Gary weber one of the modern non dual teacher explains lots of practices for atma vichara or self enquiry. They are simple experiments which anyone can do. Here are some of them which i read about in his book Happiness Beyond Thought.
1) Just try to watch your mind and imagine that you have 3 buckets
a) Past b) Present c) Future. If you see a thought pertaining to the past like i was walking down the garden when i saw a snake , put in the first bucket. If it is about the present then put in the second one and if the thought is about future like "when i see her i would tell her about it " put it in the last bucket. See after a few minutes which bucket is more filled. You would see that it is more in the past and the future.
2) As the next practice try this. Predict what you are going to think in the next 5 minutes. You can see that you cant do that . But still try and watch the outcome.
3) Watch your mind and try to see how many thoughts are pertaining to you rather than about the world say about "India and pakistan problem " or thoughts like that . Try to count the thoughts pertaining directly or indirectly to you.
If you do these practices you would see many things about the mind
1) You are always in the past and future and not much in the present.
2) You have little control or predictive power of your thoughts
3) You have more I thoughts than general thoughts
4) Now for the "Who am I" approach . try this and try to feel the identity.
Suppose you have a thought like " I am Renjith and I am afraid of cockroaches ". try to go back to say " I am Renjith and I am afraid".
Now go back one step further
"I am Renjith "
Now reduce it to "I am".
At each step dont you feel it more intimately describes you . It is the way in which we are tracing our way backward. At each step you are throwing away garbage and going to your root .
Are you that fear or someone who is aware of the fear?. Which more accurately describes your identity
You can see that all the appendages are like the roles and identities that the ego is trying to create for you. Try this approach on your own thought processes.
Slowly you would see that you would develop the ability to discard thoughts whenever you want to .
Try this when you are in a distressing situation and you are filled with thoughts.
I cant resist to quote from Gary weber here as he explains beautifully the process of the mind and the real I watching it ...
"Think about a great desire that you have, perhaps for the ultimate ice cream cone. (Feel free to substitute your own greatest desire, if isn’t Rocky Road or Cherry Garcia.) Be aware of the desire arising, filled with memories of the past pleasure of eating a wonderful ice cream cone, the flavors, how it melted on your tongue, the coolness and sweetness and how it ended the craving. This great memory was followed quickly by your desire to repeat that pleasure. Now you want another, even better ice cream cone, perhaps a different flavor, or a larger cone, or another brand, more expensive or exotic, one that you’ve seen in a magazine or on the web. This is the bliss sheath (Anandamaya Kosha) in operation. Your intellect and ego/I come to the game, and decide how you will get that ice cream cone, how to find the money to buy it, and just how far you will go to get it (intellectual sheath/Vijnanamaya Kosha). You then remember where you’ve found the best ice cream in the past, and become frenzied and emotional as you think about it (mental sheath/Manomaya Kosha). Your hands, feet, voice, breathing, circulation, eating, swallowing, and digesting are then energized to get and eat the ice cream cone (vital sheath/Pranayama Kosha). Your body carries out the physical actions of getting and eating the ice cream cone (physical sheath/Annamaya Kosha). And then the process starts all over again, and again, and again. Was there ever a time in this process where you were not a witness to the cascade of activities and forces at play? Were all of these emotions, actions and processes what you were or were you the subject that saw or felt them occurring? Was there an “I am”, a witness there at every step? Which is most true and basic in this process, a subject who sees it occurring, a doer that carries it out, or an unchanging “I am”? Before, during and afterwards in the great ice cream caper, what was unchanging, real and everlasting?" Gary Weber
1) Just try to watch your mind and imagine that you have 3 buckets
a) Past b) Present c) Future. If you see a thought pertaining to the past like i was walking down the garden when i saw a snake , put in the first bucket. If it is about the present then put in the second one and if the thought is about future like "when i see her i would tell her about it " put it in the last bucket. See after a few minutes which bucket is more filled. You would see that it is more in the past and the future.
2) As the next practice try this. Predict what you are going to think in the next 5 minutes. You can see that you cant do that . But still try and watch the outcome.
3) Watch your mind and try to see how many thoughts are pertaining to you rather than about the world say about "India and pakistan problem " or thoughts like that . Try to count the thoughts pertaining directly or indirectly to you.
If you do these practices you would see many things about the mind
1) You are always in the past and future and not much in the present.
2) You have little control or predictive power of your thoughts
3) You have more I thoughts than general thoughts
4) Now for the "Who am I" approach . try this and try to feel the identity.
Suppose you have a thought like " I am Renjith and I am afraid of cockroaches ". try to go back to say " I am Renjith and I am afraid".
Now go back one step further
"I am Renjith "
Now reduce it to "I am".
At each step dont you feel it more intimately describes you . It is the way in which we are tracing our way backward. At each step you are throwing away garbage and going to your root .
Are you that fear or someone who is aware of the fear?. Which more accurately describes your identity
You can see that all the appendages are like the roles and identities that the ego is trying to create for you. Try this approach on your own thought processes.
Slowly you would see that you would develop the ability to discard thoughts whenever you want to .
Try this when you are in a distressing situation and you are filled with thoughts.
I cant resist to quote from Gary weber here as he explains beautifully the process of the mind and the real I watching it ...
"Think about a great desire that you have, perhaps for the ultimate ice cream cone. (Feel free to substitute your own greatest desire, if isn’t Rocky Road or Cherry Garcia.) Be aware of the desire arising, filled with memories of the past pleasure of eating a wonderful ice cream cone, the flavors, how it melted on your tongue, the coolness and sweetness and how it ended the craving. This great memory was followed quickly by your desire to repeat that pleasure. Now you want another, even better ice cream cone, perhaps a different flavor, or a larger cone, or another brand, more expensive or exotic, one that you’ve seen in a magazine or on the web. This is the bliss sheath (Anandamaya Kosha) in operation. Your intellect and ego/I come to the game, and decide how you will get that ice cream cone, how to find the money to buy it, and just how far you will go to get it (intellectual sheath/Vijnanamaya Kosha). You then remember where you’ve found the best ice cream in the past, and become frenzied and emotional as you think about it (mental sheath/Manomaya Kosha). Your hands, feet, voice, breathing, circulation, eating, swallowing, and digesting are then energized to get and eat the ice cream cone (vital sheath/Pranayama Kosha). Your body carries out the physical actions of getting and eating the ice cream cone (physical sheath/Annamaya Kosha). And then the process starts all over again, and again, and again. Was there ever a time in this process where you were not a witness to the cascade of activities and forces at play? Were all of these emotions, actions and processes what you were or were you the subject that saw or felt them occurring? Was there an “I am”, a witness there at every step? Which is most true and basic in this process, a subject who sees it occurring, a doer that carries it out, or an unchanging “I am”? Before, during and afterwards in the great ice cream caper, what was unchanging, real and everlasting?" Gary Weber
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