Clinging

Walking the spiritual path is sometimes walking on a razor's edge. Unless you are careful, you may easily fall . However if properly understood, it becomes very easy to follow. It's affliction to truth makes the journey illumining. In this way we always speak of clinging to objects as a great obstacle to happiness. Desires  arise in our mind and we cling to them. Renunciation is not complete or correct if the mental clinging doesn't go. Once it goes, the mind rests in its source and we experience the purity of consciousness.

Desires come in many forms. They are not just desires to obtain things like money, power and so on . It can also arise in the form of desiring for maintaining our life based on our view points , our own concept of life. It can also arise if we want  something spiritually satisfying, like realization , or spiritual powers. In upanishads they speak about the "Sakshi bhava". Desires and its waves need to be watched to be dissolved. A desire itself is not bad as it can arise naturally. It is the mental clinging that aggravates suffering . It is like catching hold of a hot piece of coal. If you don't let it go , you will suffer. Your mental agony is always due to this clinging to desires., not just desires themselves. Witnessing them is a way of letting go.

There is a zen story which illustrates this
"Two monks were returning to the monastery in the evening. It had rained and there were puddles of water on the road sides. At one place a beautiful young woman was standing unable to walk accross because of a puddle of water. The elder of the two monks went up to a her lifted her in his alms and left her on the other side of the road, and continued his way to the monastery.
In the evening the younger monk came to the elder monk and said, "Sir, as monks, we cannot touch a woman ?"
The elder monk answered "yes, brother".
Then the younger monk asks again, " but then Sir, how is that you lifted that woman on the roadside ?"
The elder monk smiled at him and told him " I left her on the other side of the road, but you are still carrying her "

So you can see the vagaries of the mind . It is always clinging to something. Some set of thoughts in this world. It could be about my child, it could be about my future , And when the thought arises in us we tend to work towards that. Our actions are oriented toward that. We use the Now only as a means to achieve future. Now is not important as compared to the future. However the spiritual practice says not to do this. It says please be in the Now as it is the only reality. When you do that there is no need for any clinging to any desire. There is no future actually in which anything comes. There is only this Now all the time. Surrendering to the Now is the way. When you are in the now doing actions, without concerns about results in the future , you are doing karma.

Have you seen people when faced with a dangerous situation act smartly. They may not be physically great or mentally powerful , but in an emergency they may act very bravely and intelligently. How does this happen?. It happens because faced with an emergency , you have no choice except to be in the Now. If you even take your attention away for a moment your life is gone. There is no time for thoughts about past or future. There is no time for stories. No concepts or view points can help. All it requires is your complete presence.  The same thing happens when you work with good concentration , you become peaceful since the mentating, idling mind does not have its power over you.


When your attachment goes weird it goes into addiction. You are bound to your mental object. You think so much continuously about the object that you act under its influence. You might think addiction applies to alcohol , drugs , smoking etc. No. Addiction could be due to many things in life. You could become a compulsive thinker. It is also addiction of a different kind. So understand if you are not in ease with existence, and are always thinking and lost in thought , you are addicted. It is an extreme form of attachment only. The thoughts are all coming and you are clinging so strongly that you are unconscious of the now. When a person acts under addiction of alcohol etc we feel bad, but ,most of us are also addictive .

This attachment is a great hindrance to the spiritual path. It is like getting entangled with a web of things while you are walking down the way. Unless you come out of the trance, you cannot walk. You cannot really come out of attachment by wishing that you dont want attachment. Understand the true nature of self. Who is wanting this?. Can you locate the entity that is seeking it ?. If there is no one really to answer then what is the point in craving for it?. This is the crux of the matter. The mind not only catches you in a series of stories about how good objects are and keep you attached , but also tells you about a non entity who wants them all. This is why Ramana used to say , killing the ego is a sure shot way of solving all your problems with one stone.

Ego creates separation first . Then it uses concepts , labels etc to name objects and entities. This increases separation. Separation brings in desire.When you see a tree , for e.g. using the egoistic mind, you are seeing a concept of a tree. Tree is seen as a separate object.When you see that the tree is standing on the ground and there are bees in the flowers and so many other interdependent things , you see the unity of all existence. Nothing can stand apart. If separation is not there , problems are not there. A realized one can see this harmony all the time.

"Monks, we who look at the whole and not just the part, know that we too are systems of interdependence, of feelings, perceptions, thoughts, and consciousness all interconnected. Investigating in this way, we come to realize that there is no me or mine in any one part, just as a sound does not belong to any one part of the lute."
-Samyutta Nikaya, from "Buddha Speaks"

Continuing Mediation into Life

There are many purposes of meditation. The most important aspect of it to get familiar with the awareness It is only using awareness that we see our inner world. But this is often neglected in our daily lives. It is sometimes compared to air. It is so all pervasive that it is not noticed. Only when we begin to appreciate it do we understand that all the objects are just appearances in it. Usually you are just knowing about the contents of the awareness. You don't notice the background of awareness. So in Meditation we see this background of awareness in which everything is coming and going. It is a sort of an awareness about awareness. You begin to see what  power you possess to witness all these and you are aware that you are aware.

The second purpose of meditation is to become knowledgeable about our thoughts, emotions, sensations and so on. Witnessing them from a distance helps us to see what are the most important thoughts and emotions that occupy our mind. How do we react to these?. What are my reactive thoughts?. How does emotion change my perspective?. How can you avoid reactions. By becoming conscious of them!!. The very fact that we are conscious of a reaction is to nullify it, since we clearly understand that we are not that. It is only a reaction that is happening in me and i am not that .

The third purpose that you have is to see the clinging to objects. When i say objects i don't mean objects such as chairs tables, car and so on. Objects are anything that becomes knowledgeable to us. So a thought is an object since it becomes perceptible. Now you can see that you cling on to many such objects. You might have a view about your life. It appears as a series of thoughts. You cling onto that diligently. A thought comes and says "If only that became true, i would be much better". You cling on to that since there are other thoughts which elaborate this and paints a beautiful picture .
There may be aversions and desires which you cling on to . All these clinging becomes apparent in your meditation. The remedy to clinging is "Letting go". Let go all of your clinging.

So you might ask. It is good that i can see all these in meditation. But when i come back to life i am worse. I commit the same mistakes that i did before.  This is also normal. But see now there is a subject which realizes that you are committing mistakes. This is a first step . To become aware that there is something missing in ordinary life when compared to the expansivity felt in spiritual understanding.
The correction to this feeling to live in the Now as much as possible.

The now is not a moment in time. It is the sum total of everything in existence. When you are awake don't you feel a presence ?. What is this presence?. Isnt it the existence of your body mind that you are realizing?. So if your body mind exists , doesn't the entire universe exist?. So this feeling of presence is not about a body . It is the presence of the entirety. Now instead of looking at your existence as an isolated fact begin to see everything existing. So you see around and perceive everything , the room in which you are sitting the air there , the space outside the window. The sky , the stars , the sun and everything. So the feeling of presence is seen and accepted. In your presence the inner world also is forming. You watch your thoughts , reactions and everything. Don't exclude anything. Include everything in this feeling of presence. Even the anger that you feel, the hatred , the love , the contentment everything is becoming known to you. Is there any thing missing from this ?. See how powerful and pervasive the now is. This now is what you are , You are not any of the small things that exist in the now. You are the entirety of the now.  So far in your life you always have taken a small part of now ( namely your body-mind) to be you. The moment you realize that the real now is what i am , you let go of all the small things .

Living in the now is the way to carry forward your meditation to your life. Open your eyes and see everything and just see them as they are . Don't impose your idea, view or concept on it. Just see it as it is. When you expect something you are imposing something on the reality. This expectation is only a concept . How can the concept which is a small thing in your mind be related to reality. Reality is what is happening now. It is already happening. It cannot be changed by your idea of it. It is like expecting a different climax to the movie that you are seeing. It would be far from reality to expect anything. Let go of everything that is not now. Appreciate the now as much as you can. Become conscious of everything without cluttering it with your own ideas or concepts or superposition.

Try to live in the now by applying it to your experiences. When you are cooking , when you are reading , become aware of everything. Become aware of the utensils, the color of food that you are cooking, the thoughts that are going through your mind, the smell of food , the heat generated everything. Feel the vibrant sensations and everything. Don't clutter it with anything. Dont get lost in thought while your arms are just moving. That is unconscious cooking not in the now. When you are in the now, you miss nothing and you also know everything as it is .

When you have an experience include the awareness to not only the external happenings , but also try to see your own inner thoughts , emotions and all. So the now is not just the happenings outside , it includes inner world also. By becoming aware of everything you are getting more awake.

When you sit in meditation and become aware of your breath or a mantra , it is enforcing the now. The breath is in the now. So by listening to it you are moving to the now. By witnessing your own thoughts and all you are moving deeply into the now. By not doing or not following the thoughts you are letting go of all objects. So sitting in meditation and living in the now is the same.

Is there anything apart from this now. A thought about the past is also happening in the now only. An expectation about the future is also happening in the now. Everything is present in the now. There is no reality apart from it. Space , time and everything is unraveled in the now. And you are this complete now without any exclusions. In fact there is nothing apart from you or the now.

Dissolving suffering

There is a common theme to all of  our experiences in life. Almost all of them are either pleasant , unpleasant or neutral . We tend to avoid unpleasant and tend towards pleasant. Now the neutral ones which either are pleasant or unpleasant never bothers us. It is accepted very easily. Now our mind convinces us that our life should embrace the pleasant and avoid the unpleasant. This gives rise to two underlying themes in us. One is that of greed. Second is that of aversion.

Our mind and ego works towards a sequence of actions in wanting the pleasant experiences. We somehow feel that in relying on them we may get happiness. But since the happiness is not the result of anything outside , even getting to the pleasant experiences never satisfies us. We seek more. This is the nature of greed. When i say greed , don't mistake it for the common notion of the term.A greed need not necessarily mean a negative emotion . It just means here that whatever was promised as leading to happiness didn't yield it and we continue to seek it. This also leads to frustration in life unknowingly. Since if we are disappointed in something there is a confusion as to what went wrong. Why is not happiness coming to me ?. What more should i do ?

Second is that of avoiding unpleasant experiences. We feel that if we avoid the current set of situations in life which is leading to unhappiness, we would get happiness. This is what is called as aversion. An aversion is another form of greed. Both are the same in terms of yielding results. It is only a myth, No aversion and subsequent action yields the so called happiness. The reason for this is that the same. Happiness does not arise in the external world due to circumstances, due to objects, due to attainment of anything or avoiding anything. It is only appears to be so when we are in a situation and our ego convinces us that it is so. Apart from we falling for the conviction by the ego about it there is nothing in aversion.

We don't look at experiences in this way at all. It just happens at a lightning pace and the ego would have landed us in situations where we are already in the soup so to speak. Only in meditation do we begin to see these mind objects and the way in which we react and respond. When we do become aware of our own idiosyncrasies, we would clearly see it that it is the same pattern repeated in many different ways.

If we look at why this is not going to yield happiness or peace, just look back into your yester-years or days. The situation we have now in some ways better than the past and yet this now we don't appreciate what is good in it. Isn't your future going to be exactly like what you feel now?. There is only this now at every moment. And your so called promised future would be only a now when this happens. But since we dont appreciate what we are having now in this moment , in the future also we are going to do the same. It is a habit. When the future comes it is a now. Everything appears as a now. So the future too appears as a now. Since we never appreciate the now, the future too fails to impress us. The future situation may be one in which we have avoided the unpleasant things and got at least some of the pleasant things, but since it appears as a now, our mind fails to see anything grand in it. It gets used to things and says , there is some more to get. There are a few more to avoid and so on.

The wheel of samsara goes on rolling, taking with it so many lives crushing by its weight. It smiles at people's agonies, relishes in their ignorance and moves on. The brilliant light of awareness remains clouded in this darkness. Even with its cherished eternal nature , we fail to be convinced. We like suffering so to speak. We pity ourselves , that we are the victim of bad luck, emotional turmoil and so on.
This pathetic state of affairs can be rightly called Spiritual Unconsciousness. It is the way of forgetting the awareness and getting immersed in the identification stories of the mind. No story of the mind is true. It is always a misapprehension. It is always a result of interpreting based on your belief system. We have a dualistic way of seeing things inherently. As a result we divide the world into many parts . Me and the rest. Good and the bad. Pleasure and pain, love and hate and so on. If you really look at the intrinsic nature of everything, this is a source of immense falsification. All there exists is a unity which encompasses all. The illusion of the identity has created this dualistic world for us to suffer.
What is the remedy for this suffering?. Of course the remedy is not obvious. We might think pain is an inevitable part of existence. So it cannot be avoided. So how can suffering be eliminated?. Isn't it my destiny ?. To an extent, this is false. Except for a pain like a physical condition most of our pain and suffering is increased by our resistance and dualistic interpretation of the world. This is what we should try to eliminate. We should learn to accept the broad picture of the universe and understand ourselves more deeply. Accept things as they are rather than our own version of it.

Another important point is how atma jnana will emancipate us. We would clearly understand what is the pain or suffering and how it has been enhanced it by our reactions to it. So self enquiry and meditation to know ourselves deeply is the way out of suffering. Trying to appreciate the pure now is also a way to avoid the ego filled duality .Appreciating the now since it is the only reality, we realize that the so called promised future is not important as it is believed so.

If you look at spiritually realized ones, you would see how deeply they resonate with the harmony of everything. Their world is never tied down in the nuances of their own bodily existence . So understanding that we are the pure consciousness and not the body or mind or personhood we would come out of our shell. Abandoning all worldly attachments and abiding in the supreme self would expand our horizons. Budha once when asked told " The end of suffering is enlightenment". Enlightenment is not a supreme difficult state. It is only the end of suffering. Sufferings are dissolved in the purity of the consciousness. They arise , evolve and are dissolved. They are never enhanced. 

Puppet Show called Life

The concept of I doing things is how we perceive ourselves interacting in this world. I wake up in the morning do my morning chores, go to work, eat , go to sleep , etc etc. Now think of this from a different perspective. Consider all the actions that you did today. What are actions?. Some movement of muscles and bones and so on. How did they work?. By brain signals to the muscles. How did the brain send signals?. By the electrical-chemical conditions that existed there in the brain . right?. Each and every action required certain muscle commands which had to precisely worked up by the brain in order that it was there. How did you control all those conditions in the brain?. Isn't it safe to say that it just happened by some conditioning. If so where is the need of an "I" here. An I who is intentionally doing all these actions. Even if you imagine a hypothetical I , how can the I open up the brain and put those neural wiring there. Isn't it correct to say that it is all happening out there and you are becoming aware of those happenings?. By imagining an I, we are actually falsifying the automated way in which our brain and every part of our body works.

So you might ask. Am i a robot?. The answer is no. There is a big thing that makes you a being. That is your consciousness about these actions. All the actions are becoming known to you. But this is not the doer of all of these actions. It is just the knower of everything. You have neglected this knower , and embraced the false doer. The mind is a thinking automaton, while the consciousness is the all pervasive knower. Abandon the notion of the doer and embrace the notion of the knower.

Suppose i ask you to think of who is your most favorite person . What would you think?. Now you started thinking about person A suppose. But how did that thought come? Why didn't person B get the credit?. Did you intend to think about person A before i asked you the question. Obviously the thought just came up stimulated by my question. Only thing is you became conscious of the thought about A.  It is forced on you. By all previous experience , your own previous thoughts and so many prior causes.You can see that you had no choice except to think about A. Understand that the thought of person A is a bubble that comes up due to so many prior causes of which you have no control.

Most of us think we are doing things because of this apparent illusion of control of our minds. The fact that our mind is in control gives us the illusion of a subjective experience about the thoughts it produces. This leads to the illusion of doership in us. This leads to suffering in life. Instead of all this think of yourself as the knower of all the happenings. All things are just happening and you are the knower of them.

Now just as you understand your own actions as just happening in your knower-ship, you should also see other people actions in the same way. If a person acts in a way that you dont like ask yourself this question. Did she have a choice about it ?. Isnt it a culmination of so many happenings. The way in which she perceived the world , the way in which she understood things, so many so many conditions determine the action that she is doing now. So is this action happening without a cause?. So many prior conditions determined her current conditions in her brain to stimulate a thought and an action that you dont like. Who is to be blamed?. Isnt it perfectly correct according the laws of the universe to act the way she is acting now.You act according to the laws, so is everyone. All you can see is the knowledge about them all. So just as you are thinking something is not right , the other person is doing something precisely by the same laws, so many conditions that exist at the current moment.

Does it make sense to believe that when a person who seemingly does a wrong thing is completely responsible for where he was born, where he accumulated his beliefs, his orientation towards desires and aversions and so on and so forth. Isnt he just a result of so many coincidences that has torn away from the seemingly right things that we believe?. Where does he choose his conditions that precipitate his thoughts?

There are so many thought processes going on in our brain that we are not aware of most of them. Only a small surface of them is coming to view. It is a result of so much deliberation and conditioning that it is too limiting to say that i have a choice in the matter.A nice way to understand this is to think of whether you are making red blood cells right now. Suppose your body stopped doing that what would you feel?. You would feel that you are a victim of the change, rather than feel sorry about that.

 However there is a small thing we can do to narrow down the happenings . That is what spiritual conditioning can do to us. It is a lucky thing that we are into a conditioning process that purifies our inner world . This could result in a better set of choices in the future. It is not a control of the present moment that happens but like an investment into the future. To view the world as an unfolding  and to purify our own inner world is a great gift which we need to utilize.

When we understand that we are the knower of all these happenings, we begin to appreciate the purity of the moment in its unfolding like watching a movie where we never have any expectations of the outcome of the story and never feel the person responsible for the events in it. Then it is pure joy to know the events. It is only when we start believing about the doership does the problems arise in life.

Is that So?

Detachment is the most important spiritual quality that we practice. It comes from a clear understanding that nothing is permanent. Things arise , things go away. So there is no need to cling onto anything in life. There should not be any need to let go of anything if you don't grasp it in the first place. Only when you have grasped something, does the concept of letting go comes. However it doesn't mean that we should be blind , unfeeling of the world. It is a beautiful balance between not clinging , but yet responding compassionately that needs to be practiced.

There is a beautiful Zen story that reminds us of this beautiful quality of detachment with compassion.


"The Zen master Hakuin was praised by his neighbors as one living a pure life.
A beautiful Japanese girl whose parents owned a food store lived near him. Suddenly, without any warning, her parents discovered she was pregnant.

This made her parents angry. She would not confess who the man was, but after much harassment at last named Hakuin.

In great anger the parent went to the master. "Is that so?" was all he would say.

After the child was born it was brought to Hakuin. By this time he had lost his reputation, which did not trouble him, but he took very good care of the child. He obtained milk from his neighbors and everything else he needed.

A year later the girl-mother could stand it no longer. She told her parents the truth - the real father of the child was a young man who worked in the fish market.

The mother and father of the girl at once went to Hakuin to ask forgiveness, to apologize at length, and to get the child back.

Hakuin was willing. In yielding the child, all he said was: "Is that so?" ....."

See how compassionately Hakuin looked after the child even though he lost reputation about a sin he never committed and was forced. He didn't just sit there like a monk who was detached from everything though he could have done so. Also he gave back the child without even scolding why he was blamed . A true spiritual person never blames or is worried about blemishes in life. He acts with live responsiveness with total detachment. If you are affected by your detachment than it is still clinging. When you are detached without even a stain in your mind then that is the true detachment.


We need to be attentive of our own inner world to achieve this detachment. What are the happenings in me?. How am i reacting to situations. Where exactly is my clinging?. Am i affected when i abandon things?. It is not obvious when we lead our life of what these are. Only in deep meditation does it become apparent of what our attractions are , what our fears and anxieties are , what grips us, how do we respond to the events in life and so on. All this should become knowledgeable to you. The witnessing of them is important. We should learn to accept them and embrace them, but never act based on them. Rejecting it is not good enough.The mind comes back strongly if we just reject. See all as just arisings in us. We are not supposed to act for all of them, but we need to be aware of them.

Combining detachment with compassion towards acting is a very balanced view. All our reactionary energy can be channelized into compassion. We should learn to be compassionate to persons who hurt us more. A spiritual person knows the process of maturing. He can never have a grudge for a person who is hurting him due to ignorance. So the heart extends to that situation. This is why Jesus said "Love thy Enemy". If you just ignore the hurting person it is not proper detachment.

Things as they are

Have we ever thought of the millions of conditions that make up this moment?. I think most of us would not have even thought about it that way. This moment you are reading this blog in a computer screen or a mobile phone. What makes you read this blog article?. Your orientation towards spirituality, the fact that you possess a computer or a mobile phone, you are free from seeing difficulties, you decided just now to read it , internet is working , I wrote the article, reading it gives you something to think about, so many so many conditions that came just right in this very moment you are reading it. It is so mind boggling to imagine how many things transpired for this moment to become this moment as you are experiencing now. So many conditions are out of your control . Some conditions are in your control seemingly which when truly analysed may not be . Each moment unfolds in front of us through so many conditions in the universe. How much of us realize this?. We never care about all those unfolding, its brilliance, its coincidences , its mysteries.

Instead of appreciating the complexities of this moment as an unfolding of so many conditions we expect things to happen in our own way. If only that person was a little different. If only i could go there now. Remember for that to happen so many conditions need to be met with. For that small changes, so many conditions need to come correct. That person whom you expect to behave differently should be thinking of what you want him to think, he should act according to that , and so on. So in short, things are as they are because of the multitude of conditions that have been met with. It can be never different than what it is now. Instead of expecting something come to see the things as they are and cultivate the habit of appreciating it in its full glory. Whatever is right now is a mystery. It cannot be any different. Appreciate it to its full extent.

I want to relate a story here. Once there was a king who was very fond of paintings. He asked the painters of the country to paint pictures. There were so many paintings which were serene, beautiful and would have fetched fortunes. But the king was not satisfied. He asked his ministers. Are there more painters who are more talented than these?. I want to see it . Then somebody said there is a farmer who is an amateur painter and can paint . Then the soldiers brought him to the contest. The farmer painted a picture in secrecy and when it was ready invited the king. When the king unveiled the painting it was a picture of a torrential water fall. It was a very violent stream of water coming over and splashing on the ground and creating a big scene. When the king saw it , he was not so impressed. He said what is the meaning of all these?. Then the painter asked him to come closer and see. In the waterfall there was a small gap and a  small place where it was not having any stream of water in a rock. In that small place a bird had constructed a nest and there were baby birds in the nest. The bird was feeding the baby birds, and they were all peaceful. So even amongst  the torrential waterfall there was peace and serenity and harmony in nature. This opened the eyes of the king and he awarded this to be the best painting. Peace is not something that is imagined and different. It is there in the torrential waterfall also. The nest is your true self which is always in the present moment which is unhurt by all the torrent of water over it . The bird never wished that the torrent of water was not there. It accepted and still could find the nest,

What happens when we allow ourselves to be associated with this moment is that we accept the whole as part of us without rejecting anything. This automatically creates compassion towards everything. Our spiritual heart extends to everything without any reservations. The things could be only this way. They can never be anything else. When you have this contented feeling you can never have any desires. Desires are always offspring of a lack in us. When we don't have a feeling of lack, there is no scope for any better situation. If a good situation comes it is good, otherwise it is still ok.
Instead of desiring our mind expands towards everything, it fills with love, appreciation and serenity.

When you see a river, have you wondered how it is formed. It all starts from a tiny portion of a mountain where rain falls. Tiny streams from many such small sources combine to form streamlets, which combine to form small tributaries . This combine when they reach the valley into a small river. A river is a big story unfolding . Just like that each moment in front of us is a culmination of so many events in this universe. We should learn to see how it is formed .

How do we come about this state of acceptance. By expanding our awareness. In meditation we should learn to see what all things are arising in us. What all things comprise our universe, we need to expand our awareness into all of those happenings. By being receptive towards all of the happenings in us, learning how we react, learning our notions we would expand our awareness. The less knowledgeable we are , the more constricted our mind is and hence our likes and dislikes. It is the ignorance about us, ignorance of the grandeur of the universe that creates expectations and desires in us. When our awareness expands to come to grip with our inner world, our mind expands into the space of the moment and accepts it as the nest in the waterfall, never worrying about the torrential waters.

Reactions

Jesus Christ said
"But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also."
If you really look into the meaning of this statement , you can see that it is deep. It is not about tolerance. It is a new way of seeing. Don't just interpret this to situations where you are hit, which is not very common. This is only a saying. It is the reaction that is important here.

When you are hit on your cheek, it is the first arrow. You feel pain. But there are no other sensations. But an emotion arises in you, which is either anger or sorrow or some such feeling.This is the second arrow. If that doesn't arise , then there is no problem in accepting the situation. But the pain often gets associated with you. You often feel that the other person has hit you. Now the reaction is cascading. The evil is not only on the hitting. It is also in you. The different emotions , hatred all are evil only. The awareness clearly tells you there is only a pain , nothing else because of the strike and i am distinct from the pain.
 You can show the other cheek only when the pain of the first has not been identified with you. When there are no reactions, a pain is just that ; a sensation. Then you can turn again. You need not avoid a situation just because it gave you pain before. This is the real meaning of the statement. We tend to avoid situations in life if it hurts us. This is not to say that we should go on experiencing pain. But there is no need to avoid it just because once you suffered and the suffering was merely adding on to it by virtue of emotions , feelings and so on. Avoiding all unpleasant situations is because of a reaction to reaction.

When they crucified Jesus , he had a clear understanding that it was not him that they hurt. If you are as detached as that , you just would feel the body pain , nothing else is felt. There are no anger, hatred or any such feelings. That is why he could pray for them. If you look at each experience you can see how much we add in terms of new arrows to the original arrow.

The nature of awareness is to be free from whatever we are aware of. By knowing distinctly what is our true nature and what is a perception in it , we can free from the thing that is an arising in it. Secondly we can be free from reactions to it.Normally we are entangled with whatever mind objects are in front of us. If there is a thought , we feel we are the one affected , if there is an emotion we feel we are the one feeling it and so on. There is no separation between what is perceived and the subject which is perceiving it. If there is no distinction then we get caught up with lot of transient things which makes life horribly complicated This is one of the reasons why we cannot stay in the moment.

If we look at frustrations in life, you can see it often arises out of reactions. We always have certain expectations about situations. We have certain expectations of how people should behave . If that is not satisfied, then there is a reactionary feeling. A frustration arises in us. If we are aware we can see this arising in us. Now don't just reject it. Understand that it is arising in you, then it would go away. Don't get involved with it. Remember that just as you have expectations about others , others might have expectations about you. We never come to know what that is. See frustration as a phenomenon not as something that need to be acted on.

We need to turn toward what we are adding to the experience. The experience that someone hit you in finished in a second. But the amount of hurt that we add to our mind will continue for days or even years . Who knows this might even result in revenge ,and so on. What is the experience and what have we added to it. Whatever we have added is our reactionary response. This adding of experience now also brings in us a desire for a future moment where we are free from this torture.

All this might seem like we become totally unresponsive to any situation in life. No. A response is much more lively than a reaction. A reaction is not a intellectual thing. A response often comes from a more loving and understanding being. An enlightened person will respond in this way. A more engaging and lively response. We might carefully inquire why the person hit you and if it happened because of our error , we would correct that and so on. A wise responsiveness replaces instinctive re-activity.

When you really reach towards your center, lesser of you remains. Only pure knowing remains. This is the actual meaning of samadhi. A state where we experience without any reactions . There is only experience. An experience has no target experiencer. It just is a phenomenon. In meditation we see it all the time. There is nothing apart from awareness that is permanent. Don't we see so many thoughts , emotions and so on,all coming and going.However since you are sitting still they cant make you act. The strongest emotion comes and goes. Pure awareness smiles at all of them. After some time, only  awareness remains as pure bliss. This is what "letting go" means.


This is not easily achieved. It has taken years of conditioning to reach this state of re-activity. So it erodes also slowly. Patience is a great virtue. Only after a long time of watching our re-activity would we see small differences. But each witnessing of our re-activity through awareness is dissolving it . 

Two Arrows

The great Buddha was once addressing a gathering . He was talking on pleasure and pain. He asked the audience this question. Suppose a man is struck with an arrow, will he experience pain?. The audience replied. Of course yes. Now what happens if the same man is struck with a second arrow. Will it be more pain?. The audience said " One is bad. Second one is worse since it comes when he is  already experiencing the pain of the first".
Buddha then told them. The first arrow is given by life. The second and the third and much more are inflicted by us on ourselves . The first arrow may be a physical one while the second and more may be emotional  reactions.

Emotions are triggered by life and its problems. For e.g. if we are scolded by someone, then we have emotions of anger, dislike etc. This is the first arrow. Now comes the second one. We start reacting to this situation by assimilating emotions on top of the first. This reaction happens unconsciously . We go on either accusing the other or create negative self image of ourselves. Nobody likes me. ( Second arrow). Nobody understands my problems( Third arrow). This goes on and on.

What is the solution?. It is often good to become aware of the emotion that happens due to the first arrow of experience and not react to it. Just watch what is happening in you through your awareness, but don't react to it. See how it vanishes without troubling you. This is how we develop a non reactive and welcoming attribute of our self . We remain curious, but never become indulgent.

As we move away from habitual responses to situations we get liberation from the poison of the arrows of life. Equanimity is a great trait. Treating pleasure and pain in the same way. Understanding the transience of all , just witnessing them come and go and being balanced always as our true nature.

Another reactionary response to pain and misery is to seek some other pleasure to take away our attention. It could be an indulgence in something like getting overtly engrossed in work, or emotional eating , taking sedatives and so on. Some people may even become rude to others to avoid their own pain. This shows that we are not in control . We want to replace our emotions because we know we would react. Understand this simple fact. There is only a single arrow. Just bear that . Not a deluge of them.

The spiritually untrained person gets identified with each and every bit of things in his mind. Instead of understanding that it is just a happening in consciousness, he gets identified with it and becomes affected . All happenings are modifications of the basic consciousness. A thought and emotion is made out of consciousness,just like a pot is made out of clay. The content of each a thought is not something real. It is just a name and a form and hence has a start and an end.We can never be a name and form. We are the background from which all these are made. It is like the clay thinking that it is only a pot.  Clay is much more than that . It can arise in many forms but yet is independent of all.  As we see each arising , just see them as experiences in us coming and going.

When you are experiencing some bad experience have you ever thought of something that happened sometime before say a week before?. Where is that bad experience now?. So if that can vanish, what about the current one?. Will it also not vanish?. So what is the importance of it ?.

There are two things about emotions. One is recognition of the emotion that is prevalent in you. Second is the acceptance of it without being reactive. Meditation is one place where you can accept even your wildest emotion to be there since you don't move during meditation!!!!. Understanding and accepting it will help it to dissolve into where it came from -->consciousness. By expressing it we become involved, by repressing it we become entangled.


Let me quote from the Damma of the arrow .

This is the difference, this the distinction, this the distinguishing factor between the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones and the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person.

The discerning person, learned,
Doesn’t sense a (mental) feeling of pleasure or pain:
This is the difference in skillfulness
Between the sage and the person run-of-the-mill.

For a learned person
Who has fathomed the Dhamma,
Clearly seeing this world and the next,
Desirable things don’t charm the mind,
Undesirable ones bring no resistance.

His clinging
And rejection are scattered,
Gone to their end,
Do not exist.

Knowing the dustless, sorrowless state,
He discerns rightly,
Has gone, beyond becoming,
To the Further Shore.

The River and its Bank

As we live our mundane existence, unconscious of our true nature, we seem to have lot of suffering. Thoughts always pester us. Most of them are negative. We always seem to like something elusive called happiness. We constantly compare our present state with that imagined state and conclude that we do suffer now. Either there is hope in the future or we resign ourselves that it would never come. Whatever that is, we conclude the present situation is not what it should be. It is striking that in various orders it is almost the same story for most of mankind. Nobody seems to be satisfied. The richest persons are anything but happy. Common men all share the same predicament. There seems to be a curse on humanity. A secret mental illness seems to cloud our life. Since everyone is affected, nobody complains about the other!!!.

What is the source of all this?. Is the problem related to the external world?. Or is it because of our own misapprehension?. What is the solution if there is one. Everybody would like to know. The border line between madness and sanity is very thin. Madness comes when this becomes a constant state of mind. For most this comes and goes. In between there is a lull. We never notice it , but this is what makes us sane.

Once, the famous psychologist William James went to a lunatic asylum. After the visit, he came back and became silent for a long period.
His wife asked him. "What happened to you? . Why are you so depressed?".
He replied
"A thought came to me. I saw one of my old friends there. He was sane once, as sane as anyone. Now he is mad, and he couldn't do anything to prevent it. A thought came to my mind that if, tomorrow or the next day, I am taken possession of by madness, how could I prevent it? Man is helpless. This friend of mine was as sane as me, or even more so. He couldn't do anything, he has become mad. I also can become mad, and nothing can be done to prevent it."

If we really look into the problem, the most striking aspect of this is that it is only the human beings who suffer this much. The animals which are also sharing the planet with us seem to be better off. They may not have access to the riches, the pleasures, the conveniences, but they lead a very peaceful life. What all these conveniences for anyway if we cant be happy?. The animals seems to get it naturally. When you see a bird sing in the morning, how peaceful she seems. When you see a dog eating some food, he seems to be just enjoying it without any worries. The whole of nature rests in harmony ever blissful and serene. The so called powerful humans on the other hand always suffers never noticing the nature, never happy for long and always running around seeking something which he himself never knows.

The root of all this is that we have moved far away from our home, which is our true nature. Our true nature is "Sat-chit-ananda", which is existence-consciousness-bliss. We are nothing short of pure consciousness which is unlimited. The real atman which is the same as Brahman is unlimited bliss and eternal. When we get up in the morning , we have a feeling that something is existing. We dont know what that something is , but we have a feeling of existence and awareness . But not for long. The mind which is a limited form of this infinite consciousness takes over. The purpose of the mind is to make sense of sensory perception. When we see a tree, there is visual stimuli that falls in our brain. The mind is the instrument which can decode the tree for us. It can use its previous learning to say that it is in fact a tree that is out there. The mind actually comes from the unlimited awareness, but it has to limit itself to a small form of consciousness to know external objects. So in order to limit itself it assumes that the I is also limited. So the nearest I that can see is the body which also looks like an object to consciousness. So it assumes that I is the body. So you can see the problem here. The real I is the infinite awareness, but since the mind has come into existence afterward it doesnt know about this awareness from which it has arisen. So it assumes that the body is the I. This is the crux of the problem. This is how the ego arises in us.

You might ask what is the problem with this simplistic assumption. What is the big deal with this. But we can easily see that all the problems comes from this identification process. Why is this so?. Let us see. Suppose you are seeing a tree out there. What is the feeling that you get in the waking state. You get the feeling that "I am seeing the tree." In reality what is happening is the eyes are seeing the tree and the brain is interpreting the signals.  But the mind has substituted the eyes and brain with I . So it says " I am seeing the tree". Now the reality is that the seeing is happening and the real I is a witness to this experience. The awareness is the real background in which this process of seeing is happening. The awareness sees a thought coming and recognizing the tree. As far as awareness is concerned this thought is just that; a thought. It is an arising in consciousness. A bubble which comes and goes. The real I has nothing to do with it. It just witnesses this experience. If you realize this you can see that the tree with all its colors and form is a pure experience for you. You can only see the divinity in this experience. But in order to do that you need to take a back seat of awareness. Then only you would notice everything. The visual sensory perception , the thoughts , the understanding everything happening and going.

If on the other hand if you assume that " I am seeing the tree". You might miss what the reality of experience is . Instead you might get lost in thought. A thought might suddenly come and say " I saw a tree somewhere in my school days where i was young". The moment this thought comes you might start thinking about your childhood and its happiness. Then you start comparing it with your present state of affairs and so on. Now see the deceit of the mind. The moment you identify with your body as far as the experience is concerned, it can take you as a body into your imagination. What you get is a deluge of thoughts instead of the purity of the experience of just seeing the tree as it is. You need to see two things here. First there is a thought. Second there is the identification with the thought. It is the second thing that catches our attention. It makes our interest in it. It is this that we should object. It is ok to have this thought of a tree. But abandon the notion that I am attached to it. Instead just appreciate the experience as it is . A seeing is happening that is all.

The experience of just watching the tree might be exaggerated. But you can see how this works for most of our experiences.
We fail to see the moment. In fact we see anything other than what is there in the moment. As somebody said , people get so engrossed in thought that they just have the presence to avoid the obstacles in their path.

A second grave problem that arises is that  we assume the doership of our actions. Whatever you do with the body for example helping others would give you the false notion that " I did some service". Now naturally you expect something back from the other person or in some other situation a deluge of thoughts comes whereby you lament " I have to do this. but i dont get any help and everybody complains also" and so on. This problem of doership is the beginning of expectation, disillusionment and so on.  Even people who do "Selfless service" have this problem that they are doing selfless service!!!. Notice the paradox. If you are doing something then there is doership. If you just act without the ego involved, then we understand it is just a happening in awareness, it is not a doing. We should not be human doings we should become human beings. "Be as you are" as Ramana told us.

The way of spiritual life is to overcome this ignorance about our true I-ness. The ego is an assumption by the mind to limit itself  since it arises itself from pure consciousness. It is in fact a non existent thing. We can only see that on close examining as it happens in self enquiry.  Suppose you have this thought in your mind " I am worried about problem X".  Now just ask the mind who
this "I "really is . The mind cannot answer satisfactorily. So you can see this. There is a thought . But the thought is not corresponding to any particular entity. However if we believe what the mind says then this thought is corresponding to me. Since me is actually awareness, the awareness becomes conscious of all the happenings in the mind and it hardly rests in its place.

Since there is no space in awareness we become miserable. So it is the clouding of awareness with the identification of the thought that has caused the issue. Always remember this. Whenever we deviate far from our true state we are not doing well. Since our true awareness is taken over by the clouding we are miserable. It all comes from a misapprehension about the identity .

The process of identification is clearly seen in the case of a pain. A pain is only a sensation in the body. It is an object of understanding in awareness, However if there is a thought " I have pain". There would be lot of stories associated with the sensation. There would be lot of scope for commentary by the mind about the pain sensation. So instead of experiencing only the pain sensation we would get lost in thoughts about it. This completely clouds our awareness. Remember whatever there is in front of awareness it would be aware of it, If we have a  plethora of thoughts it would become aware of them, leaving no room and enhancing  the pain . We cannot avoid the sensation, but we can certainly avoid the thoughts arising out of identification.

We should have always the presence to witness all the thoughts, emotions , feelings , sensations coming and going. From the vantage point of awareness we should remain a witness to all of them. And if we truly see that it is this awareness that is the real I,  then nothing transient can trouble us. There is nothing to seek, nothing to desire, nothing to worry about. We are already the supreme bliss that we ever were. One , still,  free and perfect.

There is often an analogy of a bank and a river, The happenings in your mind and body are like the streams of water going by. You are on the bank of the river watching them come and go. 
The analogy is not perfect as it creates a dual feeling as though the happenings are different from the awareness. The truth is everything that we experience is only an arising in awareness and not distinct from it. However to begin with the witness state is a good way to see the stream of mind objects go by.

Atma Samarpan

The term of self realization is often misunderstood . It is because of the fact that there are so many ways to do this. Each tradition has its own ways, each guru has his own ways and so on. Actually this is natural . It is a subjective phenomenon. The guru or any scripture is like a finger pointing to the goal. The person has to walk the path. It is like the guru tells you the general direction but not the specific way. You take whatever way you want provided you stay focussed he tells. 

I would try to call this ego-sacrifice rather than self realization. This is because realizing self is not an attainment because we are already that. But the ego is the hindrance.So if we sacrifice the ego to the self we are done. It is like a yaga. We sacrifice our own ego to the fire to see the self which is already sitting in the throne. It can be called atma samarpan.

Now how to do this. It is like a spy story. Suppose you want to drive away a spy. What do you do?. You watch his ways.  Get familiar with his ways of life. Watch closely every step he takes. Then go on to drive him away. Also you are careful with him when he talks to you. You dont believe what he says. 

Now in this case, the ego is even more than that . He is a phantom or a non-entity. A dream like figure. So it is slightly difficult. How can you shoo away a ghost?. By not believing in him!!!. Yes a ghost is always a figment of our imagination. Once you stop believing in it , it vanishes. The lesser the belief in it the lesser the power. You will see the ghost fading away.


All your sorrows were a gift by this ghost. All your pseudo happiness were also so. Why pseudo happiness?. Because it can drag you towards its ways by showing you tempting pictures of happiness. True happiness doesn't need advertisement. It is always there. It is a blissfull peaceful state. It is neither an outcome of a desire in life nor is it a fleeting thing as a emotion or feeling. Its very nature is its permanency. So you dont fall prey to its temptations of happiness or the worries it shows you.

Another way the ego dies is by the process of enquiring about its location. You ask the mind where is the I?. Can you show me where exactly "I" am located?. This is something the ego cannot stand.  
This by far is the most powerful way as Ramana Maharshi found. The way to do this is rather simple in its essence. whenever a thought comes and troubles you for a long time , you turn around and ask the mind " To whom does this apply". Essentially what you are asking is this. You have told me a story about a worrying situation . Now tell me what is the entity to whom this applies. The mind will not be able to tell you. This is because it doesnt know about the awareness which is the source. As it is unaware of the "I" , it will remain blank. In this blank state the thought itself vanishes. So you can see that the mind is actually put you into  a situation. It tells you a story , but actually nobody is really affected. 

For e.g. suppose some  thought comes up in the mind like this . " I am worried about my son. He never heeds my advice". Now you ask the mind whom does this thought refer to. The mind would go blank. It cannot say to you that the I is the body. The body is never worried about your son. Nor does the mind say that I is the mind. The mind is only a collection of thoughts . How can it be worried about your son?. 
 It is only a thought that has the tag of worry attached to it. You can see that there are two points here. One is the thought . Second is the identification.  It is the second aspect that makes you mad. A thought is only a thought , it is an arising in consciousness. But identification makes you tense. But to know that the identification doesn't hold water is enough to make the thought vanish. It has no say without the identification. Now if the identification was true the mind should have told you to whom this refers to . Since it cannot tell you , it shows why the ego is a phantom it uses cleverly. So essentially you become thought-free not thought-empty. 

You might have heard of the term lucid dreaming. It is a way of dreaming knowing that you are dreaming. 
Several techniques exist on how to do lucid dreaming. 
Actually our life is a lucid dream. All the so called thought patterns actions etc are all as fictitious as in a dream as it refers to non entities. Only thing is we are conscious of the dream. If we truly understand this the ego will die its natural death. Always remember unless you believe in its ways it wont be able to exercise its influence on you, just like in a normal dream where you are affected since you believe in it. 

Lastly meditation. Meditation is not an achievement. It is rather a letting go of everything we have to get what we really want. We abandon the thoughts, emotions , feelings to be one with the ultimate reality that we are. To get infinity what are small sacrifices?.
So these are the techniques 

1) Always be conscious of what the ego is doing by keeping awareness in the background
2) Stop believing in its ways
3) Practice self enquiry
4) Enjoy the lucid dream called life knowing very well that the self is untouched and unaffected.
5) Meditate and live in it.

Chitanda Rupam

मनोबुद्ध्यहङ्कार चित्तानि नाहं
न च श्रोत्रजिह्वे न च घ्राणनेत्रे ।
न च व्योम भूमिर्न तेजो न वायुः
चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् ॥१॥
Mano-Buddhy-Ahangkaara Cittaani Naaham
Na Ca Shrotra-Jihve Na Ca Ghraanna-Netre |
Na Ca Vyoma Bhuumir-Na Tejo Na Vaayuh
Cid-Aananda-Ruupah Shivo[a-A]ham Shivo[a-A]ham ||1||
                                                                              

1.1: Neither am I the Mind nor Intelligence or Ego,
1.2: Neither am I the organs of Hearing (Ears), nor that of Tasting (Tongue), Smelling (Nose) or Seeing (Eyes),
1.3: Neither am I the Sky, nor the Earth, Neither the Fire nor the Air,
1.4: I am the Ever Pure Blissful Consciousness The Ever Pure Blissful Consciousness

                                                                                                 -Nirvana shatakam 

Advaita is the only meta physics which teaches us this. You are not what you think you are. That is the only problem you have. All your problems can be traced back to this simple ignorance or primal ignorance.

When we start understanding this principle, there is a doubt that comes. You have said that the brahman is unknowable because it is beyond our senses , it is not an object of knowledge etc etc. Then how do we know it ?. This slokam tells you the general idea in advaita vedanta. There are certain things we know. Like the mind, the intellect , the ego , the elements that constitute our body etc. All through our life we have been thinking the I is something of this sort. What Sankaracharya is telling us is that the real I is not anything that you think. So it means we come to know what we are NOT. By denying what we are NOT , we come to realize what we are. This process is often called deconstruction  or deconstructive inquiry . Also understand that we cannot know  the real self because it is not a thought in the mind . It is prior to the mind. It is from which the mind itself works.

We can only identify ourselves with that by dropping our veil.

There are many methods that sages have followed to make people understand this simple fact through denial of what we are not . Some disciples trust the guru absolutely and are realized. Some are left with doubts always . It is natural to have both kinds of attitude. In fact doubts are always good in that it removes the last resistance to truth . There is only one thing that is required. An unfailing curiosity to know about the reality and to accept things once they are realized through your own experience. 

The first doubt that we students have is , i understand that i am pure consciousness or awareness. But how do i live in this world?. How do i live in this world as pure consciousness?. There is a need to dispel these doubts. 

First let us understand this problem. This comes from confusing two levels of reality. In vedanta there are two levels of reality. One is the absolute or parmarthic reality. That is where we say ,  everything is one and that one is you. One is the brahman and you are identical with that . That is the real truth. Now on top of this we have something called vyavahara or transactional reality. This is the ordinary world or life. We need to remember that this is a world which exists relative to the absolute reality. It is also called relative reality. Its truth depends on the absolute. So in its truest sense it is not a new reality but a modification of it. An appearance in it. So what do we do while living in this transactional reality?. We need to remember that there is an underlying absolute reality which is what really matters and whatever i am doing in this world is just a temporary phenomenon . So this knowledge about our true nature while transacting is what makes our life different. We dont attach much importance to transient phenomenon. We begin to enjoy it with the real underlying knowledge.

There is a simple principle which we can use here. If we live with the firm identification of unreal or relative real things your life is always miserable. If we live with the correct identification of the real there are no issues . So we establish ourselves in the real one or brahman and transact in the relative world detaching ourselves as much as possible from unreal things . So we dont deny this transactional world . We do live in this world only. But underneath we know what is true and what is not. 

The following slokam from Nirvana shatakam helps

न मे द्वेषरागौ न मे लोभमोहौ
मदो नैव मे नैव मात्सर्यभावः ।
न धर्मो न चार्थो न कामो न मोक्षः
चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् ॥३॥

Na Me Dvessa-Raagau Na Me Lobha-Mohau
Mado Naiva Me Naiva Maatsarya-Bhaavah |
Na Dharmo Na Ca-Artho Na Kaamo Na Mokssah
Cid-Aananda-Ruupah Shivo[a-A]ham Shivo[a-A]ham ||3||

3.1: Neither do I have Hatred, nor Attachment, Neither Greed nor Infatuation,
3.2: Neither do I have Pride, nor Feelings of Envy and Jealousy,
3.3 I am Not within the bounds of Dharma (Righteousness), Artha (Wealth), Kama (Desire) and Moksha (Liberation) (the four Purusarthas of life),
3.4: I am the Ever Pure Blissful Consciousness; The Ever Pure Blissful Consciousness.

All the emotions , feelings thoughts that arise in me are understood to be the unreal or temporary arising in my awareness. Since they are unreal , i know  that i am not that . So it doesnt affect me. So this is the key. In any situation think of this , Is the thing that is affecting me real or unreal?. You will always see it is unreal, because the real never touches you. It is always sublime and blissful. So if it is unreal why worry. It will come and go. 

Now that the problem of life is settled it is time to think of what happens when i die. I have heard that i would be reborn because of my karma . Is it true?. What we need to understand again is this. Is there anything apart from the brahman?. No. That is the whole idea of advaita . All things are merely appearances in it. To say that you are reborn itself is the acceptance that there is something apart from brahman which is doing this birth and rebirth. What is that thing?. Is it  the body ?. Is it the mind?. Havent we seen all these phenomenon are unreal in that they are merely appearances?. So why worry.

So abandon this notion of rebirth etc which are merely stories for people who dont understand the lofty principles of vedanta.

Here is what shankara tells you 

न पुण्यं न पापं न सौख्यं न दुःखं
न मन्त्रो न तीर्थं न वेदा न यज्ञाः ।
अहं भोजनं नैव भोज्यं न भोक्ता
चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् ॥४॥

Na Punnyam Na Paapam Na Saukhyam Na Duhkham
Na Mantro Na Tiirtham Na Vedaa Na Yajnyaah |
Aham Bhojanam Naiva Bhojyam Na Bhoktaa
Cid-Aananda-Ruupah Shivo[a-A]ham Shivo[a-A]ham ||4||

Meaning:
4.1: Neither am I bound by Merits nor Sins, neither by Worldly Joys nor by Sorrows,
4.2: Neither am I bound by Sacred Hymns nor by Sacred Places, neither by Sacred Scriptures nor by Sacrifies,
4.3: I am Neither Enjoyment (Experience), nor an object to be Enjoyed (Experienced), nor the Enjoyer (Experiencer),
4.4: I am the Ever Pure Blissful Consciousness; The Ever Pure Blissful Consciousness.

All the so called principles of jivatma papam punyam etc make sense only from the ego sense. From the paramarthic or absolute view point , just understand that you are the ever present pure consciousness. Living in this way gives you the ultimate freedom. You will see that once you have this true knowledge , the thoughts , emotions etc are also purified. In a clear mind the pure consciousness reflects itself. 

There is one more thing to be understood . Whether you realize this or not , whether you live like this or not , it doesnt make an iota of difference as far as truth is concerned. Only thing is our transactional life becomes difficult. But the fact remains that you are pure consciousness. You are always that and you will remain always that .