The I am and the witness! ~Nisargadatta

The I am and the witness!

~Nisargadatta

The witness is both unreal and real. The last remnant of the illusion, the first touch of the real. To say: I am only the witness is both false and true, false because of the ‘I am’, true because of the witness. It is better to say: ‘there is witnessing’. 

The moment you say ‘I am’, the entire universe comes into being along with its creator.

34. Immortality is freedom from the feeling: ‘I am’. Yet it is not extinction. On the contrary, it is a state infinitely more real, aware and happy than you can possibly think of. Only self-consciousness is no more.

Who would remain even to say ‘I am the witness’? 

When there is no ‘I am’, where is the witness? In the timeless state there no self to take refuge in.

Om! Life is the Supreme Guru - CH. 32 - book 'I am that'

Life is the Supreme Guru

extract  from the CH. 32 - book 'I am that'  Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

...........
 
Q: The scale of the impending catastrophe is unbelievabiy big. We live in the midst of an explosion.
M: Each man suffers alone and dies alone. Numbers are irrelevant. There is as much death when a million die as when one perishes.
 
Q: Nature kills by the millions, but this does not frighten me. There may be tragedy or mystery in it, but no cruelty. What horrifies me is man made suffering, destruction and desolation. Nature is magnificent in its doings and undoings. But there is meanness and madness in the acts of man.
M: Right. So, it is not suffering and death that are your problem but the meanness and madness at their root. Is not meanness also a form of madness? And is not madness the misuse of the mind? Humanity's problem lies in this misuse of the mind only. All the treasures of nature and spirit are open to man who will use his mind rightly.
 
Q: What is the right use of mind?
M: Fear and greed cause the misuse of the mind. The right use of mlnd is in the service of love, of life, of truth, of beauty.
 
Q: Easier said than done. Love of truth, of man goodwill -- what luxury! We need plenty of it to set the world right, but who will provide?
M: You can spend an eternity looking elsewhere for truth and love, intelligence and goodwill, imploring God and man -- all in vain. You must begin in yourself, with yourself -- this is the inexorable law. You cannot change the image without changing the face. First realize that your world is only a reflection of yourself and stop finding fault with the reflection. Attend to yourself, set yourself right -- mentally and emotionally. The physical will follow automatically. You talk so much of reforms: economic, social, political. Leave alone the reforms and mind the reformer. What kind of world can a man create who is stupid, greedy, heartless?
 
Q: If we have to wait for a change of heart, we shall have to wait indefinitely. Yours is a counsel of perfection, which is also a counsel of despair. When all are perfect, the world will be perfect. What useless truisml
M: I did not say it. I only said: You cannot change the world before changing yourself. I did not say -- before changing everybody. It is neither necessary, nor possible to change others. But if you can change yourself you will find that no other change is needed. To change the picture you merely change the film, you do not attack the cinema screen!
 
Q: How can you be so sure of yourself? How do you know that what you say is true?
M: It is not of myself that I am sure, I am sure of you. All you need is to stop searching outside what can be found only within. Set your vision right before you operate. You are suffering from acute misapprehension. Clarify your mind, purify your heart, sanctify your life -- this is the quickest way to a change of your world.
 
Q: So many saints and mystics lived and died. They did not change my world.
M: How could they? Your world is not theirs, nor is their yours.
 
Q: Surely there is a factual world common to all.
M: The world of things, of energy and matter? Even if there were such a common world of things and forces, it is not the world in which we live. Ours is a world of feelings and ideas, of attractions and repulsions, of scales of values, of motives and incentives, a mental world altogether. Biologically we need very little, our problems are of a different order. Problems created by desires and fears and wrong ideas can be solved only on the level of the mind. You must conquer your own mind and for this you must go beyond it.
 
Q: What does it mean to go beyond the mind.
M: You have gone beyond the body, haven't you? You do not closely follow your digestion, circulation or elimination. These have become automatic. In the same way the mind should work automatically, without calling for attention. This will not happen uless the mind works faultlessly. We are, most of our time mind and body conscious, because they constantly call for help. Pain and suffering are only the body and the mind screaming for attention. To go beyond the body you must be healthy: To go beyond the mind, you must have your mind in perfect order. You cannot leave a mess behind and go beyond. The mess wi bog you up. 'Pick up your rubbish' seems to be the universal law. And a just law too.
 
Q: Am I permitted to ask you how did you go beyond the mind?
M: By the grace of my Guru.
 
Q: What shape his grace took?
M: He told me what is true.
 
Q: What did he tell you?
M: He told me I am the Supreme Reality.
 
Q: What did you do about it?
M: I trusted him and remembered it.
 
Q: Is that all?
M: Yes, I remembered him; I remembered what he said.
 
Q: You mean to say that this was enough?
M: What more needs be done? It was quite a lot to remember the Guru and his words. My advice to you is even less difficult than this -- just remember yourself. 'I am', is enough to 'heal your mind and take you beyond. Just have some trust. I don't mislead you. Why should l? Do I want anything from you. I wish you well -- such is my nature. Why should I mislead you? Common sense too will tell you that to fulfil a desire you must keep your mind on it. If you want to know your true nature, you must have yourself in mind all the time, until the secret of your being stands revealed.
 
Q: Why should self remembrance bring one to self realization?
M: Because they are but two aspects of the same state. Self remembrance is in the mind, self realization is beyond the mind. The image in the mirror is of the face beyond the mirror.
 
Q: Fair enough. But what is the purpose?
M: To help others, one must be beyond the need of help.
 
Q: All I want is to be happy.
M: Be happy to make happy.
 
Q: Let others take care of themselves.
M: Sir, you are not separate. The happiness you cannot share is spurious. Only the shareable is truly desirable.
 
Q: Right. But do I need a Guru? What you tell me is simple and convincing. I shall remember it. This does not make you my Guru.
M: it is not the worship of a person that is crucial, but the steadiness and depth of your devotion to the task. Life itself is the Supreme Guru; be attentive to its lessons and obedient to its commands. When you personalize their source, you have an outer Guru; when you take them from life directly, the Guru is within. Remember, wonder, ponder, live with it, love it, grow into it, grow with it, make it your own -- the word of your Guru, outer of inner. Put in all and you will get all. I was doing it All my time I was giving to my Guru and to what he told me.
 
Q: I am a writer by profession. Can you give me some advice, for me specifically?
M: Writing is both a talent and a skill. Grow in talent and develop in skill. Desire what is worth desiring and desire it well. Just like you pick your way in a crowd, passing between people, so you find your way between events, without missing your general direction. It is easy, if you are earnest.
 
Q: So many times you mention the need of being earnest. But we are not men of single will. We are congeries of desires and needs, instincts and promptings. They crawl over eaeh other, sometimes one, sometimes another dominating, but never for long.
M: There are no needs, desires only.
 
Q: To eat, to drink, to shelter one's body; to live?
M: The desire to live is the one fundamental desire. All else depends on it.
 
Q: We live, because we must.
M: We live, because we crave sensory existence.
 
Q: A thing so universal cannot be wrong.
M: Not wrong, of course. In its own place and time nothing is wrong. But when you are concerned with truth, with reality, you must question every thing, your very life. By asserting the necessity of sensory and intellectual experience you narrow down your enquiry to search for comfort.
 
Q: I seek happiness, not comfort.
M: Beyond comfort of mind and body what happiness you know?
 
Q: Is there any other?
M: Find out for yourself. Question every urge, hold no desire legitimate. Empty of possession, physical and mental, free of all self concern, be open for discovery.
 
Q: It is a part of Indian spiritual tradition that mere living in the proximity of a saint or sage is conducive to liberation and no other means are needed. Why don't you organize an Ashram so that people could live near you?
M: The moment I create an institution I become its prisoner. As a matter of fact I am available to all. Common roof and food will not make people more welcome. 'Living near' does not mean breathing the same air. It means trusting and obeying, not letting the good intentions of the teacher go to waste. Have your Guru always in your heart and remember his instructions -- this is real abidance with the true. Physical proximity is least important. Make your entire life an expression of you. Faith and love for your teacher -- this is real dwelling with the Guru.

E-book - I Am That.pdf

EGO - DESIRE - EMOTIONS ~ Nisasrgadatta

EGO - DESIRE - EMOTIONS 

  ~ Nisasrgadatta

Q: When I see something pleasant, I want it. Who exactly wants it? The self or the mind?

M: The question is wrongly put. There is no 'who'. There is desire, fear, anger, and the mind says -- this is me, this is mine. There is no thing which could be called 'me' or 'mine'. Desire is a state of the mind, perceived and named by the mind. Without the mind perceiving and naming, where is desire?

Q: But the person does not want to be eliminated.

M: The person is merely the result of a misunderstanding. In reality, there is no such thing. 

Feelings, thoughts and actions race before the watcher in endless succession, leaving traces in the brain and creating an illusion of continuity. 

A reflection of the watcher in the mind creates the sense of 'I' and the person acquires an apparently independent existence. In reality there is no person, only the watcher identifying himself with the 'I' and the 'mine'. 

Self-enquiry, Self-knowledge and Freedom - Nisaradatta

Freedom from the ego-self is the fruit of self-enquiry

Turn away from your desires and fears and from the thoughts they create and you are at once in your natural state.

Q: Is not self-knowledge the reward?

Nisargadatta M: The reward of self-knowledge is freedom from the personal self. You cannot know the knower, for you are the knower.

Q: Myself, full of desires and you, full of desires; what difference would there be?

Nisargadatta M: You identify yourself with your desires and become their slave. To me desires are things among other things, mere clouds in the mental sky, and I do not feel compelled to act on them

The mind cannot know what is beyond the mind, but the mind is known by what is beyond it. The jnani knows neither birth nor death; existence and non-existence are the same to him.

Immortality is freedom from the feeling: 'I am'. Yet it is not extinction. On the contrary, it is a state infinitely more real, aware and happy than you can possibly think of. Only self-consciousness is no more.

The death of the mind is the birth of wisdom

Q: The person goes and only the witness remains.

Nisargadatta M: Who remains to say: 'I am the witness'. When there is no 'I am', where is the witness? In the timeless state there is no self to take refuge in.
The man who cherishes the feeling 'I am' is self-conscious. The jnani holds on to nothing and cannot be said to be conscious. And yet he is not unconscious. He is the very heart of awareness. We call him digambara clothed in space, the Naked One, beyond all appearance. There is no name and shape under which he may be said to exist, yet he is the only one that truly is.

Q: What about the witness? Is it real or unreal?

Nisargadatta M: It is both. The last remnant of illusion, the first touch of the real. To say: I am only the witness is both false and true: false because of the 'I am', true because of the witness. It is better to say: 'there is witnessing'. The moment you say: 'I am', the entire universe comes into being along with its creator.

The trinity: mind, self and spirit (vyakti, vyakta, avyakta), when looked into, becomes unity. These are only modes of experiencing: of attachment, of detachment, of transcendence.

A SUMMARY OF THE MEDITATION ''I AM'' - Nisargadatta

 

 A SUMMARY OF THE MEDITATION ''I AM''

The meditation 'l AM' is the Core practice of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. In these verses (which are extract from the book I AM THAT)  Nisargadatta gives the fundamental ideas about the meditation ‘I AM’.

Appearance and disappearance,

birth and death these are qualities of

‘I am’, they do not belong to you, the

Absolute.

The ‘I am’ is the sum total of all that

you perceive, it’s time-bound, the

‘I am’ itself is an illusion, you are not

the ‘I am’ you are prior to it.

You have ‘to be’ before anything else

can be, your sense of ‘presence’ or

the feeling ‘I am’ is really

fundamental to anything that has to follow.

Only the ‘I am’ is certain, it’s

impersonal, all knowledge stems

from it, it’s the root, hold on to it and

let all else go.

This ‘I am’ is ever present, ever available.

Remember the knowledge ‘I am’

only and give up the rest, staying in

the ‘I am’ you will realize that it is unreal.

You must meditate on the ‘I am’

without holding on to the body-mind,

the ‘I am’ is the first ignorance,

persist on it and you will go beyond it.

Putting aside everything, stabilize in

the ‘I am’. As you continue with this

practice, in the process you will

transcend the ‘I am’.

Immortality is freedom from the

feeling ‘I am’, Yet it is not extinction.

On the contrary, it is a state infinitely more real,

aware and happy than you can possibly think of.

Only self-consciosness is no more.

Keep focused on the ‘I am’ till you

become a witness to it, then you

stand apart, you have reached the highest.

All your efforts should be directed towards

coming to that pure state of 'I am' and reside there only.

If you do this with great sincerity and earnestness

you are bound to transcend the 'I am' one day.

So understand the importance of earnest 'being'.

When the ‘I am’ goes all that

remains is the Absolute, give all your

attention to the ‘I am’.

Remain focused on the ‘I am’ till it

goes into oblivion, then the eternal is,

the Absolute is, Parabrahman is.

Consciousness - Mind - I am - Nisargadatta

Consciousness - Mind - I am (56)

 - Nisargadatta

Nisargadatta: By its very nature the mind is outward turned; it always tends to seek for the source of things among the things themselves; to be told to look for the source within, is, in a way, the beginning of a new life.
Awareness takes the place of consciousness; in consciousness there is the 'I', who is conscious while awareness is undivided; awareness is aware of itself. 

The 'I am' is a thought, while awareness is not a thought, there is no 'I am aware' in awareness. 

Consciousness is an attribute while awareness is not; one can be aware of being conscious, but not conscious of awareness. 

God is the totality of consciousness, but awareness is beyond all -- being as well as not-being.

Question: Does consciousness come down from reality or is it an attribute of matter?
Nisargadatta: Consciousness as such is the subtle counterpart of matter. 

Just as inertia (tamas) and energy (rajas) are attributes of matter, so does harmony (sattva) manifest itself as consciousness. 

You may consider it in a way as a form of very subtle energy. Wherever matter organises itself into a stable organism, consciousness appears spontaneously. With the destruction of the organism consciousness disappears.

Question: Please tell us squarely: are you conscious or unconscious?
Nisargadatta: The enlightened (jnani) is neither. But in his enlightenment (jnana) all is contained. Awareness contains every experience. But he who is aware is beyond every experience. He is beyond awareness itself

The acceptance of pain the door to true happiness and peace ~ Nisargadatta

The acceptance of pain the door to true happiness and peace

Acceptance of pain takes you much deeper than pleasure does.

The personal self by its very nature is constantly pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain. The ending of this pattern is the ending of the self.

The ending of the self with its desires and fears enables you to return to your real nature, the source of all happiness and peace.

What is meditation and what are its uses? / Nisargadatta - I AM THAT

What is meditation and what are its uses?

Nisargadatta: As long as you are a beginner certain formalised meditations, or prayers may be good for you. But for a seeker for reality there is only one meditation -- the rigorous refusal to harbour thoughts. To be free from thoughts is itself meditation.

Questioner: How is it done?

Nisargadatta: You begin by letting thoughts flow and watching them. The very observation slows down the mind till it stops altogether. Once the mind is quiet, keep it quiet. Don't get bored with peace, be in it, go deeper into it.

Questioner: I heard of holding on to one thought in order to keep other thoughts away. But how to keep all thoughts away? The very idea is also a thought.

Nisargadatta: Experiment anew, don't go by past experience. Watch your thoughts and watch yourself watching the thoughts. The state of freedom from all thoughts will happen suddenly and by the bliss of it you shall recognise it.

Extract from the book I AM THAT  Ch. 48

Sattva is the faithful servant of the self! ~ Nissargadatta

Sattva is the faithful servant of the self!

Tamas and rajas (inertia, darkness and restlessness, passion) work together and keep sattva (clarity, harmony) down. Tamas and Rajas must be conquered before Sattva can appear.

Meditation is a sattvic activity and aims at complete elimination of tamas and rajas (inertia and restlessness) . Pure sattva is perfect freedom from sloth and restlessness (tamas and rajas).

So far your life was dark and restless (tamas and rajas). Attention, alertness, awareness, clarity, liveliness, vitality, are all manifestations of integrity, oneness with your true nature (sattva).

lt is in the nature of sattva to reconcile and neutralise tamas and rajas and rebuild the personality in accordance with the true nature of the self. Sattva is the faithful servant of the self; ever attentive and obedient.

The world seen in consciousness is to be of the nature of consciousness, when there is harmony (sattva); but when activity and passivity (rajas and tamas) appear, they obscure and distort andyou see the false as real.

Harmony and beauty, understanding and affection are all expressions of reality. It is reality in action, the impact of the spirit on matter.

Tamas obscures, rajas distorts, sattva harmonises.

With the maturing of the sattva all desires and fears come to an end. The real being is reflected in the mind undistorted . Matter is redeemed, spirit -- revealed. The two are seen as one. They were always one, but the imperfect mind saw them as two.

Perfection of the mind is the human task, for matter and spirit meet in the mind.

Awareness of Being is Bliss / 46 of the book 'I Am That' ¬ Nisargadatta

Awareness of Being is Bliss

Chapter 46 of the book 'I Am That'

Questioner: By profession I am a physician. I began with surgery, continued with psychiatry and also wrote some books on mental health and healing by faith. I came to you to learn the laws of spiritual health.

Maharaj: When you are trying to cure a patient, what exactly are you trying to cure? What is cure? When can you say that a man is cured?

Q: I seek to cure the body as well as improve the link between the body and the mind. I also seek to set right the mind.

M: Did you investigate the connection between the mind and the body? At what point are they connected?

Q: Between the body and the indwelling consciousness lies the mind.

M: Is not the body made of food? And can there be a mind without food?

Q: The body is built and maintained by food. Without food the mind usually goes weak. But the mind is not mere food. There is a transforming factor which creates a mind in the body. What is that transforming factor?

M: Just like the wood produces fire which is not wood, so does the body produce the mind which is not the body. But to whom does the mind appear? Who is the perceiver of the thoughts and feelings which you call the mind? There is wood, there is fire and there is the enjoyer of the fire. Who enjoys the mind? Is the enjoyer also a result of food, or is it independent?

Q: The perceiver is independent.

M: How do you know? Speak from your own experience. You are not the body nor the mind. You say so. How do you know?

Q: I really do not know. I guess so.

M: Truth is permanent. The real is changeless. What changes is not real, what is real does not change. Now, what is it in you that does not change? As long as there is food, there is body and mind. When the food is stopped, the body dies and the mind dissolves. But does the observer perish?

Q: I guess it does not. But I have no proof.

M: You yourself are the proof. You have not, nor can you have any other proof. You are yourself, you know yourself, you love yourself. Whatever the mind does, it does for the love of its own self. The very nature of the self is love. It is loved, loving and lovable. It is the self that makes the body and the mind so interesting, so very dear. The very attention given to them comes from the self.

Q: If the self is not the body nor the mind, can it exist without the body and the mind?

M: Yes, it can. It is a matter of actual experience that the self has being independent of mind and body. It is being -- awareness -- bliss. Awareness of being is bliss.

Q: It may be a matter of actual experience to you, but it is not my case. How can I come to the same experience? What practices to follow, what exercises to take up?

M: To know that you are neither body nor mind, watch yourself steadily and live unaffected by your body and mind, completely aloof, as if you were dead. It means you have no vested interests, either in the body or in the mind.

Q: Dangerous!

M: I am not asking you to commit suicide. Nor can you. You can only kill the body, you cannot stop the mental process, nor can you put an end to the person you think you are. Just remain unaffected. This complete aloofness, unconcern with mind and body is the best proof that at the core of your being you are neither mind nor body. What happens to the body and the mind may not be within your power to change, but you can always put an end to your imagining yourself to be body and mind. Whatever happens, remind yourself that only your body and mind are affected, not yourself. The more earnest you are at remembering what needs to be remembered, the sooner will you be aware of yourself as you are, for memory will become experience. Earnestness reveals being. What is imagined and willed becomes actuality -- here lies the danger as well as the way out.

Tell me, what steps have you taken to separate your real self, that in you which is changeless, from your body and mind?

Q: I am a medical man, I have studied a lot, I imposed on myself a strict discipline in the way of exercises and periodical fasts and I am a vegetarian.

M: But in the depth of your heart what is it that you want?

Q: I want to find reality.

M: What price are you willing to pay for reality? Any price?

Q: While in theory I am ready to pay any price, in actual life again and again I am being prompted to behave in ways which come in between me and reality. Desire carries me away.

M: Increase and widen your desires till nothing but reality can fulfil them. It is not desire that is wrong, but its narrowness and smallness. Desire is devotion. By all means be devoted to the real, the infinite, the eternal heart of being. Transform desire into love. All you want is to be happy. All your desires, whatever they may be, are expressions of your longing for happiness. Basically, you wish yourself well.

Q: I know that I should not…

M: Wait! Who told you that you should not? What is wrong with wanting to be happy?

Q: The self must go, l know.

M: But the self is there. Your desires are there. Your longing to be happy is there. Why? Because you love yourself. By all means love yourself -- wisely. What is wrong is to love yourself stupidly, so as to make yourself suffer. Love yourself wisely. Both indulgence and austerity have the same purpose in view -- to make you happy. Indulgence is the stupid way, austerity is the wise way.

Q: What is austerity?

M: Once you have gone through an experience, not to go through it again is austerity. To eschew the unnecessary is austerity. Not to anticipate pleasure or pain Is austerity. Having things under control at all times is austerity. Desire by itself is not wrong. It is life itself, the urge to grow in knowledge and experience.

It is the choices you make that are wrong. To imagine that some little thing -- food. sex, power, fame -- will make you happy is to deceive yourself. Only something as vast and deep as your real self can make you truly and lastingly happy.

Q: Since there is nothing basically wrong in desire as an expression of love of self, how should desire be managed?

M: Live your life intelligently, with the interests of your deepest self always in mind. After all, what do you really want? Not perfection; you are already perfect. What you seek is to express in action what you are. For this you have a body and a mind. Take them in hand and make them serve you.

Q: Who is the operator here? Who is to take the body-mind in hand?

M: The purified mind is the faithful servant of the self. It takes charge of the instruments, inner and outer, and makes them serve their purpose.

Q: And what is their purpose?

M: The self is universal and its aims are universal. There is nothing personal about the self. Live an orderly life, but don't make it a goal by itself. It should be the starting point for high adventure.

Q: Do you advise me to come to India repeatedly?

M: If you are earnest, you don't need moving about. You are yourself wherever you are and you create your own climate. Locomotion and transportation will not give you salvation. You are not the body and dragging the body from place to place will take you nowhere. Your mind is free to roam the three worlds -- make full use of it.

Q: If I am free, why am I in a body?

M: you are not in the body, the body is in you! The mind is in you. They happen to you. They are there because you find them interesting. Your very nature has the infinite capacity to enjoy. It is full of zest and affection. It sheds its radiance on all that comes within its focus of awareness and nothing is excluded. It does not know evil nor ugliness, it hopes, it trusts, it loves. You people do not know how much you miss by not knowing your own true self. You are neither the body nor the mind, neither the fuel nor the fire. They appear and disappear according to their own laws.

That which you are, your true self, you love it, and whatever you do, you do for your own happiness. To find it, to know it, to cherish it is your basic urge. Since time immemorial you loved yourself, but never wisely. Use your body and mind wisely in the service of the self, that is all. Be true to your own self, love your self absolutely. Do not pretend that you love others as yourself. Unless you have realised them as one with yourself, you cannot love them Don't pretend to be what you are not, don't refuse to be what you are. Your love of others is the result of self-knowledge, not its cause. Without self-realisation, no virtue is genuine. When you know beyond all doubting that the same life flows through all that is and you are that life, you will love all naturally and spontaneously. When you realise the depth and fullness of your love of yourself, you know that every living being and the entire universe are included in your affection. But when you look at anything as separate from you, you cannot love it for you are afraid of it. Alienation causes fear and fear deepens alienation. It is a vicious circle. Only self-realisation can break it. Go for it resolutely.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF MEDITATION? ~Nisargadatta

QUESTIONER: All teachers advise to meditate. What is the purpose of meditation?

NISARGADATTA: We know the outer world of sensations and actions, but of our inner world of thoughts and feelings we know very little.

The primary purpose of meditation is to become conscious of, and familiar with, our inner life. The ultimate purpose is to reach the source of life and consciousness.

Incidentally practice of meditation affects deeply our character.

We are slaves to what we do not know; of what we know we are masters. Whatever vice or weakness in ourselves we discover and understand its causes and its workings, we overcome it by the very knowing; the unconscious dissolves when brought into the conscious. The dissolution of the unconscious releases energy; the mind feels adequate and become quiet.

Extract from the book ´I am That´

What about the witness? Is it real or unreal? ~ Nisargadatta

Questioner: What about the witness? Is it real or unreal?

Nisargadatta: It is both. The last remnant of illusion, the first touch of the real. To say: I am only the witness is both false and true: false because of the 'I am', true because of the witness. It is better to say: 'there is witnessing'. The moment you say: 'I am', the entire universe comes into being along with its creator.

THE ULTIMATE REALITY - THE LIGHT OF CONSCIOUSNESS ~ Nisargadatta / I AM THAT

THE ULTIMATE REALITY - THE LIGHT OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Questioner: What is the source of consciousness?

Nisargadatta : Consciousness itself is the source of everything.

Questioner: Can there be life without consciousness?

Nisargadatta : No, nor consciousness without life. They are both one. But in reality only the Ultimate is. The rest is a matter of name and form. And as long as you cling to the idea that only what has name and shape exists, the Supreme will appear to you nonexisting.

When you understand that names and shapes are hollow shells without any content whatsoever, and what is real is nameless and formless, pure energy of life and light of consciousness, you will be at peace -- immersed in the deep silence of reality.

extract from the book "I Am That.pdf " ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj Chapter 13. The Supreme, the Mind and the Body

Beyond Mind there is no Suffering ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

Beyond Mind there is no Suffering 

Extract from the book I am That  ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

Questioner: The universe does not seem a happy place to live in. Why is there so much suffering?

Maharaj: Pain is physical; suffering is mental. Beyond the mind there is no suffering. Pain is merely a signal that the body is in danger and requires attention. Similarly, suffering warns us that the structure of memories and habits, which we call the person (vyakti), is threatened by loss or

change. Pain is essential for the survival of the body, but none compels you to suffer. Suffering is due entirely to clinging or resisting; it is a sign of our unwillingness to move on, to flow with life.

As a sane life is free of pain, so is a saintly life free from suffering.

Q: Nobody has suffered more than saints.

M: Did they tell you, or do you say so on your own? The essence of saintliness is total acceptance of the present moment, harmony with things as they happen. A saint does not want things to be different from what they are; he knows that, considering all factors, they are unavoidable. He is friendly with the inevitable and,. therefore, does not suffer. Pain he may know, but it does not shatter him. If he can, he does the needful to restore the lost balance -- or he lets things take their course.

Q: He may die.

M: So what? What does he gain by living on and what does he lose by dying? What was born, must die; what was never born cannot die. It all depends on what he takes himself to be.

Q: Imagine you fall mortally ill. Would you not regret and resent?

M: But I am dead already, or, rather, neither alive nor dead. You see my body behaving the habitual way and draw your own conclusions. You will not admit that your conclusions bind nobody but you. Do see that the image you have of me may be altogether wrong. Your image of yourself is wrong too, but that is your problem. But you need not create problems for me and then ask me to solve them. I am neither creating problems nor solving them.