The Seer

Some people try to express non-duality by not using the ‘I’ word as they think it reinforces dualism and in a sense it does, but I found it a bit silly trying to talk without using it. All language is conceptual and so is not the ‘thing’. Words are just pointers. It does present quite a challenge using language although, of course, we have to. If you understand that words are part of the mind and both appear in awareness then there’s no problem. Awareness witnesses all.

The thing is you are aware of these writings right now. The eyes and nervous system processes them and a perception is formed. It’s awareness that notes them. Without awareness nothing could be known. So there’s nothing to become — awareness is already working perfectly well. Behind all the identifications is awareness and you are that. There really is nothing to become. Waiting for some big experience only delays the understanding of what is already and always has been functioning.

Mind loves bigger, better, stronger and faster. Everything that’s happened in your life happened in awareness. Yes the self inquiry is important. Ask the question ‘Who am I’ and watch the answers that the mind throws up — identifications. The mind is an object in awareness and it thinks in terms of objects — it can’t know the subject — you.

The original problem was when awareness became infatuated with objects, through the baby’s eyes, and became indentified with them, namely the ‘me/human’. At some point there was an intuition that something was wrong, but everyone we trusted convinced us all was well. It’s not a conspiracy, it’s what had to happen; just like you and I had to start asking questions. So don’t expect an event just understand that awareness is behind everything.

As you would have noticed self realization is also sometimes referred to as ‘the understanding’. The understanding is important and the inquiry shows the mind at work close up. For me, I did that while reading Ramesh Balsekar and I watched the mind trying to work it all out and come up with one identification after another. What was important for me was simply noticing that the real I (the I AM) was witnessing all this happening but even so it was still some time later and while reading John Wheeler that it hit me.

Yes you are awareness. And ultimately only awareness is. How would you know the words on this page without awareness? You just have to come to that understanding and conviction. You are not a human who is aware, you are awareness witnessing everything through the human — everything is an appearance in you. When this is seen it is the simplest and most elegant and uncomplicated understanding. Our ‘normal’ understanding of the world is way too complicated.

~ by Roy Townsend