'When the mind appears every morning don't jump to the usual conclusion, 'This is me; these thoughts are mine'. Instead, watch these thoughts come and go without identifying with them in any way. If you can resist the impulse to claim each and every thought as your own, you will come to a startling conclusion: you will discover that you are the consciousness in which the thoughts appear and disappear. You will discover that this thing called mind only exists when thoughts are allowed to run free. Like the snake which appears in the rope, you will discover that the mind is only an illusion which appears through ignorance or misperception.
You want some experience which will convince you that what I am saying is true. You can have that experience if you give up your life-long habit of inventing an 'I' which claims all thoughts as 'mine'. Be conscious of yourself as consciousness alone, watch the thoughts come and go. Come to the conclusion, by direct experience, that you are really consciousness itself, not its ephemeral contents.'
~ Annamalai Swami, Living by the Words of Bhagavan
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4 comments:
extremely powerful and beautiful. the path in a nutshell.
'The individual who enquires into his real nature, "Who Am I?", will die as the I-less Self.'
-- 388 GVK.
my comment is more of a question. When I inquire "to whome is this thought?" I will be aware that the thought itself disolves into nothing and also I become aware of my heart. When I am in this awareness what am I supposed to do next? Because I notice more thoughts try and make their way through this silence. I am quite new at this but my whole life is dedicated to finding who I truly am. It all really started when the kundalini serpent made its journey up the spine and the past 7 or 8 years I battled alot of phobias and irational fears. I am really not sure what to do next.
Chris, I am not any kind of expert on self-enquiry and only post out of a great love for Bhagavan.
Your conviction that your whole life is now dedicated to finding out who you truly are is clearly wonderful. Annamalai Swami said, “The human body is the only vehicle in which it is very convenient to realize the unmanifest Self. With the body and the mind we can investigate and discover the reality which remains unaffected by the body and the mind.”
So let us make the best possible use of having been given a human body!
My understanding is that we are to persist with the enquiry process no matters what arises. For as long as thoughts arise, the enquiry should be done, and this is the most direct path to realizing the Self.
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