27:59

IAT Self Exploration - Ch 15.2 The Knower, Witness & Person

by Ekta Bathija

Rated
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Type
guided
Activity
Meditation
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Everyone
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Listen to Ektaji guide us through a self-exploration meditation from Chapter 15 Th Knower, Witness and the Person from Nisargadatta Maharaj's book I Am That. Do we know what is the physical body? Is it not the bundle of sensations comprising of - breath sensation, happy sensation, sad sensation, heartbeat sensation, pulse sensation? If there are no sensations then do you know if the body exists? Let's dive deeper into sensations, feelings and all types of thoughts!

Self ExplorationBody AwarenessThought ObservationFeeling ObservationConsciousnessSubject Object RelationshipUnmanifest RealityExistenceSelf EnquiryBody Sensation AwarenessWitness Consciousness

Transcript

Let's start with the self-exploration.

This is a closed-eyes self-exploration,

More of a self-enquiry.

Let's avoid going to sleep.

Let's avoid losing ourselves in a trance.

Stay alert and awake during the self-enquiry.

Take your attention to the heaviness called the physical body.

Recognize the bundle of sensations called the physical body.

Feel it from top to bottom.

It is nothing but a bundle of sensations.

This has been labeled as the physical body.

Recognize the breath moving in and out.

That is also nothing but a sensation.

Recognize the heartbeat,

The pulse.

It is nothing but a sensation.

All that the body is,

Is actually sensations.

Whether it is painful or painless,

It is nothing but a sensation.

Recognize the thoughts arising randomly and automatically.

And recognize them fading away.

Notice there is a similarity in sensations and thoughts.

Sensations are labeled as body.

Thoughts are labeled as the mind.

Both arise,

Play and dissolve.

Recognize if there is any feeling.

A feeling is nothing else but a sensation at the mental level instead of the physical level.

Feelings also arise and disappear.

The composite of sensations,

Thoughts and feelings is what is called the person.

This person has been given a name.

In your own mind,

Take your own name and ask yourself the question.

Do you recognize what is it that is called this person's name?

What is it that is called the person?

Take your own name and ask the question.

Who is that?

Is it the bundle of sensation,

Thoughts and feelings?

If the bundle of thoughts,

Feelings,

Sensations is the person given that name,

Then who are you who is knowing the person right now?

Are you able to clearly demarcate that you are knowing or witnessing the person right now?

You are the subject and the person is the object of knowing.

You are the subject and the person is the object of knowing.

If this is clear,

Now move the locus of knowing from the object to the subject.

Do you recognize that you,

The subject,

Are the knower or the witness of the object?

The knower and the witness are one and the same.

When there is a new object or event to know,

For example,

If some pain arises in the body right now,

The knowing function comes into operation.

When there is nothing new happening,

Then you are simply witnessing what is.

Knowing and witnessing are simply two functions of the same you.

Let's do a self-evaluation here and ask the following questions to ourselves.

When I assumed that the person is the knower and the world is the knower,

Was it a correct recognition?

Now that I recognize that the knower is separate from the person,

Am I able to see my true self?

What happens when I follow the knower,

The witness?

Does the knower or the witness disappear into the supreme unmanifest reality beyond?

Is it experientially clear that my supreme reality is unmanifest nothingness,

Not the subtly manifest knower or witness,

Nor the grossly manifested person?

My reality is unmanifest nothingness.

Is it experientially clear that I am the supreme unmanifest reality in relation to the witness or the knower?

Is it experientially clear that I,

The unmanifest supreme nothingness,

Am manifesting the subtle I called the witness moment to moment and I am making it disappear into me,

The unmanifest moment to moment?

Is it experientially clear that I am the supreme unmanifest reality in relation to the witness or the knower?

Then why do I forget my truth of being unmanifest nothingness and assume falsely to be the person?

Is it experientially clear that the witness believes that it is a sensation of heaviness and simultaneously experiences the physical body called the person?

Isn't that which is believed and experienced simply a thought?

Is it experientially clear that the witness believes that it is a thought and simultaneously experiences the mind?

Is it experientially clear that the witness believes that it is a feeling and simultaneously experiences the mind full of feelings?

Is it experientially clear that the witness believes that it is a person and simultaneously experience the perception of sound?

Belief turns to experience.

The witness believes that it is perception of sight,

Taste,

Touch,

Smell and that is simultaneously experienced.

Is it experientially clear that my personal universe is nothing but perceptions plus sensations plus thoughts plus feelings and there is no other proof for the existence of anything else or anything called matter even outside my personal universe of perceptions,

Sensations,

Thoughts and feelings?

Is it experientially clear that I am the pure existence in relation to the personal universe because the so-called personal universe is only perceptions,

Sensations,

Thoughts and feelings and nothing else.

I am the ground,

The source of these perceptions,

Sensations,

Thoughts and feelings.

I am pure existence.

Let the personal universe dissolve into pure existence into the unmanifest supreme reality.

Descend into the voidness.

Recognize that this voidness is beyond the opposites of consciousness and unconsciousness.

It is beyond the opposites that exist at the level of the mind.

This is who I am where there is no I.

This is the supreme reality.

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Ekta BathijaSt. George, USA

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May 14, 2025

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