The
aim here is to find out who we are. Not as a person, limited to a mind and a
body. But who are we if we strip away our limitations, and stand in our true
glory.
I
know that this is surprising if you never heard of self inquiry before. That’s
because most of the time in life we see objects in the world. Then we either
attach our happiness or our suffering to these objects. Subsequently we either
run towards them or away from them.
These
objects can be physical objects like a new house, car, vacation, new career, or
a relationship. They can also be mental objects like thoughts that bring us
happiness or misery, new knowledge, or fears that we have.
The
reason I use the word object is because we perceive these objects as being
outside and separate from us. Then we think, if we can only get
these objects, or in some cases get away from them, we will find our fulfillment
and peace.
But
as we experience more of what life has to offer, we start to feel like a donkey
with a carrot dangling in front of him. If you don’t understand this analogy,
the secret for getting a stubborn donkey to move is to put a carrot on a stick
in front of him. The donkey chases after the carrot and never quite gets it.
Similarly,
we start to feel that we are chasing after the things that we see, and never
really getting the happiness that we hope for. We get married but that doesn’t
give us what we want; we have children, a good job, and lots of money; the Hawaiian
vacation was pleasant but didn’t quite give us what the ads had
promised. Somehow we never quite get the fulfillment that we want.
So
we wonder, “Perhaps the happiness that we want lies in a different direction.” We
start to question, “When by hit or miss we do experience happiness in life,
where do we experience it?” Does happiness come from the objects that we see, or
does it well up from our own self-nature, the place where we actually
experience it.
If
we can get a sense from our own experience of where our happiness comes from,
then we can start to see the value of self-inquiry. We see that the substance and
fulfillment in life does not come from what we see, it comes from what we are.
The
method of self-inquiry is to find the real subject of our experience. We know
that we are not an object that we see. We are the ultimate subject. But if we do
mix ourselves up with the limitations that we see it is time to inquire.
This
is like mistaking a crystal to be red or blue; that would be the time to separate the
clearness of the crystal from the blueness of the sky around it. If we were to
think that the nature of water is hot because we see boiling water, it would be
time to separate the coolness of water from the heat of fire.
Similarly
if we take our nature to be limited to a body or mind it is time to separate
the limitations that we see from the consciousness and bliss that we are.
Here’s
how you do this. First look simply. This is not a complicated intellectual exercise.
It has the same feeling of simplicity that resting in happiness has.
Second,
know that you do not see yourself as an object. You know yourself in a more
direct manner. You know yourself because you are yourself.
Third
you are conscious and the source of bliss. This is non-volitional
consciousness. To give you a sense of what this means, you are meditating when your mind starts to wander. About 10 minutes later you notice that your mind
is wandering. Here you did not bring in the awareness; you were aware the whole
time. You were aware when your mind wandered, and you were aware when it came
back.
Now
let’s say you fall asleep. When you wake up again you said, “Darn, I was sleeping
through my meditation.” You knew you were asleep because you are awareness.
This awareness does not depend on the presence or absence of your mind. So
shift your identity from the limitations of your mind to the open space of
awareness. This is the meaning of the statement, “Know thyself.”
Now
here’s the final secret for completing this shift from limitation to your
innate freedom. When you say, “I am meditating.” You are aware of the “I” as
well as the meditating. So even this thought of “I” is not you.
See
when people feel trapped in something that they see, like the state of their
mind, they certainly notice what their mind is thinking. But what they miss is
that they are also aware of the one going through this difficulty, the one they
are calling “I”.
So
the secret to finding your freedom through self-inquiry is to notice that you
not only see the object, the state of your mind, you see the one you take to be
the subject, and you see the relationship between these two.
If
you want to find freedom and happiness pull yourself out of this imposture and
return you identity to its rightful place as consciousness and bliss. You’ll be
surprised how things look from here.
I
hope that this blog raises lots of questions. That’s because when you question
limitation you will find your freedom. You will find that limitation cannot
hold up to the brightness of a curious mind.
And
if the comment section of this blog doesn’t work, please send your questions
and comments to michael@ananya.com. To
find out where this all leads go to, www.light-up-your-life.com.
And finally, if you enjoy these blogs please tell your friends.
Best
Wishes,
Michael