In every experience in life there seems to be three things. One there seems to be an experiencer, second the experiencing and the third experienced object. Now let us take an example, you are watching a sun set in some beautiful beach side. A cool breeze is blowing , the night time sky is slowly descending . The experienced is clearly the sunset and the beach. The experiencing is the process of perceptions and thoughts that come in . Now who is the experiencer here ?. The immediate answer is "me". Who is me?. If you ask your mind it would try to say it is nothing but the body-mind system. So the experiencer according to the conventional experience is "body-mind " system.
Now look at this fact closely. The fact that I is only the body-mind system is only an idea. It is more like a concept .Isn't it ?. What is a concept ?. A concept is mental construct which may or may not correspond to something . If you look at the concept of say honesty . You can see that it is a set of ideas ,, opinions and values . All mental constructs. It may be guided by social ethics, your own personal philosophy and so on. But nowhere in the world , can you show a thing called honesty. In some years the concept of honesty might change and it still would exist in mind only. Isn't the concept of I more like a mental construct?. You can definitely see the body , you can experience the mind, but the I seems to be non-existent except as a thought. So when you say "I saw the sunset", do you mean to say " A thought(concept) experienced sunset?". This seems absurd. Yet, it is what it is. This is the meaning of the statement "there really is no experiencer".
Now take another experience. You are angry at someone. There are lot of thoughts created out of the emotion called anger. Now the object causing anger could be anything . The emotions also exist. Process of anger is going on. But where is the experiencer here.? Again a concept or thought ( called I) is the experiencer here. How can a thought(I thought) be angry?. It is only a thought. In order to understand the absurdity of this , consider honesty. Can a concept called honesty be angry ?. Or will it become sad if honesty undergoes change with advancement in culture. A concept is only a concept. Just like that how can a concept called I feel anger or sadness?. It is only a concept.
Lastly consider you are walking down the street. You are perceiving the body walking. Still you would say the I am walking. Experiencer is a thought or concept. The thought feels that it is walking. All this shows that even though the experiences are there and experiencing is going on, the experiencer is hardly an existent entity. It is not something that is permanent. It is a thought called the "I thought" which claims that the experience is its own.
Also notice an important aspect here. The fact that the I is only body-mind is also known!!!. So it is also an experienced object. Any thought or concept is an object. So the concept of I is also an object. If it is an object, what is the subject?. If the subject is not the body-mind system, then the subject is not part of it but independent of it. So the experiencer is not the body-mind, but it is awareness itself. Awareness is not personal. It is not an awarer. It is awareness. A state of consciousness which is knowing.
For seeing this simple truth that there is no experiencer , but only a background awareness which is illumining all the experiences can be seen in every experience if you look closely enough. Very often we take the experiencer to be granted. We are always lost in the experienced objects and the process of experiencing that the experiencer is never seen or questioned. Every experience is a pointer to finding this out. The idea of spiritual practice is to identify the experiencer and to show clearly what it is . Notice we said "what it is" not "who it is". Because there is no who.
When we look around , you can see people moving around caressing this sense of imaginary I holding on to it, nurturing it , working for it , trying to make the life better for it. How silly and frivolous. We build houses , move around in cars, go to places, all to satisfy a thought?. ( called I). Now wonder ,this world is such a mad place. No wonder that it is filled with suffering. If you satisfy a thought will it thank you. Will it ever become content?.
So what is the solution to this problem?. The solution is not to think that the experiencer would vanish from our mind. The idea is to go on witnessing the experiencer concept in our mind . The process of experiencing the experiencer itself is the solution. Naturally the witnessing of the experiencer shows that the experiencer itself is not the experiencer since there is something observing it. So next time you experience a strong emotion, look closely . Look at the experiencer . Try to find where it lives. Try to find what it is. Go on searching for it. Also have a wonder "who is searching?!!!".
To the ardent student , a doubt may arise. The subject to which all experiences are happening is awareness. How can we learn about it ?. Once we learn it , it becomes an object of knowledge. But the subject can never be an object. So what does atma jyana do ?. Atma jyana is nothing but the understanding that I am what i am seeking. The subject which i am trying to understand is nothing but me. Owning up the real atman as myself and rejecting the body-mind as anatma is the real purpose of this endeavor. The shift of consciousness from the body-mind complex to the awareness is called transcendence( shifting the I). This is why the only word we can use here is "I AM THAT". All other statements like I KNOW ATMAN etc makes atman into an object which it is not.
Now look at this fact closely. The fact that I is only the body-mind system is only an idea. It is more like a concept .Isn't it ?. What is a concept ?. A concept is mental construct which may or may not correspond to something . If you look at the concept of say honesty . You can see that it is a set of ideas ,, opinions and values . All mental constructs. It may be guided by social ethics, your own personal philosophy and so on. But nowhere in the world , can you show a thing called honesty. In some years the concept of honesty might change and it still would exist in mind only. Isn't the concept of I more like a mental construct?. You can definitely see the body , you can experience the mind, but the I seems to be non-existent except as a thought. So when you say "I saw the sunset", do you mean to say " A thought(concept) experienced sunset?". This seems absurd. Yet, it is what it is. This is the meaning of the statement "there really is no experiencer".
Now take another experience. You are angry at someone. There are lot of thoughts created out of the emotion called anger. Now the object causing anger could be anything . The emotions also exist. Process of anger is going on. But where is the experiencer here.? Again a concept or thought ( called I) is the experiencer here. How can a thought(I thought) be angry?. It is only a thought. In order to understand the absurdity of this , consider honesty. Can a concept called honesty be angry ?. Or will it become sad if honesty undergoes change with advancement in culture. A concept is only a concept. Just like that how can a concept called I feel anger or sadness?. It is only a concept.
Lastly consider you are walking down the street. You are perceiving the body walking. Still you would say the I am walking. Experiencer is a thought or concept. The thought feels that it is walking. All this shows that even though the experiences are there and experiencing is going on, the experiencer is hardly an existent entity. It is not something that is permanent. It is a thought called the "I thought" which claims that the experience is its own.
Also notice an important aspect here. The fact that the I is only body-mind is also known!!!. So it is also an experienced object. Any thought or concept is an object. So the concept of I is also an object. If it is an object, what is the subject?. If the subject is not the body-mind system, then the subject is not part of it but independent of it. So the experiencer is not the body-mind, but it is awareness itself. Awareness is not personal. It is not an awarer. It is awareness. A state of consciousness which is knowing.
For seeing this simple truth that there is no experiencer , but only a background awareness which is illumining all the experiences can be seen in every experience if you look closely enough. Very often we take the experiencer to be granted. We are always lost in the experienced objects and the process of experiencing that the experiencer is never seen or questioned. Every experience is a pointer to finding this out. The idea of spiritual practice is to identify the experiencer and to show clearly what it is . Notice we said "what it is" not "who it is". Because there is no who.
When we look around , you can see people moving around caressing this sense of imaginary I holding on to it, nurturing it , working for it , trying to make the life better for it. How silly and frivolous. We build houses , move around in cars, go to places, all to satisfy a thought?. ( called I). Now wonder ,this world is such a mad place. No wonder that it is filled with suffering. If you satisfy a thought will it thank you. Will it ever become content?.
So what is the solution to this problem?. The solution is not to think that the experiencer would vanish from our mind. The idea is to go on witnessing the experiencer concept in our mind . The process of experiencing the experiencer itself is the solution. Naturally the witnessing of the experiencer shows that the experiencer itself is not the experiencer since there is something observing it. So next time you experience a strong emotion, look closely . Look at the experiencer . Try to find where it lives. Try to find what it is. Go on searching for it. Also have a wonder "who is searching?!!!".
To the ardent student , a doubt may arise. The subject to which all experiences are happening is awareness. How can we learn about it ?. Once we learn it , it becomes an object of knowledge. But the subject can never be an object. So what does atma jyana do ?. Atma jyana is nothing but the understanding that I am what i am seeking. The subject which i am trying to understand is nothing but me. Owning up the real atman as myself and rejecting the body-mind as anatma is the real purpose of this endeavor. The shift of consciousness from the body-mind complex to the awareness is called transcendence( shifting the I). This is why the only word we can use here is "I AM THAT". All other statements like I KNOW ATMAN etc makes atman into an object which it is not.
No comments:
Post a Comment