The Seer

Have you ever felt that there must be something more to life, something beyond our mundane experience of the everyday world? From our childhood on we are programmed to conform to the reality we perceive around us, the reality that our family and friends perceive.

We are conditioned to believe that we are only our personality, our thoughts. Yet, this is not so. The conditioned mind and structured personality are just a set of energies that overlay the original Self. Then how do we discover the nature of this original Self?

Jnana yoga (pronounced nyah-nah yo-gah) is a system of Self-inquiry whereby we gradually let go of our identification with the personality until the true Self is revealed. Just as Hatha yoga stretches and opens the body, jnana yoga stretches and opens the mind.

As we dissolve our description of reality, we realize the world is different to what we had imagined before. Life becomes new, fresh. We become more discerning, more peaceful inside. Insights and clarity arise more readily and our lives become balanced and filled with Grace.

There are three main methods used in this Self-inquiry.

The first is called “activating the witness consciousness”. Our witness is our unbiased, neutral, eternal Self. It is who we really are. In order to cultivate our witness we consciously and deliberately examine how we feel, think, and behave.

With this, we gradually strip away our layers of social conditioning and identification with the ego. We discover that the mind and awareness are not the same and that there is an intelligent part of us that can observe our mind dispassionately.

The second method is to ask the question “Who am I?” The approach used here is normally a stripping away of who we are not, which leads us to a place beyond the mind where nothing remains to describe the individual being but the true, essential nature of the Self.

The third technique involves bringing what has been unconscious into consciousness. It is important to uncover and dissolve the hidden patterns wedged in our unconscious in order to be free of them, as the newness and freshness constantly coming to us from Source is blocked by these patterns.

Here we look at aspects of ourselves such as our unconscious behaviors, habits and addictions. We bring what has been in the dark into the light. It’s as though we have to understand the functioning of this human system fully before we can move beyond it. We own all of our parts, and then we let them go.

As we progress in our practice of jnana yoga, we take a step back and observe ourselves on the stage of life, playing our role, like watching a movie on a screen. We are the actor, yet we also get to write our own script. Our witness is really our Divine Self watching the ego living life in this way.

The more we strengthen our identification with our witness and the less with our egoic personality, the more we grow spiritually. As this process continues, we experience an emptying out, a letting go of our attachments, desires, fears, and stories.

The more we empty, the greater our Presence and our love; the less we attach, the greater our delight and joy in the mystery of life; and the more we cultivate acceptance, the greater our contentment. We experience a “lightening up”. Indeed, this is the process of achieving “en-lighten-ment”.

Even a little bit of jnana yoga practice goes a long way to bringing more consciousness into daily life and along with it more clarity, peace and joy. The invitation here is to celebrate the process! How far down the road of awareness are you willing to tread?

The 10 Principal Aims of Jnana Yoga

• To activate our witness consciousness, so we are at once the observer and observed, noticing that when we shine the light of awareness on something it changes.
• To cultivate a habit of gracious acceptance for life as it is rather than resisting the things we can’t change.
• To let go of our attachments to outcome and surrender up our preferences to God.
• To come fully into our feeling nature, so we can be more present with our experiences and move through our lessons more quickly.
• To know that we are totally responsible for the quality of our experience of life and that how we respond in any situation is always our choice.
• To realize that we can have no peace in the present without healing our past.
• To appreciate the sacredness of life just as it is.
• To feel what it is to be a person of integrity, speaking truth and being authentic.
• To surrender our habit of control, so we can explore the frontiers of life’s mysteries, rather than remaining in the safety of our known.
• To realize that true joy is in living out our life’s purpose as an instrument of God.

~ From: Twenty Questions for Enlightened Living, by Julia Tindall, www.juliatindall.com/

We are now going through a time that calls for compassion and a centring into a deeper strength — a strength that is born of the Presence within us.

As we bear witness to ongoing adversity in the form of disasters (natural and social) it is natural, even for those not directly affected, to feel a sense of overwhelm or shock. What is significant is that we are all affected, even when we don’t necessarily recognise it. We are all affected because indeed we are all connected. We are ONE LIFE.

What is acutely highlighted at this time is the true nature of life… that all things are subject to change; even the things we have seen as our greatest source of security may be taken away suddenly or unexpectedly.

With compassion we can embrace a deeper Presence of Love — one that extends a presence of calm, guided by the knowing that life itself is eternal… and although we may cling to these bodies and objects we wish to hold on to… it is only love and the spirit of life that endures.

By gathering in Presence, whether in the silence of one’s own heart, or as a group, we may extend this calm to all those who are suffering at this time and are perhaps incapable of making an aware connection to their own eternal nature.

It’s a time to re-assess, to reconsider our priorities, to re-gauge what in our life has true or lasting meaning. As we gather our thoughts into a place of quiet contemplation we may also re-connect to the peace that is always here, underlying every moment… even in the midst of disaster.

Even in the face of tragedy there is an opportunity for true change… an opportunity to connect with the true nature of life again, to be freed of the burdens we have bound ourselves to through material attachments or indulgence, and to find the simple beauty and joy again of living in harmony with the true nature of our own being and life at large.

~ by Isira Living Awareness

Now is the moment we abide in primordial essence
luminous nature of mind
empty awake awareness itself
Whatever experience arises
pleasant neutral unpleasant
no need to change it

Whatever arises let it be
without judgement positive or negative
without past or future
without attachment or aversion
without affirmation or denial
without closeness or distance

Whatever arises does so
in the pure clear light of awareness
that opens into the very ground of being
Thus whatever arises is liberated

Now let it be exactly as it is
Perfect openness
Perfect space
As it is already accomplished
Simply relax into it

~ David Paul Boaz, www.davidpaulboaz.org

To be aware is to watch your bodily activity, the way you walk, the way you sit, the movements of your hands: it is to hear the words you use, to observe all your thoughts, all your emotions, all your reactions. It includes awareness of the unconscious, with its traditions, its instinctual knowledge, and the immense sorrow it has accumulated — not only personal sorrow, but the sorrow of man.

You have to be aware of all that; and you cannot be aware of it if you are merely judging, evaluating, saying, “This is good and that is bad, this I will keep and that I will reject,” all of which only makes the mind dull, insensitive.

From awareness comes attention. Attention flows from awareness when in that awareness there is no choice, no personal choosing, no experiencing … but merely observing. And, to observe, you must have in the mind a great deal of space.

A mind that is caught in ambition, greed, envy, in the pursuit of pleasure and self-fulfillment, with its inevitable sorrow, pain, despair, anguish — such a mind has no space in which to observe, to attend. It is crowded with its own desires, going round and round in its own backwaters of reaction.

You cannot attend if your mind is not highly sensitive, sharp, reasonable, logical, sane, healthy, without the slightest shadow of neuroticism.

The mind has to explore every corner of itself, leaving no spot uncovered, because if there is a single dark corner of one’s mind which one is afraid to explore, from that springs illusion…

It is only in the state of attention that you can be a light unto yourself, and then every action of your daily life springs from that light — every action — whether you are doing your job, cooking, going for a walk, mending clothes, or what you will. This whole process is meditation …

~ by Jiddu Krishnamurti

The third-grade sunday-school class was discussing “prayer”, and the children seemed aware that the way you end a prayer was with “amen.” Does anyone know what “amen” means, the teacher asked. There was a long silence. Then one little boy piped up, with appropriate, computer-age gestures, and said, “Well, I think it means, like, “send.”

Probably the most effective prayer of all is when we’re praying beyond words — in the still inner sancturary of the heart.

Anyone can benefit from silent praryer. Gangaji suggests: just pause and recognize the pure silent awareness that is already present within. Take a few moments just to allow your mind to empty whatever concerns or memories or projections of the future may be occurring.

Just let everything come to rest. However easy or difficult it was, you are here now … in the presence of That which you essentially are. And you can receive what is here. To receive that, there’s nothing to do. There’s a time for giving, and there’s a time for taking. This moment is a time simply to receive … no need to send anything to anyone.

Sitting quietly, doing nothing and everything happens by itself. No input is needed to maintain this life; this microcosm we call our body. The eyes see without any need of the effort to look. The ears hear, again with no need to listen.

They work perfectly smoothly and spontaneously all by themselves. Likewise the heart continues to beat without a reminder from us, the lungs, digestion and all the organs do their jobs quite uninterrupted.

Do we even give a thought as to how nutrients are broken down, get into the bloodstream and are transported around the body to the desired spot? Do we have input into how wastes are selected and carried away. Does the ‘me’ build the muscle tissue and bones piece by piece? Do we even know how they fit together? Can you explain the simplest actions like how to lift a finger?

If I were a Martian come down to Earth and inhabited this body would you be able to explain to me how to operate this body – even the simplest actions?

So why do we need the idea of a ‘me’ to function. On close inspection it becomes clear we don’t but the belief doesn’t just go away. What does this imaginary ‘me’ do while the rest of the body is looking after itself, sourcing water when thirsty, food when hungry. When hunger happens you may think it’s you that prepares the food to eat and in a sense it is since you have to locate and prepare the food – or is that automatic too?

Does the brain that put the food away after shopping already know where it’s to be found, without a ‘me’? When hunger strikes did you create the hunger, the feelings of hunger? Did you decide to be thirsty in the first place? Why is it that you like certain foods when another person has other tastes? Why am I lactose intolerant – did I choose that?

Do people choose the terrible illnesses and accidents that befall them? If the body is programmed to look after itself then why do I need to maintain this conviction there is a ‘me’ in control? And am I maintaining this belief or is the belief self sustaining giving the impression there is a ‘me’ doing it?

The sense organs receive energy from the outside and channels it to the brain that sorts it out in a meaningful way and creates the finished and ongoing conscious perception that is witnessed. The internal sensors gauge levels of nutrients and fluids in order to maintain the necessary balance, corrects imbalances, breaks and breakdowns. And it all happens spontaneously.

“Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes and the grass grows by itself.” Zen proverb.

~ by Roy Townsend, who was a much appreciated guest-teacher at Gurukula earlier this month.

In the 15th century, the cardinal, philosopher and spiritual writer, now known as, Nicholas of Kues, remarked, “In every countenance the countenance of countenances is veiled as in a mystery.” He went on to say: “In all things is shown the Face of faces, veiled and in a riddle. Howbeit unveiled it is not seen, until, above all faces, a man or woman enters into a certain secret and mystic silence, where there is no knowing or concept of a face.

“This mist, cloud, darkness or ignorance, into which he that seeketh thy Face entereth, when he goeth beyond all knowledge and concept, is the state below which Thy Face cannot be found, except veiled; but that very darkness revealeth Thy Face to be there beyond all veils.

“Hence I observe how needful it is for me to enter into the darkness and to admit the coincidence of opposites, beyond all grasp of reason, and there to seek the Truth, where Impossibility meeteth us.”

Nicholas obviously made the greatest discovery of all ,,, that to see the divine countenance is to see OneSelf and to recognize the ultimate truth. Ponder this whenever a new face arises in Awareness.

“Be conscious of this Consciousness — that is the only meditation one needs”

~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Deep calls unto deep: “Be established in me (your true nature which is the Divine). What makes a thing what it is, is its beingness. A thing becomes stable because of its beingness. Know me to be that beingness. Without me nothing can be, because I am the beingness. After having found it, feel devoted to it. Let your love flow toward it as the one beingness in all, as the one beingness which makes turth truthful, goodness good, beauty beautiful, love endearing.”

You cultivate this through constant meditation. I am not speaking of meditation as sitting cross-legged with eyes closed, or some such. Life itself is a meditation. Everything passing in our life is a theme of meditation. When you say “this exists” and “this does not exist,” what enables you to say it is that beingness.

That is what we are asked to adore as the one God. It is up to your taste to call it God, or the Supreme Principle, or the one reality, or beingness, or what you poetically feel within you as the greatest empathy you can have, the sense of beauty you feel as an artist, the great love you feel as a lover. In all these there is a substantiality of beingness. You sense it from your heart.

See That as your own central reality. You are constantly saying “I am, I am, I am.” What assures you of that “I am” is the light within you. “I am That” is just like saying “I am that I am.” See it as the Absolute in you. Thus, having found beingness as the reality of everything, and as your own reality, it is easy to see that the real in you and the real in all other things are the same. This is how you gain the secret of sameness, samyam. It will bring you great serenity, great peace.

Your true nature is divine, and everything is a manifestation of the Divine. Don’t feel agitated. Deep down the mind understands. The next time it raves, somewhere it will know that this is not the right thing to do and it will settle down faster than the previous time. Gently tame your mind by detaching yourself from the thngs with which you are infatuated. By continuous practice, you can make it learn to love everything as aspects of the one Being or the one Supreme.

By intentional detachment and practice steadfastly maintained, you will one day be able to make your mind fully in harmony with your vision of oneness (the unitive vison). Watch for the many tendencies to close down or become narrow in your vision. Instead, enlarge your boundaries and thus find your release. Only then will the functional reality of seeing oneness become a persistent way of life.

From Atmopadesa Satakam, by Narayana & Nitya Chaitanya Yati Vs 38, in Gurukulam magazine, Spring 2009.

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“Life is a mystery. A mystery so awesome that we insulate ourselves from its intensity. To numb our fear of the unknown we desensitize ourselves to the miracle of living. We perpetuate the nonchalant lie that we know who we are and what life is. Yet behind this preposterous bluff the Mystery remains unchanging, waiting for us to remember to wonder. It is waiting in a shaft of sunlight, in the thought of death, in the intoxication of new love, in the joy of childbirth or the shock of loss. One minute we are going about our business as if life were nothing special and the next we are face to face with profound, unfathomable breathtaking Mystery. This is both the origin and consummation of the spiritual quest”.

~ From: Jesus and the Goddess by Freke & Gandy