Seeker of truth has to realize the fact that, when one
cannot see into a man’s mind he can only say he cannot accept that there is a
multiplicity of minds, he can only see his physical moments but not his mind
moving. Hence one can neither accept nor deny the theory of multiple individual
souls. It is unproven hypothesis. To say that each mind is different is
unproved, because no one has ever seen the mind. One cannot say where it starts
and stops; no one ever measured its thickness, no one is aware of its location.
All is supposition, not proof.
There are two factors--the experiencing capacity and
that which is experience. The experiences are all passing away and are
therefore unreal. Without the knowing capacity i.e. the experiencer in
existence, there could have been no such thing experience. What is meant by
word experience? Experiencing implies two factors, the experiencer or the experiencing
capacity, or that which is aware; and the experience. Without these two factors
one cannot use the word experience. One
finds the experience always passes away.
Waking or dream are mere is only a seen or objects,
no matter how exalted it be. Waking or dream never touches the formless witness, but
formless witness remains always in the seen as its formless substance. It is
erroneous to believe that the more one thinks, the more he will get.
Thought
remains as a thought and gives you back only a thought not truth. One has to
become aware of the fact the thoughts arise only to the physical entity within the waking or dream. Thus
one has to trace the source of the three states not the source of the thought to
unfold the mystery of the duality.
One can only know an experience when
one discriminate between it and the state of mind when it was nonexistent just
as he knows a black by its contrast to white.
The only certain thing about the waking
is that it is forever changing; it changes into deep sleep and deep sleep
changes in to dream, no one can prevent this change it is happening on its own
accord. In contrast to the three states, the self or witness of the three states
is the only thing of whose unchanging character one can be certain. Through the
self or witness one becomes aware about all the changes in consciousness,
remaining itself relatively constant, as a standard of reference for them.
The term witness, Seer, Self is used in a non-dual sense, without reference
to the three states witnessed, absolute awareness, not relative.
Experience is present in feeling. Mind
is an experience. Feeling is a kind of experience. Experiences, feelings, will
are all modifications, nothing more. Even if it is of God, it is still in the feeling.
Birth, life and death and appearing
and disappearing apply to waking or dream. Therefore birthlessness is the
characteristic of the witness of the three states.
If by consciousness one means
awareness of the experience of duality, i.e. when waking or dream are present. Unconsciousness
means the absence of duality, not the absence of the capacity to know;
unconsciousness does not mean the nonexistence of that which disappears from
consciousness, it merely means that mind has ceased its functioning.
Finally there must be a kind of
awareness which one do not understand and which is still existent when the waking or dream
experiences are absent.
Analyzing between the formless
witness and the three states gives the seeker a key to analyzing all
statements, all revelations, all assertions, and all gods even. It tells one that
anything that can be made known by the formless witness is but an idea; or
illusion, mirage never reality and helps him to bifurcate mentally and realize
what is real, and what is unreal.
As long as a person clings to the belief in causality, he
will find cause producing effect. But when this attachment to causality wears
away, cause and effect become non-existent.
Consciousness usually means a
duality, something to be conscious of is implied. Therefore it is an unsuitable
word to indicate the pure objectless awareness which exists prior to thought.
The ego, the individual self is not the self, which is the Witness because it
often disappears even during waking as in reverie when one is lost in the art
and music.
v
Does consciousness mean a duality;
knowledge, knower and known? Does consciousness mean that which is capable of
knowing, non dual wisdom? Is one conscious of anything in deep sleep?
One is conscious of it only when he is in the
waking experience. Consciousness there may be with or without waking/dream
experiences.
The Idea of an object does not
prove the object exists. Ego is only an Idea within the waking or dream. The
ego, body and world exists together and disappears together along with
waking/dream. When one thinks of the
"ego" alone he is in the grip of duality. The formless witness knows the
appearance and disappearance of the waking/dream as a whole, not ego alone.
Trying to overcome the ego alone is
impossible. One has to get rid of experience of duality, by mentally focusing
the attention on the formless witness of the three states. The witnessed [three
states] appears and disappears; the formless witness is never known to be
appearing and disappearing. That which appears and disappears is not the
permanent.
People think negating means
negating the objects and they think that it is impossible to negate objects.
“They are thinking negating the objects as a person within the waking experience.
It is not so, it is the negating the three states, on the base of the formless
witness/soul.
Since
the three states are made of the same essence, they are non-different, but
appear to change. The three states are of the same essence as soul/consciousness,
is non-different from it but appears to change and be different from it.
One cannot say how the waking
/dream have appeared; only that they are and they are in the mind and are the
mind. When mind is there they are present. Absent of mind, absent of
waking/dream.
True Self is not this body, nor
this world; true self is the seer of both. The body may be moving within the
world in waking/dream, but the true soul or self, seeing the changes. The body is
born and lives within the waking/dream but true soul or self, remains as the
witness of these changes. Soul or self is the Witness, the Awareness.
Seeker of truth should not imprison
himself in his own creation by imagining the mind or ’I’ to be limited to the physical
body. Just as space fills both inside and outside of bottle, so the true self
or soul permeates the whole waking or dream.
One can't see the three states independently
without the true soul or self. "Time, Space and Causation" are mental
and present only in waking/dream. The essence of the three states themselves is
Atman alone.
Mysticism encourages people to be
lazy, to think the external objects are created by Iswara and internal objects
created by Jiva. Both Iswara and Jiva are man’s creation. Seeker of truth
should not waste his time in talks of Jiva and Iswara disputes; rather inquire
into the nature of Ataman.
There
is no such thing as knowing the knower. That knowledge implies two factors, and
the knower [soul/self] not being something to be seen, can never be known as
such.
When one speaks of relation, one deals only with the
known world within the waking/dream. When the known [waking/dream] goes, he
says that because he actually sees the known [waking/dream] going; but he can
never see the knower go. He can only say
"he does not know" about it.
One cannot speak of the known [three states] without the formless
knower. But when the known [three states] has vanished, there is nothing to be
said about the knower.
The act of conceiving in thought demands two factors. One
cannot conceive the Formless Witness, the seer or knower, because he can say
nothing about it, without making it an object. It cannot be pulled down to the
level of an object, the seen.
The duality of formless witness and the seen[three states] is not the same as
the duality of two things in the objective world within the waking or dream, for
here both are known and seen, whereas
there one is known; the formless witness
remaining unknown and all one can say of
it is "he cannot make any statement
about it. It is incomprehensible.
“If formless witness disappears, as does the three states
then one must posit another seer to replace it; but in fact no one has ever
seen its disappearance. One never uses the word formless witness without the
three states. It has no meaning apart from it.
Self is not a thing unknown to any
one at any time. Let a man think. As soon as waking experience comes, there
must be a knower there before in order to know that he is in waking experience.
The formless witness exists before
the waking appears or the thing is seen; otherwise neither knowledge nor sensation
could happen. The formless witness is always there. Even if one say it can be
reached only at the end of a long path, it is impossible for it to be ever
absent even while he says this.
The knower alone makes it possible for one to
know anything at all. “Though, thus quite self-evident, easily known, quite
near, forming the self, Ataman appears, to the unenlightened mind as unknown,
very remote, as though he were a separate thing. Those who do not look at the
seer, the witness, and perceive it is the only thing that neither comes nor
goes, are deluded, and turn outward towards things objective, which run away.
So long as one is ego bound he only runs from one object to another, from
one idea to another, impermanent and unreal, he ignores the Atman and is ignorant. There is no time for them to think
about the formless witness, since they are engrossed in their god, belief and
their own accepted truth or materialistic life.
Soul in illusion is called mind!
When illusion ceases, it sinks back as soul, which is in the form of
consciousness. . The essence, the substance or material of the three states it consciousness
the innermost self and innermost self is ultimate truth or Brahman.