Nature Of The Self Session 7 - Self Exploration

Salaam.

Salaam.

Salaam.

Salaam.

Be 100% attentive.

This is not a meditation where you lose yourself in a trance or you go to sleep or you're happy feeling pleasant.

No.

This is not a Dvaita meditation.

This is an Advaita antarvichara.

Antarvichara means self exploration in which I need to be 100% alert,

Awake,

Aware and recognize the inner truth.

Very very clear between meditation and self exploration.

In Sanskrit,

Atma,

Vichara.

So let's sit comfortably.

Put our books and pens aside.

We will do a self exploration now.

In this self exploration,

We'll try best not to move.

When we move the physical body,

There's a movement in the mind also and that disturbs the attention,

The awareness.

So sit comfortably whatever is your comfortable position.

Let's begin the self exploration now.

Let's close our eyes and sit in a comfortable position so that we do not move.

Let's be still for the next few minutes.

And if you have to move,

Then you ensure that you move in slow motion,

Very very slowly if required.

Into your mind,

All thoughts,

All feelings,

No room here for sensations,

No room here for images,

Emotions.

Empty out the mind.

Empty out completely and just be.

Notice that in this moment,

There is the presence of the sense of I am.

You can hear the sound of these words.

This is perception of sound.

The perception brings up certain thoughts and feelings automatically.

They arise and they fall.

Don't indulge in any thought,

Any feeling.

Just be a witness to them.

Now when you are the witness,

You recognize the sense of I am.

Not I am this thought or I am that feeling.

Not I am this body.

Not I am this relationship.

But simply I am.

The sense of I am is simply a presence.

Kune ka esas in Hindi.

Simply a presence,

An isness,

An amness.

This presence is a knowing presence.

Knows this perception of sound is arising and falling.

Knows the thoughts,

Feelings,

Sensations arising and falling.

It is a knowing presence.

When there is an arising to know,

It becomes the sense of I know.

It does not speak the words I know.

It simply knows.

That is why it is called the knowing presence.

Notice that there is no difference between I am and I know.

There is no difference between presence and knowing.

It is the same field of consciousness,

Nothingness,

Awareness that simply is.

It is the same field of nothingness,

Consciousness,

Awareness that simply knows.

We are just calling the same field of nothingness,

Awareness or consciousness as the knowing presence.

You are just calling the same field of nothingness,

Awareness or consciousness as the knowing presence.

You are just calling the same field of nothingness,

Awareness or consciousness as the knowing presence.

Thank you.

Arisings have started coming up again.

Arisings are nothing but thoughts,

Feelings,

Perception,

Sensation.

When they come up,

The presence knows them.

We are moving away from the word sense of I am and sense of I know to simply the words presence and knowing.

To emphasize that there is no I there.

This knowing presence recognizes the arising that arise and fall.

This is called the waking state of the mind.

When there is an absence of these arisings,

It is called the deep sleep state of the mind.

And then there are blurry images of the arisings.

It is called the dream state of the mind.

Notice that there are arisings.

Any thought,

Feeling,

Perception or sensation is an arising.

Notice that there are arisings.

When there is these arisings,

It is called the waking state.

When you experience the waking state,

You are not just experiencing the arisings alone.

You are experiencing the presence beyond too.

So right now you are experiencing the waking state plus the knowing presence that knows the waking state.

You are experiencing the waking state plus the knowing presence that knows the waking state.

Similarly,

Few hours ago in the dream state,

You experienced the dream plus the knowing presence.

When you were in deep sleep state a few hours ago,

You experienced the deep sleep state plus the knowing presence.

The deep sleep state was nothing but an absence of these same arisings.

The knowing presence recognized the absence of the arisings and it was just resting in that blankness.

The knowing presence knows the presence of arisings in the waking and dream states.

The knowing presence knows the absence of arisings in the deep sleep state.

That is why when you are asked the question,

How did you sleep?

You know you slept soundly.

How do you know the answer?

Soundly meant there was an absence of any arising.

Nothing disturbed me.

Who is the me then?

I,

The knowing presence knows it.

But as there is no localized I there,

We move away from I am and I know and just recognize it as a field of knowing presence.

The knowing presence or the sense of being is present throughout.

It was present in the waking state,

In the dream state and the deep sleep state.

It was in the knowing presence as the knowing presence.

This is your true nature.

Your true nature is this peace which is devoid of excitement and devoid of depression.

It is a straight equanimous line.

That is the meaning of peace.

That is the meaning of Ananda.

Repose in your nature.

When this knowing presence forgets its true peaceful nature,

It assumes that it is the body or it assumes that it is the mind.

That is the birth of I.

That is a fake I.

Notice how you forget your peaceful nature and get drawn into a thought or drawn into a feeling.

Recognize how you forget who you are and then recognize how you remember and you come back.

Recognize the fake I.

It is the same fake I that says I am awake,

I am dreaming and I was asleep soundly.

These are not three separate I's.

It is the same I that pretends to be the waker in the waking state.

It pretends to be the dreamer in the dream state and pretends to be the sleeper in the deep sleep state.

Look for this I.

Can you find it?

Follow any thought or ask yourself who am I?

Try to look for the I.

You will notice that it disappears into a background.

The background beyond the mind is nothing else but the knowing presence.

See if you can notice that even the sound of my voice arises and disappears into the same knowing presence field.

Thoughts,

Feelings,

Perceptions,

Sensations are nothing but the waking state.

So waking state is not that which starts at 6 a.

M.

In the morning and ends at 11 p.

M.

In the night.

It's only when there are thoughts,

Feelings,

Sensations and perceptions in action.

When they go back into the background,

The waking state is over.

It starts in the next second again.

See again it is over.

Can you recognize it?

In the gap between two thoughts,

In the gap between two feelings,

The waking state is over.

It does not exist in that gap.

Can you recognize it?

So waking state arises in this field of knowing presence and dissolves back into this knowing presence.

In the gap between two waking states is the deep sleep state.

The knowing presence is the substratum of all states.

The waking state arises and falls in it.

The dream state arises and falls in it.

The deep sleep state arises and falls in it.

When we identify this knowing presence as the substratum,

We recognize the fourth state,

Turiya avastha.

When we identify this knowing presence as the substratum,

We recognize the fourth state,

Turiya avastha.

So far we have recognized four states.

Waking state is when a particular thought,

Feeling,

Sensation or perception is in action.

Which means like right now you can hear the sound of my words.

That is perception of sound is in action.

When I stop speaking there will be a gap.

In that gap there is no thought,

No feeling,

No sensation,

No perception.

That is akin to the deep sleep state.

We have identified waking state and deep sleep state.

Dreaming state is nothing but imaginations,

Ideas,

Blurry images in the mind of the same arising,

Same thoughts,

Feelings,

Sensations and perceptions.

And the substratum of these three states,

Waking,

Dreaming and deep sleep.

The substratum on which they arise and fall is the fourth state,

Turiya.

Stay in the knowing presence.

Repose as turiya.

When you dissolve completely into the knowing presence,

You will notice that thoughts are made up of the same substance,

The knowing presence.

They are not made up of a separate material other than the knowing presence.

Feelings,

Sensations,

Perceptions are made up of the same material.

The arising arise from the knowing presence and dissolve into the knowing presence.

Just like waves arise and dissolve into the ocean.

Waves are made of water,

Arisings are made of the knowing presence.

Water arises and falls in water.

We've just given a label called wave to the arising water.

Similarly,

Presence arises in presence and dissolves in presence.

We have just given a labels,

Thoughts,

Feelings,

Sensations,

Perceptions.

There is nothing but the presence.

Just like there is no wave,

No ocean,

It is only H2O.

Similarly,

There is no waking state,

Dreaming state,

Deep sleep state.

It is all one single presence.

When you recognize that it is all one single presence,

That is called Turiyatita,

The transcendental state.

Turiyatita.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sani.

Sani.

God of hosts,

God of hosts,

God of hosts.