Awakening

When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change’                                                                                                                          Max Planck founder of                                                                                                                                          Quantum theory

Awakening is not a sudden event as we believe it. It is a process. More correctly it is a process and an event. For some it may be a sudden shift in perspective. For some it may be a slow gradual change. But we need to remember awakening is for the mind, not for the self. Self is already the self which neither needs awakening nor anything in this world.

We have already seen that our mind wants us to believe that there is an I which is the center of our thought system. It is this fictitious I which seems to be affected by Life. So the first clue comes from the realization that there is no one actually affected . We need not fight the situations in life. We need not argue, be resentful or dislike anything. Because whatever is happening is not pertaining to any particular entity . It only appears so. When we see the happenings in the universe, do we feel that it is happening to anyone?. No. We just see it as happenings. When a cloud dissolves and pour as rain are we really sad that the cloud is no longer there?. No. We see it as a happening in the stream of events dependent on so many things. Similar to this all the happenings that are perceived are also appearance happening to nobody.  Life is just flowing.

Once this is realized we first tend to be curious on the happenings in life. We see them just like watching a movie. Then we tend to reverse this and try to see. To whom is this being shown?. Is that viewer affected by the scenes of life?. We see immediately in order the stream of events be as they are it needs a viewer who is unaffected by them. Consider this . Suppose you are in a cinema theater and you are shown a movie. Suppose you were affected by the incidents in the movie. Would you be able to see the movie any longer?. You would be running around trying to solve the issue. right?. So a viewer is not in the movie , but out of it. He has to be in order to be a viewer.

So you see these aspects. In all life you have experienced so many incidents and so many transformations. However there seems to be something that is remaining the same irrespective of all these. Otherwise how does that perception happen continuously?. Now ask yourself. Who is this entity. Is it a thought in the mind?. Is it the body?. You can see that neither of them is competent enough to be called unaffected. The body is no longer the same from what it was. Nor is this mind. Yet we are the same viewer all through. There seems to be an authentic presence of something beyond the temporary things.

So from realizing through self inquiry that there is nothing called I in the mind, to the unchanging presence we are independent of body and mind, is the slow recognition of truth. However this realization is not something new. It is a discovery. Not an invention. So that is why they say there is nothing to attain. You just realize who you are really instead of the impostor you were pretending to be. Dropping the cast is all that is required.

Now comes a slow realization that the sense of real I is a formless one. Wherever you turn around , there is a presence of that formless awareness. Look at the room, look far beyond. There is no space or time in which the formless existence of me was not present. The very fact that it is a presence means that it has to be there all the time. It is this endless, timeless essence of knowing that I am,
I am not this body and mind or any concept in it. I am just expressing through this body. But I am also expressing myself in the endless bodies and things. There is nothing that is excluded

From the perspective of this formless presence there is a new vision. There are happenings which may not be right from a egoistic perspective like you loose lot of money, loose a job, loose a near and dear and so on, but there is a feeling that it is something that can be accepted too as an appearance. The formlessness can never be affected . Only a form is affected by incidents. If we have existed for ever, how can a silly incident modify me?. How can even death touch me?. There is a feeling and vision beyond the mortality.

Meditation and self inquiry are the primary tools of exploration. But there are two perspectives. For the mind ,Meditation is an action to do. While for the self it is not an action. Meditation becomes a noun for the self. It is what we are. For the self there are no objects or verbs. There is only a noun. A singular noun. So meditation is that noun.Self is always one. And there are no actions. All actions are appearances in it. So all the thoughts emotions feelings shown are appearances in the self or meditation.We then vanish as a form and become truly formless presence. From the analogy of the movie, we are the screen in which the movie unfolds. So the screen is watching the movie with the knowledge that a movie is just a modification of its basic formless presence. Once the mind rests in its source we therefore become meditation itself. 

Cause of Suffering Part2

In the last post we discussed the impact of a fallacy namely an I which does not exist and yet is believed by most of us to whom the sufferings happen. In this we are going to explore the impact of this a little more in our endeavors. Also we would see how this works to enhance the thought system.

One of the most fundamental things we work for is to become someone in life. To become an engineer, or to become a doctor or have a reputed social status etc seems to be the primary motivation for most of us. Why does this carry so much importance for us?. We can see that it is because our mind tells us " I am this now". So I would like to become something more than this. I have this now so i need to get that so that my reputation is intact and so  on. In all these , we never question whether there is an I who is such and such. People who have truly discovered that there is no such I to whom all these attributes exist, would never run behind all these. You need not become a monk to discover this. Just a little insight into the  true nature of the I is enough to convince us of the futility of all endeavors in life. It is something that never exists. So how can it be limited and how can it be fulfilled?.

It is because of this that our mind is attached to things and yet gets never satisfied. Whatever you do to please this I , since it doesn't exist it would not be satisfied. How can a non entity be satisfied?. So our endeavors continue. Maybe we need to amass a little more wealth, maybe we need to secure ourselves more.  Maybe if our body is somewhere else we would feel better and so on. This is really the origin of greed and non contentment.

The origin of desire in our mind is to please a non existing entity!. Suppose you get a craving for ice cream. To whom does these persistent thoughts refer to ?. Does the tongue come and tell you to take ice cream?.No. You can see that there is no I demanding it. However there are a profusion of thoughts in our mind. It is in order to escape from these thoughts that we take it. However the conclusion by the mind is that " I took ice cream and i am happy".  Now see the fallacy of this statement and feeling. In the first place there was never an I which demanded it. Now there is a I which has taken it as well as become happy because of this act. So our mind has now succeeded in making us believe that the non existing entity is pleased by taking things in the outside world and there in lies the happiness.

What really happens in satisfying our desires is not I becoming happy. It is just that we become free from our thought system. Our seeking ends and we touch our true nature in its infinite glory. The absence of seeking means we don't require anything. If we don't require anything it means we are not finite and limited. We would behave exactly that way if we were unlimited. A kind would never crave for a piece of land in his country. He knows he owns all. He has given it gracefully to all his country men. Dropping desires is not a desperate act . We truly understand that it cannot satisfy anything. Why should we first create a thought system by creating a desire and then become free from it?. Why not just abandon it in the first place.

Now you might think how can a non existing entity create  so much havoc in our life. We are in for more surprises. The thought system motivated by the false story of the I can create more stories for you. These are called projections. It would tell you stories about the I which is going to exist in the future. Pathetic stories of how the I is going to suffer if we dont take some action. At least we are  supposed to be worried by lot of thoughts and have some fear about the evolution of the I. At the same time it would also compare it with the past glory of the I. The beautiful period of life the I existed and how miserable it is now, and how much more misery exists in the future. Samsara is just these projections .

If we look deeply in the mind you can see all these stories , interpretations and projections going on all the time. Please get familiar with your own stories through meditation. This is the root of understanding your own nature. You would be surprised how hallucinatory it has been. It all depends on this non entity called the I or ego. The path of liberation is only in realizing this fallacy in our mind. Whatever else you do, in terms of liberation will never be complete unless you root out this misconception that there is no I on the other end to hold on. When you realize this , something gives away from your mind. It becomes restful instead of restless. 

Cause of suffering

What is the origin of suffering?. Most people don't give it a thought. We just silently suffer thinking that it is so unjust that situations are the way they are. Little do we understand the inner reasons of our suffering and the origin of suffering. Unless we understood this root problem of how suffering originates we would always suffer and search for the end of it. There are two ways of seeing suffering. One surrender to destiny, saying that it is destiny that has resulted in this sad situation. Others believe that suffering can be eliminated by changing our external conditions.Both of these are a result of incorrectly comprehending the origin of our suffering. If we seek solutions not comprehending the root cause we only get symptomatic relief. It is like treating infection with paracetamol. It will subside the fever but not the infection.

What then is the root cause of suffering? .
 It is a misconception resulting from ignorance.
 Ignorance of what ?. Ignorance of who we are. Now this is not at all obvious. How does the fact that we have ignorance, lead to suffering. Suffering seems real. There are a multitude of thoughts , emotions and feelings. All these are really painful. We don't need them. We want a peaceful and calm mind. Why does ignorance lead to these state of affairs?. Why are external conditions not blamed ?.

Whatever be the cause of suffering, if somebody ask you "Who are you?". What would be your reply?. You would say " I am so and so". Now there would not be any confusion as to this answer. Also if the question is followed by "Where were you yesterday?" . You would answer it with a statement which describes where your body was yesterday. Again there would not be any confusion as to this. This shows that internally we have absolute faith in who we are . There is never any doubt regarding who we are. How does this conviction arise?. This conviction is a result of our mind. We are always aware of our mind and its thoughts. So we tend to believe what it says . It says that I am inside this body experiencing this world, or in other words I am this body itself.

Let us try to understand how this idea comes about. If you look in the external world, how do you know a certain thing exists ?. You can perceive it using the senses. You know that a tree exists by analyzing the sensory input given. Perceptions give an indication of something out there. Perceptions themselves are not real. They are pointers as to the reality of something. We can see that a thought of a tree is not the tree. Now this means that a real thing exists independent of the conscious construct.

So now try to understand the concept of I. Where is this I existing in the outside world?. It is true that there is a thought in our mind , however there is no concrete I existing anywhere. Now you might say there is a body existing. But a body is only a body. It is not an I. You can look at any part of the body and convince yourself that it is quiet an inert object with no sense of existence of its own. It is much like a rock or a tree. Only thing is that there are certain number of chemical reactions going on, like respiration, digestion and so on. However they all happen automatically with no sense of I. Even when we are unconscious they happen. So it is clear that the body can never be an I . So our idea of I comes from a thought in our mind . But this thought refers to something that doesn't exist. It is like saying that there is a thought in my mind which says there are horses with horns. Is there any sanctity to these thoughts ?. It is a misconception.

Now you might be thinking that it is true that the I doesn't actually exist. But my suffering seems to be real. There are thoughts, emotions and feelings certainly. How can that cease to exist?. In order to understand this , you need to carefully see what is a miserable thought. Let us take an imaginary situation in which you have lost a very precious thing such as a job, or some such thing. Now carefully analyze what are the thoughts in your mind. Your mind would have lot of thoughts and emotions associated with it. It would say " I am so desperate". Now see what is real and what is not. The fact that there is a loss of job is truth. You can verify it by real facts that you are no longer permitted in the company and so on.  So you can say that there is some sadness associated with it. But there is an unreal thing in this. It is the I referred to . Since there is no I to which this happens , there is no sanctity in the saying . Suffering exists as a series of conditions , but it is not to any I. Because you can clearly see that except for the belief that an I exists, the real I is no where real like the loss of job which can be verified.

This is surprising. If there is no I, then who does this suffering refer to ?. Nobody. There is no one on the other end of your suffering to which it refers. It exists only as a sequence of disturbances in consciousness. It all happens automatically just like digestion or anything. In short life flows automatically . However there is no one who is affected because of these. It is just an appearance in consciousness. But you can see that if you believe in the I thought without understanding it , all these thoughts refer to you. Then naturally there is a compounding of the suffering.

This can be seen with a thought experiment. Suppose for a moment you got outside your body and start observing the body. What would you see?. You would see various movements of the body which all seem to be guided by sensory stimuli. Also you would observe various thoughts in your mind. Emotions arising and so on. All these are real. However you would never observe an I  existing  to which all these things are being referred to. It is your hallucinating mind that has created first a non existent entity and then tie all the happenings to this non existent I. In other words misery is a misconception.

So what is the solution?. You can see that the solution is not related to finding a better external situation. It is related to finding who you are.. Unless we remove this root misconception ,our suffering will  never cease.Also note that there is only one cause . Happiness does not come from an external situation for the same reason. The happiness that we usually see comes from a misconceived I to whom the happy situation is associated. This is why we believe that  we need to achieve something to be happy.

Meditation can be defined as the practice to find who we are truly. It may be a practice at first , but later it would become our permanent state so that we never fall into the hallucinated ego. In meditation we see that there is a space of awareness in which all things seems to exist. This is certainly true. Even to deny consciousness we require consciousness. However  we can see that this awareness is not a separate I as the mind tell us. It is something that is eternal and can witness all. However the witness is not affected by the sufferings. He sees them but stands independent of it. If we are that , is there any suffering to it?. Is there anything that needs to be done?. What difference would it make for the sakshi?. All these needs to be seen from our own experience.

Namarupa mithya

Our life is a continuous struggle to hold back objects. All objects have a name and a form or nama and rupa as in vedanta. We get lost in form. A passing cloud when it has a form  attracts us. When it disappears we are sad. We think the cloud has died. A person is born and has a form. Once he dies the form is lost. We lament the loss. Aren't we grieving over the loss of form?. Our attachment to forms comes from our own identity called ego which says that our identity is the form called our body.

But if we look closely enough, we would see that the cloud never dies. It gets transformed into rain which flows as a river and gives life to plants. The cloud is smiling at us when the rain water drops are falling .The cloud itself is not a beginning. It resulted from water from the sea. So the flow of forms is always there in the universe. The interplay of appearances which is usually an arising , manifestation and dissolving can be seen of all forms. Underneath these flow of appearances lies the truth. There is an essential existence which is manifesting itself and knowing these manifestations. If we get lost in the forms , we loose this deep knowledge.

We see the same interplay or leela of forms in our thoughts , emotions and sensations. A thought arises , it manifests and dissolved. But we get lost in the form of the thought. The form of the thought springs us into action and this gets into the inner folds of our subconscious. The more intensely and repeatedly we do such actions , the more strong our tendencies become. He returns to the same thought patterns again and again.  It is also true for people who have strong attachments. They repeat the same intense thought patterns again.

It may be strange to recognize this. But all our ambitions and dreams are also to hold on to many forms. We want a beautiful house and expensive cars. We want our body to be handsome. We want money for various purposes in our life. All these when analyzed are holding onto the form of the objects and appearances. When we start questioning all these , the thoughts and desires associated with them also starts diminishing. Getting lost in the name and form is what life is.

Looking deeply we see that the message of impermanence is always there. However it is not one of sadness. It says when the conditions are right, things manifest. When the conditions change they hide waiting for another instance. When there is sunlight, the flower blossoms. When the winter comes the flower disappears. Nothing comes nor goes. Only there is change all around. Impermanence asks us to look deeply. For one there is a deeper essence which is allowing the impermanence to manifest. Second it shows that all things are closely related and there is no dying or birth. Only a change of form. If we can think beyond the apparent forms, we can start seeing what is really the essence of all appearance.

In Zen, there is a question. "How did you look like before your grandmother was born?". You can see that birth is a continuation of changes just like the cloud. Only when you give importance to the name and form are you born. When you see that life is just a dance of appearances and you are the permanent essence behind these, you get the correct knowledge that you are always here. You are not this name and form called your body. You are the knower of all these appearances and every appearance is happening in you the background awareness. The body and mind is just an appearance in this background of consciousness which is our true nature.

Moving away from the name and form and concentrating on the underlying essence is the true purpose of spiritual life. Sadana in the form of meditation helps us to see this more and more clearly. The more our concentration on name and form, the more our desires are. More limited we feel as a separate person, the more we are troubled by the changes.

Sogyal Rinpoche asks a flame "Where were you before i lighted you up?".
The flame replies" I was always here. When the conditions were right i manifest. When they are not correct i change my form. There is no creation or destruction. Only appearances".
When you run your fingers over a sheet of paper , aren't you touching the trees that gave birth to this paper, the clouds that came down as rain to nurture these plants, the soil and the wind that grazed them?. Yes . All appearances including the body minds are just appearances that come and go in the real self .When conditions are right they manifest, and when they are not they disappear for a while.However the reality always shines illumining these appearances.

The Oil pot

Hrit sthale manaah svasthathaa kriya
Bhakthi yoga bhodaascha nishchitam
                                                                    Upadesha Saram verse 10  by Ramana

Fixing the mind at the source is the true Karma , Bhakti and Jyana.



There is no greater verse to summarize Ramana's teaching.It says a profound thing. All we need to understand is to find the source of our mind an fix our attention there. This would enable the correct karma marga, the true bhakti and also entails all knowledge. All things follow from this relentless practice.

All through our life, we have been guided by our mind in our actions. We have been ruled over its persistent thoughts, its worries, its lamentations and so on. We never feel that there is anything beyond the mind. However mediation reveals that the mind is only a misleading part of our life. The seer of the mind itself is awareness and it represents the source of the mind. If we have unwavering attention on awareness and not on the mind or other sense objects that is our yoga.

In mediation we have often experienced the stillness or silence between thoughts . Sometimes the mind goes calm for a while. At this time you are seeing awareness through awareness. You can see that in order to know awareness you need awareness. The mind cannot grasp awareness because it is below it and is in fact a manifestation of awareness. This also tells you why we don't see awareness in our everyday life. We can only know awareness through awareness.

Ramana used to say that the usual concept of God is a gross misunderstanding and falsehood. What we know is only an image of God, not the real one. God is pure awareness itself. And any image and concept is not that . It is only a thought in the mind. The mind cannot grasp it. It is the source of the mind itself. So you can see the profound nature of the teaching. If you want to experience God , use awareness to see awareness. He is always available in you. This is the truest sense of bhakti. Here we are experiencing the reality as reality not as an image of it in our mind.
One teacher described it as don't read the menu, have the food itself.

When we lead our life, we tend to get lost when we loose our sense of awareness. This makes the mind the ruler of our life. This is what hell means. If we let our mind rule our life there is no better way to ruin all. The only way is the path of renunciation. The path of renunciation is focusing awareness on awareness all the time, thereby becoming unaware of the sense objects .

Here is a story to make us understand our attention.  King Janaka was greatly respected as a saint living in midst of samsara. One brahmin got confused as to how a king who is living under such luxuries can be a saint . He came to visit the King. The king welcomed the brahmin and asked him whether he wanted to see the city around first. Brahmin complied. So the king ordered the soldiers to take the brahmin around the city , but with a oil pot on his head. He also said even if a drop falls on the ground just cut the head of the brahmin. The brahmin was taken around the city . After he returned he was asked by the king " Oh Sadhu, how did you enjoy the city .?".
The brahmin said " How could I?. I would be beheaded if even a drop of oil fell. So I was concentrating on the pot on my head".
King replied " Just as you were attentive to the oil pot, i am also established always on the self and never see the samsara around me. A true saint is not attentive on where he lives or what he sees, for him the pure seeing is always firmly established."

Here the oil pot is the real self, the attention is the firm abidance in it. The city is the samsara. The death by the sword represents our spiritual death.It happens when we see the city of samsara without paying attention to the oil pot.


“The Self is the Heart. The Heart is self-luminous. Light arises from the Heart and reaches the brain, which is the seat of the mind. The world is seen with the mind, that is, by the reflected light of the Self. It is perceived with the aid of the mind. When the mind is illumined it is aware of the world. When it is not itself so illumined, it is not aware of the world. If the mind is turned in towards the source of light, objective knowledge ceases and Self alone shines forth as the Heart.”
                                                                                                                         Ramana's talk

A Mirage

Everything is your Guru. Rocks teach you silence, trees teach you compassion, and the breeze teaches you non-attachment. ...the Satguru is one, reach with him no ego.
                                                                                                           Satsang with  Pappaji .


Most people are familiar with the illusion of a mirage. If you go on a road on a hot summer day in a car or bus, if you look forward you see some reflection on the road, which disappears as you come closer. So the mirage looks like water from a distance. In a dessert it could cause  people to be misguided. We all know with hindsight, that there is no water and only an apparent illusion. But for children it is a constant thing of wonder. They almost expect water to be there and to get disappointed. But the explanation may not be sufficient for them to see that it is an illusion.  They need to come closer and see. In a desert it could cause a thirsty wanderer considerable delusion and frustration. All this shows that if you believe in unreal and non existent things, all your wanderings are pointless in pursuit. A thirsty wanderer could have a horrible tale to tell as his life . The mirage is real, but not the water in it.
Similar to the mirage, there is an analogous misunderstanding in consciousness . The ego. There is a conscious activity in the mind. But this also creates a delusion of someone doing these activities.

In order to understand, consciousness we need to understand existence. What is existence? It is the fact that something exists. A tree exists, a snake exists, a rope exists and most importantly the universe exists. What exactly do we mean when we say " A tree exists". We mean that something with certain attributes like color texture smell and shape seem to be there. The next question would be what is that which helps us to know these attributes of that object. We can see it is consciousness. Suppose consciousness was not there , what happens to the poor tree?. Is it that it still exists, but would not be known?. It is a possibility. But this possibility is also something that is known in consciousness. So in order to deny consciousness , we need consciousness. So existence seems to be mingled deeply with consciousness.

Now let us ask the reverse question. Is consciousness possible without existence of something. We can see that it is possible. Consciousness can be conscious of only itself without anything existing. This pure state is what we go through every night in deep sleep. We are not conscious of anything in particular not even our body or mind, so there is consciousness without anything. Some may think , this is unconscious state. But it is not so. The absence of mind is what causes to report that it is unconsciousness. Actually this is one of the problems with our perception. Mind is equated with consciousness and any absence thereof is treated as unconsciousness. This leads into questioning whether mind is the only consciousness we know or is that there is something more fundamental than that which can be called consciousness.

This brings us back to the mirage. When we look at our mind from a distance, then it does appear as the center of consciousness.And since it is consciousness we feel that what it says about existence must be true because of the fact that existence is dependent on consciousness. The mind says that there is a world out there independent of me and it consists of various objects like trees, ropes , buildings , stars , galaxies etc. Now if we ask the mind about the existence of a special object namely our body, it would tell you it exists too and it is the body which has perceived and known this world.

Here comes the distinction in existence. The existence of body is considered as distinct from existence of the world. My body exists and there is the rest of the world. This creates a separation of me the body from the rest of the world. But if the mind had told us that the body is also one of the objects perceived , then there would not have been any special nature to our body and we would not have had this sense of separation. All existence would have been considered as one.

Now look closely at the mind. There is a whirlpool of activity just as in a summer day there would be lot of hot air circulating in the atmosphere. These activities in the mind are nothing but thoughts emotions, sensations, feelings perceptions and so on. Now look closely. Is there anything other than this activity?. Is there really someone inside that activity?. You will be unable to find anyone sitting inside that flurry of activity. There is some conscious disturbance . That is true. But there is no one at the center of it to take responsibility. So why do we feel that "I am thinking". It is because of this simple fact that these activities happen in an object called our body. So here comes the startling conclusion. There is really no I sitting at the center of the mind. There just is a whirlpool of conscious energy in our body.

Now comes another realization. If there is no I in this whirlpool, who is knowing existence?.What is the nature of existence revealed here?. You can see that existence is revealed by consciousness, but it is not a local consciousness inside our body alone. It so happens that the consciousness that is all pervading creates this disturbance in our body also. It is like a resonance. So consciousness knows existence . Since there is no special consciousness, all existence is the same. Either everything exists or nothing at all.
It can also be seen that you can view your body itself through consciousness, you can view your mind itself through consciousness. So the true center cannot be inside your body or mind. It must be everywhere.So you are actually that which is looking down on your body and mind as a witness. And yet the mind wants you to believe that the center of consciousness is inside the body mind. This is the mirage effect created by the mind. It can be quenched only by calming the mind.

So let us summarize what we found by looking at the mirage. We found that there is no water or in this case there is no subject I knowing the world from inside the world. There is activity in the mind. But no I inside it . There is no evidence for the separate I . It exists as an assumption which when closely looked at falls apart. The flurry of activity if it is not given a separate I ,will not split existence into two. There is only existence. There is no difference between existence of my body and existence of everything else.

Now look at your life problems. You always come and report , i had a horrible life experience. I am worried about so and so. All these statements implies that you have given a separate identity to the activities in your mind. In the language of mirage, you have assumed that there is water there, while in reality there is none. So the problem of ego is that it does not exist at all and yet we firmly believe in its existence just like the water in a mirage.

So what is the take on the so called life problems. Are they just unreal?. No. The problems are real. But there is no I to take sole ownership of it. It is the problem of whole existence which just happens to be perceived by our body. In essence it is not a problem, it is an appearance in consciousness.

Pappaji used to say Be quiet in order to see yourself. Yes. That is the key. All our mind is flurry of activity. All our bodily actions are guided by them. It is this flurry which circulates the notion of a separate I. If we become calm and composed by letting go of the desires , and dualistic perceptions what is revealed is the true consciousness because now there is no center in the mind.
Sahaja Samadhi is the state where you realize that there is only one single thing and all the delusions end there dissolving into that one thing without any effort.

Stages in our path

The Upanishads highlight various ways and means of attaining the Supreme Brahman. The principal method prescribed is direct inward communion with that Reality. Direct inward communion is called meditation. Deep thought, profound thinking and a fundamental, basic feeling for it – longing for it, and getting oneself convinced about one's non-difference from it because of its being All-Existence – is the great meditational technique of the Upanishads. Inasmuch as this meditation is nothing but the affirmation of the knowledge of the universal existence of Brahman, it is also called jnana, the path of wisdom.    ----Swami Krishananda 

As we continue our inner view through Meditation and self observation, we start noticing things which were unconscious of. If we can understand these stages , it would be good. However a word of caution. All people are not the same. The way in which we have lived , our experiences are all very much subjective. So the time required for these stages and how they are passed is all relative to that person. There is no need for any sense of dejection that something is not happening or anything. Everything varies.

The first thing to understand in this path is noticing all things or developing clarity . This is the most essential stage. Everything depends on how carefully and meticulously we do this . Also it is required to extend this to all of our life, after we practice this well in meditation. This stage can be called Looking. This looking should be complete. It should try to not involve with what is being watched at the same time just notice all intricacies. If we just look, with no judgement or interpretation it can be called Looking. Here we are just looking and not looking at any content of the thoughts emotions etc. Whatever be the object that we are looking , we don't want to know what is inside, we just want to know what it is. Is it a thought , is it an emotion , is it a fearful feeling , is it a pain sensation?. Just look at all sufferings without looking into its contents. We need to have a simultaneous view of all .

The second stage involves contemplation of the impermanence of things. As we continuously look, we notice that all our fears, all our worries, are highly impermanent. As we remarked before, there are two important messages in impermanence. One is that, all things are dependent on each other. The whole universe is interconnected. So anything when trying to exist independently will not succeed. This is one of the reasons why our bodies change and die. This is one of the reasons why people behave in odd ways. Take any change and you would see the inter dependencies with other people , their expectations and so on. In the midst of all these things change and they arise and disappear. Second message of impermanence is its value. If things change so much why should we attribute so much value. So it is worthless to pursue empty things which can disappear at any time. So this stage can be called Contemplation on Impermanence.

There is a zen story regarding transient nature of things

A famous spiritual teacher came to the front door of the King's palace. None of the guards tried to stop him as he entered and made his way to where the King himself was sitting on his throne.
"What do you want?" asked the King, immediately recognizing the visitor.
"I would like a place to sleep in this inn," replied the teacher.
"But this is not an inn," said the King, "It is my palace."
"May I ask who owned this palace before you?"
"My father. He is dead."
"And who owned it before him?"
"My grandfather. He too is dead."
"And this place where people live for a short time and then move on - did I hear you say that it is NOT an inn?"
The third main stage is to see specific attachment points and finding that it is caused by the false self or the ego. If you start noticing things completely , some attachments ( desires and aversions) never leave us. It goes on coming and going in a repetitive pattern. If you look at them closely you would see that they are labeled by the me thought. If it concerns me, how can we stop worrying. If i dont worry who will?. These thoughts are clinging which are persistent. Now this can be only resolved by understanding the ego. Try to enquire into the nature of the I mentioned. This is not asking the mind with the question who am I?. It is trying to locate where this I is situated. So we probe, using our looking power, where is this I thought ?. Have i seen it anywhere ?. It is like a looking deeply into the mind. You will see that even though you see thoughts and perceptions and emotions , this I thought cannot be found. So this means that it is an elusive thing. You can see that once the I thought is removed from a persistent thought, it is also one of the arisings and we can let it go. Just as we see the impermanence of things , we see here false and fake things in our mind. This stage can be called  Self enquiry.

The fourth important stage is establishing firmly in the path with the understanding that there is only one thing that seems to be permanent while everything else is either impermanent or illusory. This helps us to establish from the perspective of the awareness to look at life in a very light way. It is like finding the essential treasure after digging up lot of mud. The digging is understanding all unnecessary things as impermanent. This stage can be called living in awareness as awareness.

The evolution of mind also happens through each stages. As we go on seeing and enquiring about the nature of everything, the mind too starts abandoning its egoistic roots and tries to live with calmness and equanimity . A taming of our mind happens. At first our mind is like a wild elephant wild in its instincts, uncultured in its patterns and largely unpredictable. But with time it becomes a controllable beast. This happens automatically and not by force. We can never tame our mind by rigorous practices.
 Thoughts would be there , but they hardly stick, no separation would be felt with everything. All emotions becomes positive and pure . Love and compassion is felt in its truest sense.