminates about it over and over again until that desire is fulfilled.

Because the mistaken idea of the mind is that satisfaction,

Ease,

Comfort will only come when these desires of the mind are fulfilled.

So in deep sleep,

There are no desires.

There's just peace.

Then we say,

Or you say that you awoke,

And the mind comes in,

And now the mind starts to generate all of the situations from the day before,

Possibly things in the past that have not been solved,

Things that you're looking into the future,

Possibly that are work-related,

Possibly family-related.

Whatever they are,

This is what the mind will begin to generate.

What you need to do,

What you have to stop doing,

And so on and so forth.

So as the meditator,

Now we become aware of this mind,

And we make the distinction between the mind and the knower.

So you are the one who is knowing your mind.

So as you begin to know your mind,

To watch your mind,

You can become aware of this mechanism of the mind that generates thoughts and desires.

So the desire might be that if I have a new house,

A better place to live that doesn't have these neighbors that are disturbing me,

That doesn't have the cramped feeling possibly that I have at this house,

Then some satisfaction,

Some ease will happen in my life.

So then the quest would go on,

Say to contact various different realtors,

To look around at various different houses,

To try to find the perfect place.

And when one gets involved in this endeavor to look for a place to live,

One finds that sometimes things go smoothly and you're seeing places that are nice and the deals can go quite easily,

And other times you get your hopes up,

Something looks good,

You possibly offer a price and then that price isn't accepted,

You can't get the financing,

It's out of your price range,

You find something that you really like but it's not in your price range,

Or the timing isn't working for you.

So many things can happen,

But as you observe the mind and as you observe this waking state and what's going on,

You can see that the mind has now set it up that somehow I'm not comfortable or you're not comfortable where you are,

So that something else has to change,

Some new place to live,

Some new relationship,

A new job,

Whatever it might be,

It's all the same mechanism,

And then satisfaction will come,

Ease will come.

But as the one who's aware,

As the realized being,

You've observed this since the beginning of time that you can remember how this mechanism functions,

And you're knowing now through hearing this knowledge that this mechanism is faulty in the sense that it tricks you into believing that when your desire is fulfilled you will be easy and content.

But as you look back at all the desires that you've had in your life,

Some that have gotten fulfilled,

Some maybe didn't get fulfilled,

But even when the desires are fulfilled,

The satisfaction,

The ease,

The peace is temporary until another desire arises,

And this keeps going on and on.

So as the meditator we become aware of the knower,

The one who's knowing all those thoughts and vrittis,

Desires,

Cravings possibly,

Needs and wants,

That the mind has set up that when these are fulfilled then some happiness or ease will occur.

So instead now we go back to the first step which is to remember that peace and deep sleep.

So as the knower of your mind,

You're knowing that you the knower,

You were there in deep sleep,

It's just the mind wasn't there.

So then only the problem arose when the mind arose.

So now in your meditation the second step to self-realization and enlightenment is to know the knower.

The mind may continue with its thoughts and vrittis and ideas and you still will do the best you can to get your desires fulfilled because this is how the human being functions.

This will not change.

But you will know now by knowing the knower that the knower is eternal,

The knower is pure,

The knower is free.

So by putting your attention on the knower you as if get some distance from your mind and know that you are more than your mind.

The very power of the knower,

The very power of the self is only being borrowed by the mind and the mind is an instrument.

But this instrument like an unruly robot that a man creates can become unruly and can start to generate thoughts and ideas and beliefs that are faulty and you identified as a name and a form and a body and a person believe that this is necessary,

This is the truth.

So it's a vidya,

It's ignorance of your true self and it's the mistaken idea that happiness will come through attachment,

Raga,

Through aversion,

Through getting away from something,

Dvesh,

And that someday,

Abhinivesh,

You will die so you are afraid of that happening,

That occurring sooner than you might think it would.

So this sense of who you are as the immortal being is there and that's why there is a sense that I want to live,

I want to enjoy,

I want to experience the glory of the whole manifestation on earth.

This is good,

Nothing is wrong.

The problem only comes when you become identified as an I limited to a body and a mind because the body is faulty.

It functions actually pretty amazingly well when you think about it,

All the things that can go wrong.

However,

Just like a car or any instrument,

Things do go wrong and then you have to fix them and the mind functions amazingly to learn so many things,

To be able to do so many things.

Certainly what I know for myself,

Being 54 years old now,

What I've lived in this lifetime,

Seeing as a child the types of radios,

Black and white TV that was just coming in and the telephone system which were dial phones in some areas,

You even had to speak to an operator first to get your number,

To the technology of today where everyone has their individualized cell phone that they carry around and DVDs.

I remember the times when we only had reel to reel tape recorders and now people have iPhones or phones that have recording and cameras and so technology has advanced a lot.

The mind has created so much in terms of ease and comfort for the human being.

I used to have to go and we see this in India all the time and pump your water from a well in places in India,

I watched them pumping their water,

Carrying it on their backs and then doing it again the next day,

Heating the water through wood and this is the way we used to live.

So many conveniences,

Hot water heaters,

Central heating,

Cable TV have come to us and this is all wonderful.

It's great.

We can use it all.

We can enjoy it all but the trick is not to get bound in it because again seeing in India families that have nothing,

Living in a mud hut with dirt floors,

Maybe they have a couple cows if even that for their milk,

Some garden for their vegetables and they're fine.

They're content.

They're happy.

So all those things as great as they are,

They're not creating happiness.

Happiness is an innate sense that was within the human being but it gets covered by all the desires and wants and we can see again in India these families that live that way,

They have wonderful extended families all around them,

Kids are playing,

People seem happy but now with technology and cable TV,

People are getting TVs and seeing how other people live.

So now there's a sense that maybe they lack,

That they want some of these things,

Some of these luxuries that they see other people have.

So we can see through these examples that contentment,

Fulfillment,

Happiness is not based on keeping up with the Joneses,

Not based on getting all your desires fulfilled although certainly we like to have what we want.

That's again the strength of the human being,

That the human being is capable of creation,

Capable of manifestation to experience the glory of the world,

The glory of your own creation.

So that's all fine to have those things but we want to watch,

We want to check as to where you get stuck,

Where you get bound in it.

So that's what the second step is about,

To know the knower of your mind because that knower is forever free,

It's never bound and to be aware of how your mechanism functions,

How your mind functions that you're sitting there possibly in meditation with eyes closed watching the space of who you are forever pure,

Forever free,

Just pure bliss and then a thought can come in your head of something that you desire,

Something that somebody said to you that made you feel uneasy,

Something that's unaccomplished,

That you've always wanted to accomplish,

Whatever it is,

The mind will generate those thoughts because of your sanskars,

Because of the impressions that have been created in your mind in your lifetime.

The mind generates these vrittis and you have a choice,

You can either go with them,

Believe them to be true,

Identify as your I mind and body,

As this person with all the struggles,

With all the joys or you can know the knower.

It's seen,

It has been seen by me that some people,

Things pretty much go their way a lot of the time so they have no desire,

They're not forced at all into questioning as to who they are until some kind of crisis happens,

Some difficult situation occurs and then all of a sudden they're shocked because they thought everything was easy.

So those people that have more difficulties in a sense,

Those people have more potential to know the knower,

So the churning that goes on,

The vairagya that goes on,

Which means that the person sees that the satisfaction isn't coming from fulfilling the desires and from living the life that the world and families have said that you should live,

Being born,

Going to school,

Achieving some kind of degree,

Getting married,

Having children,

Developing your profession,

Then having grandchildren and eventually retiring and then dying.

That is the prescription for a happy human being in society,

In most societies.

But for the meditator,

We observe that system and I know as a young child I observed that in my family and saw all the struggles and fighting and arguing and that that prescription that they were saying was how to live a happy life was not totally working for them,

So why would I think that it would work for me?

Why not working,

I mean they did okay,

They made money,

They struggled and they were able to acquire the things that they thought they wanted but yet the sense of ease,

The sense of peace,

The sense of freedom from struggle and arguing,

Fighting with each other was not there.

Every day seemed like a new struggle in some way or another and that's not what I wanted in my life.

I observed as a young child that I wanted something else,

That that wouldn't be enough to just make achievements,

Do well in school,

Have a career,

Have a husband,

Have a family,

That I wanted something else.

I wanted to know myself.

I wanted to know the purpose of my existence which I found out was to know the self,

Was to know that being which is pure,

Free forever,

The purpose is only for self-realization.

As that pure self manifested in so many varieties of forms and we can see all the different forms of life in the animal kingdom,

The insects,

The flowers,

The trees,

So much manifestation but it all comes from one source.

So the purpose is to know that source because when you know that source then you're filled with its power,

You're filled with its ability to know itself.

The mind can't know it because the mind is the instrument that's come out of the self.

Only the self can know the self.

Only the knower can know the knower.

Just like the example is given of the water and the wave.

The wave says I'm separate,

I'm a wave,

But the water is always water.

So when the wave dissolves back into the water then the water doesn't say I was a wave and now I'm water.

It's just all water.

So it's all self and as you know the knower,

You know that self.

So this is the secret.

This is the way to get free from all the changing thoughts,

Ideas,

Desires,

Ruminations that the mind believes it needs to get fulfilled in order for you to be happy.

And once that ego comes in,

The ego says I have to have this or I have to do that or else I will die.

That's how powerful that struggle can become of the ego mechanism which sees itself as an individual and either feels small and not good enough or feels overly inflated and thinks he or she is wonderful because maybe an award was given or some accomplishment was there just to the next time when there's a failure and on that level there's all struggle,

The success but then there's failure.

Things work well and then they don't.

There's gain and there's loss.

So as the knower of your mind,

You are free from the gain and loss,

From the fear and pleasure,

From the good,

From the bad,

From the right,

From the wrong.

You are unchanging being and that freedom as the knower is what we want to become established in again and again.

So in meditation we keep bringing the attention to who is it that is knowing.

Sometimes people have a difficult time with this but it's really very simple.

You just sit and watch and know you are the one who's watching.

You are the one who's knowing.

Amaramham Madhuramham,

Pure,

Free,

Forever the same.