Om! You are not what you think, feel and want! ~ Atman Nityananda

 

You are not what you think, feel and want!

What prevents you from freeing yourself from the ego is that you perceive everything that manifests in you as yourself and as your choice.

In other words, you are fully identified with it.

Does presence requires effort? ~ Atman Nityananda

Does presence requires effort? 

Being present doesn’t need effort. If you have understood what is being present, then what is needed is to remember it (remember being present). That’s why Gurjieff named Self-awareness as Self-remembrance. 

But this is not so easy (especially in the beginning, - depends also on the maturity of the aspirant) because due to the habit and the power of the egoic tendencies we fall quite easily in self-forgetfulness and we identify with the mechanical thinking, emotions, sensations, objects, our ego and body. Because of this an effort is needed to stop or to impede identification (with thoughts, emotions, sensation, the body and objects) to happen and remember being present. It is needed an effort to stop the compulsive movement of our ego (if it is possible in the very beginning of its movement, before it takes a full manifestation) to identify with thoughts emotions etc.

I would like here to mention that there is a difference between being present and being aware of the source of the presence. The important thing regarding to this, it is that when we are present we can very easily lose the state of presence and identify with the mind, emotions, objects etc., but if we are more deeply in the source of presence then it is not easy for the ego to bring our consciousness down to the level of body, mind and perceptions and make us fall in forgetfulness. But being in this deeper state it is possible only for advanced aspirants and also when we are not engaged in external activities; it is not possible to focus our attention deep within and function through senses properly.

Although presence doesn’t need effort due to habit and the rajasotamasic nature of our ego, the ego very easily ‘steals’ our attention and makes us fall in forgetfulness and identify with thoughts, emotions, sensations, perceptions etc.. So, it doesn’t needed effort to be self-aware but it is needed a very subtle effort (this is called effort without effort) to remember it, and some kind of effort (a little or greater, according the circumstances) to impede identification to happen (identification happens due to the activation of some egoic tendency) or it is needed an effort to disidentify from the mind, objects, emotions etc. (if we already are in the state of identification) and return into the state of presence.

The whole process of spirituality in two words is detach-attach.

We must moment to moment detach from the thoughts, imaginations, emotions, the objects and the ego itself and attach to the Self within. By practice gradually decreases the power of the ego to make us identify as well as the time we are identified with the ego and the egoic tendencies and increases the time we remain present and Self-aware.

In order to accelerate this process and remain more and more aware of our true nature, we must follow a daily discipline and work with the dissolution of the egoic tendencies.

Om peace

THE IDENTIFICATION AS A HABIT ~ Atman Nityananda

THE IDENTIFICATION AS A HABIT

The central purpose of spiritual practice is to stop our identification with the body, the mind, (thoughts, feelings, impulses, desires, imaginations etc.) the external objects, and the ego itself and identify with our true Self (Consciousness).. As long as we continue to live identified with the egoic self it is impossible to avoid the pain and suffering. The identification strengthens the mechanical reactions (emotional, mental, desires) and the programming of the ego and obscures us to experience our true nature which is free from all suffering and limitations, and is the source of infinite peace and bliss.

The mechanism of identification is the same for both, the pleasure and the psychological pain (suffering). Both require identification to occur. Without identification there can be neither pleasure nor suffering. When we are focused deeply enough in our Self (Self-awareness) we don’t give space to our ego to react mechanically, but if we are not deeply focused within, then, although we remain alert and self-aware, our ego can react mechanically; however, since we are vigilant and self-aware we do not identify completely with the mental or emotional reaction and thus the egoic reaction cannot become a ‘huge wave’ and get lost in it.

If we want to develop the ability of non-identification with the lower or egoic self we must practice non identification in all cases; i.e. we must avoid or stop identification with the mental and emotional reactions related to pleasure, to those (mental and emotional reactions) that are related to suffering as well as not to identify with all little things, objects and situations of the everyday life. If we permit ourselves to identify with the pleasurable experiences (because we like to experience pleasure) or the little things of the daily life (because we consider it as no so important) then we cannot avoid identification with reactions of suffering due to habit.

The mind (and especially the manas or external mind) works by habit, and habit (exis) becomes our second nature; so, if we do not try to avoid identification in the pleasures as well as to everyday trifles, then the habit to identify it is strengthened at the level of the mind, prana and brain. Then, when manifests a feeling that hurts it is very difficult if not impossible to avoid identification with it, since all time we feed the habit of identification.

So it is a matter of choice. Do you want to continue identifying with the passionate desirous ego, in order to enjoy pleasure through the sensory experiences (accepting the pain and suffering that this entails), or you want to live free from fear, anger, attachment and desires, and enjoy the plenitude, peace, freedom and bliss of your true nature?

If you honestly want to be free from the illusion of I’ and ‘mine and the identification with the body which is the source of all identifications, pleasures and miseries then you should renounce and stop any kind of identification; you must do your best to control your mind and senses and live in Self-awareness, dispassion and detachment from the contents of the mind and senses.

INQUIRY - Contemplative questioning to disidentify from the thought streaming ~ Atman Nityananda

INQUIRY - Contemplative questioning to disidentify from the thought streaming

The essential part of our sadhana is to dissolve the egoic tendencies and be established in our true Self. In order to succeed to this, we must stop identification with thoughts and emotions.

Two of the main causes that we are so attached to our thoughts is that we are fascinated by them and we take them as a reality.

Thus, to stop identification with thoughts and imaginations, I suggest two inquiries which I developed during my spiritual journey. The one is to separate thoughts from lust or emotions in order to 'break down' the fascination of thinking or imagining and the other is a contemplative questioning which help us realize that the thoughts are not a reality. There are also other ways to stop fascination and attraction to thoughts, especially to those thoughts that are related to objects of pleasure, but separating the lust or the emotion from thoughts is one of the most effective ones.

In this essay I will explain the contemplative questioning.

An effective way to stop our identification with thoughts and the thought process is to dissolve our deception that thoughts is a reality by questioning our selves like this:

If I don't think about this or that, where does this or these things exist ?

Just ask and contemplate this question in silence. By remaining silent, where all these things you were thinking exist? Nowhere. Be silent and realize deeply that what you think as reality exists only in your mind.

Every time we do this silent contemplation we become more and more aware that thoughts are only an imaginary reality which exists only as long as we permit thoughts to arise in our head. It is important this understanding, (that the things we think are not a reality but only imagination), to become strong and steady and be implanted in our deeper consciousness (chitta); that's why the repetition of this contemplation for long time is needed. Otherwise our ego will deceive us very easily and make us identify with thoughts, especially thoughts related to our self-image and pleasure.

By this contemplative questioning we will realize also that the supposed external real world exists for us as long as we think about it. A steady knowledge and conviction that the world is unreal and the only reality is Consciousness (Atman, Brahman, God, Spirit...) is the foundation of Self-realization.

We must do this contemplative questioning every time that thoughts arise in our mind without our volition (which happens most of the time).

In order not to deceive ourselves by thinking that we want to entertain these thoughts it is necessary to have a task. For example when we start from our home to go to job we decide that we will remain concentrated to the breathing, to a mantra etc. Since we have decide this, then all thoughts that appear in our mind it is not our choice but our daydreaming. Then every time that arise thoughts we must apply this contemplative questioning. 

We must practice this willingly until it becomes a habit.

The advantage of this 'technique' is that we don't try to stop thinking forcefully, but this happens naturally because we take the energy and our attention from the thinking process and we put it into the questioning and its silent contemplation.

This 'technique' is also important because help us realize that the thoughts are not a reality but only our imaginary world as well as that the world is unreal, because when we don't think about the world and we gather our attention inside into our true Self the world doesn't exist for us. 

The only 'thing we cannot avoid is our Self (Consciousness) which is the only reality. Our true Self or Consciousness, is real because never ceases to be. It is ever present, unchanging, limitless, infinite, timeless, formless, causeless, and ever peaceful and blissful!

By being aware of it is up to us if we want to live in imagination or not. We always have to decide what is more important to us, reality or imagination.