Consciousness has many abilities.
1) Ability to be self aware and be knowledgeable about itself.
Pure consciousness being infinite is therefore aware of itself as infinite and without any attributes.
This is the pure "I am" feeling. Or we call it the pure presence without any adjuncts.
2) Ability to know other entities . It is obvious that the first ability is more fundamental than the second, since unless the first is firmly established the second cannot make sense. Also the first ability is more powerful than the second. However the problem with the second ability namely to comprehend other things comes at a price. Other things are limited in extent . They seem to have names and forms. So consciousness itself is forced to make a compromise. It has to limit itself to know other names and forms. So consciousness does a trick .It uses its power of imagination to limit its extent. This results in a limited consciousness called the mind. The nature of mind is therefore mainly to know other things. Therefore its vision is always outward. It looks at other people , other objects etc . Now mind needs to give the possessor of the mind some sense of authorship of who is using it. For this it uses a simple trick. It says the entity using me is nothing but the body. This is why there is a root thought in the mind " I am the body" in the mind, because it is the most easiest author found. It cannot say the author is pure consciousness since if it does so it would have the situation where an infinitely large consciousness comprehending limited things.
So the ability to know other things has modified the real author of consciousness into an imagined thought called "I am the body"(limited form of pure consciousness) instead of the "I am ".
Now this is why the process of self enquiry works in eliminating this fallacy. If we turn back and ask who is the real author , the mind yields to the pressure and forced to admit the falsehood. When it does so , all the thoughts also have to die. So it would resist this with all its might, because it is afraid that if we loose the mind , the ability to know other objects and interactions also would vanish.
Using this cue that the mind is tricking us , we can apply it into our ordinary life situations. We now that the mind's primary task is to know other things using a limited edition of the pure awareness. But it should stick to this task of comprehending the world. It should not take ownership of our identity. This is the only problem that we object to . We are alright with the fact that the mind is limited and it has to work with other objects etc. But it should not take responsibility of things which it is not designed to do.
We are in possession of a faculty called mind just like we own a house or car etc. However we are not the house or car. Our real identity is the source of the mind which is pure awareness or the "I am " feeling in us. We are the producer and experiencer of mind ,and therefore we are above the mind.
However this true sense of ownership of the mind by the real I comes only when we turn inward towards it. If we remain in the outward world of names and forms the mind will always have its power over us. An instrument is only an instrument and it would be limited in its interpretations and that is the root of the problems we face.
1) Ability to be self aware and be knowledgeable about itself.
Pure consciousness being infinite is therefore aware of itself as infinite and without any attributes.
This is the pure "I am" feeling. Or we call it the pure presence without any adjuncts.
2) Ability to know other entities . It is obvious that the first ability is more fundamental than the second, since unless the first is firmly established the second cannot make sense. Also the first ability is more powerful than the second. However the problem with the second ability namely to comprehend other things comes at a price. Other things are limited in extent . They seem to have names and forms. So consciousness itself is forced to make a compromise. It has to limit itself to know other names and forms. So consciousness does a trick .It uses its power of imagination to limit its extent. This results in a limited consciousness called the mind. The nature of mind is therefore mainly to know other things. Therefore its vision is always outward. It looks at other people , other objects etc . Now mind needs to give the possessor of the mind some sense of authorship of who is using it. For this it uses a simple trick. It says the entity using me is nothing but the body. This is why there is a root thought in the mind " I am the body" in the mind, because it is the most easiest author found. It cannot say the author is pure consciousness since if it does so it would have the situation where an infinitely large consciousness comprehending limited things.
So the ability to know other things has modified the real author of consciousness into an imagined thought called "I am the body"(limited form of pure consciousness) instead of the "I am ".
Now this is why the process of self enquiry works in eliminating this fallacy. If we turn back and ask who is the real author , the mind yields to the pressure and forced to admit the falsehood. When it does so , all the thoughts also have to die. So it would resist this with all its might, because it is afraid that if we loose the mind , the ability to know other objects and interactions also would vanish.
Using this cue that the mind is tricking us , we can apply it into our ordinary life situations. We now that the mind's primary task is to know other things using a limited edition of the pure awareness. But it should stick to this task of comprehending the world. It should not take ownership of our identity. This is the only problem that we object to . We are alright with the fact that the mind is limited and it has to work with other objects etc. But it should not take responsibility of things which it is not designed to do.
If we accept this unique fact that the mind is an instrument only and not the identity that we assume to believe , then many problems would become non issues. Sorrowful thoughts that arise etc are seen as just waves in the medium of mind and not as pertaining to the real author who is the unlimited pure awareness which cannot be affected. Many people find mind to be an instrument idea so difficult to digest and yet admit that the brain is just an object. If brain is just an equipment like our hand, why not the mind also?. We now know mind is after all some set of neural connections in the brain. So whatever thought occurs should be seen in this light only. The real self is prior to the formation themind and is the pure feeling of awareness.
We are in possession of a faculty called mind just like we own a house or car etc. However we are not the house or car. Our real identity is the source of the mind which is pure awareness or the "I am " feeling in us. We are the producer and experiencer of mind ,and therefore we are above the mind.
However this true sense of ownership of the mind by the real I comes only when we turn inward towards it. If we remain in the outward world of names and forms the mind will always have its power over us. An instrument is only an instrument and it would be limited in its interpretations and that is the root of the problems we face.
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