MenoSundays; Life Lived Lovingly

Part of living Lovingly is to know ourselves. We need to do this to improve. If you visited on Thursday (Or, indeed, on Friday), you would see I touched upon this theme already. Today, I have decided to share with you, as has occasionally happened before, the post I was working on for Aatmaavrajanam which prompted that Thursday post. I know that some of you seek to 'meditate'. Meditation is the absence of thought, destruction of the ego...

If we are to Realise our True Nature, is it necessary to transcend all words and thoughts, i.e. the mind?

zBdSya*Ntyae> isÏ< mnsae=ip twEv c,

mXye sai]tya inTy< tdev tv< æm< jih.22.

shabdasyaadyantayoH siddham manaso'pi tathaiva cha,

Madhye saakshitayaa nityam tadeva tvam bhramam jahi ||22||

That which is known in both the beginning and the end of the sound, and also during the beginning and the end of thoughts, and that whichever exists as the Witness during the existence of the mind, That verily are you. Destroy the delusion.

What is it that 'knows' the words and thoughts, the passing of 'mind'? That thing is the witness self, practicing observation - saakshi bhaava. Sound (words) and thoughts are nothing but perception, fleeting experience. For convenience, the witnessing self is referred to as "I" - not to be confused with the selfish ego "I", it is simply that we lack language adequate to our philosophical task!

As thoughts arise and depart at such an astounding rate, we are inclined, in our absence of proper observation, to think that they are ever-present. However, if "I" take time to sit and meditate appropriately, different levels of transcendence start to bring the realisation that each thought is an individual packet. It has a beginning and it has an end, but "I" can only truly be aware of it during its middle phase when it is most prominent. In observing this, "I" can become aware of the fact that "I" am present in the spaces between thoughts - in their very absence, "I" still exist. Words are merely a consequence and reaction to thoughts, so let us dismiss them altogether.

With practice, "I" can come to Realise Myself as something other than thoughts and, therefore, certainly more than any material conditioning. To become this adept at self-observation, we must not engage with the thoughts. If we sit by a river, we can merely watch it flow past us, unaffected and detached from the water as it rushes along. If we seek to engage with the passing water, we become distracted by it.

Likewise, we must understand the mind to be a river of thoughts and in our sakshi self, simply sit and watch it. No attempt is to be made to touch the thoughts, to 'dip our toe' as it were. The minute we seek to catch a thought we are trapped by our minds. This is happening all the time. We become troubled by our thoughts and the words of others. Meditation is interrupted because we permit the outside in. Stay calm, meditate on! Reside in your sakshi self. Consider the nature of the beginning, ending and the intermediate phase between these points. Release them and see the space between where no thoughts and, therefore, no mind can be found - yet we find ourselves still aware. This is the Conscious Witness, the ever-present Self.

The answer to the question above, then, is yes, it is necessary to transcend our mental mire.

Meditation cushion available from Om YAM-yum at RedBubble