From mindfulness to knowingness with Sri.
Four steps to knowingness meditation.
One,
Close your eyes and become aware that you are seeing the space that's right there in front of your closed eyes.
That space is free from all the thoughts,
Feelings,
Visions and perceptions.
It may appear to even be nothing.
However in reality the inner eye is observing pure space.
It's the light that you're not seeing with open eyes.
The light that's there within and alone everywhere.
Two,
If your mind and thoughts start to draw your attention away from that inner space,
This is not a problem.
That's the way the mind functions and you cannot control it.
But instead what you can do is gently return your attention to that space.
Doesn't matter how many times your awareness strays.
Simply put your attention back on the space whenever that happens.
Three,
Repeat the mantra.
So here you will learn this ancient phrase in Sanskrit which is a mantra.
A mantra releases you from the hold,
The confines of your own human mind.
This mantra is amaram ham madhuram ham.
I am immortal.
I am blissful.
I am pure free forever.
This will engage the mind and keep it from drifting away.
Since the nature of the mind is to produce thoughts,
It will sometimes lose its focus.
As you continue your practice the mind may begin to drift away even less often than it did when you first started.
The most important thing is to watch the space that is everywhere and certainly right there in front of your closed eyes.
It is the space from where all the thoughts arise to where all the thoughts return.
So you're just not mindful of the mind and your thoughts but you're mindful of that space and the one who's knowing or watching it.
So you're watching that space rather than watching the thoughts.
You do not need to use force or try to control the thoughts.
Just use gentle watchfulness.
Amaram ham madhuram ham.
Amaram ham madhuram ham.
I am immortal.
I am blissful.
So now the mind is engaged in this one thought.
Amaram ham madhuram ham.
I am immortal.
I am blissful.
Number four.
At this point become aware that you are watching the mind.
So you are the knower of the mind.
So you're the one who's watching yourself repeating amaram ham madhuram ham.
Amaram ham madhuram ham.
So there's a you as the watcher and there's a process of watching and then there's the mind which you are watching or knowing.
The awareness of the knower brings you into the state of pure knowingness and the job is done simply by knowing the pure knowingness.
You are free from the mind's thoughts whether you are thinking or not.
Consider the example of children playing in the courtyard.
Even though you are hearing their laughter and sounds they are in the background and you are not troubled by them.
As the observer of the mind you can treat your mind's thoughts in the same way.
Now you can know that the mind is not the master of you.
You the knower are the master of your very own mind.
At that time you can close the eyes and see that unchanging space.
Then you can open your eyes and remember that the unchanging space is always present.
You know that it is all your own manifestation.
So you can use the thoughts for your benefit without them troubling you.
So you move from being mindful to the knower,
The pure being,
The knowingness,
Pure,
Free,
Forever.
Om shanti,
Om peace.
May this peace of pure knowingness remain with you always.
You are the pure knowingness or knower that you forever are.
That's always present whether there are thoughts or feelings going on within your human system.
You are the one who is free from it all because you are the pure knower,
The pure knowingness.
One way to practice this is at night before you fall asleep and the mind is generating all kinds of thoughts.
Just tell those thoughts to go play somewhere else just like you can tell children in the courtyard to go play somewhere else.
You are not those thoughts.
You are the master of those thoughts so you have the choice as to whether to engage in them or not or whether to repeat.
Practicing amaram ham madhuram ham,
Knowing that knower is you,
The pure knowingness.
Amaram ham madhuram ham,
Pure,
Free,
Forever self you are right now.
