This analysis is given so that you may begin to look upon your body as something distinct, separate, and apart. The body is there and it is yours, but you must learn to detach yourself from it so that you can understand it is not you.
Because you are so familiar with the body which you carry around, you take it for granted that it is yourself. You must try, during the period of analysis, to take up less familiar attitude. Then you can begin to see where this body really stands in relation to your true self.
There is no doubt that you exist. You know that you are here and that you are a conscious being, but you have habitually taken it for granted that the self was the body. To it you have given a name. That name distinguishes it from others. This in itself helps to confuse you on your quest. So long as you continue to identify yourself by your name, so long will you continue to identify yourself with the body. The right way is to start without prejudice on this quest. You must try to forget yourself and your name during your periods of enquiry and meditation and just be without being anybody in particular.
Whenever you say "I", you automatically refer to the body. Just as it is not advisable during this meditative enquiry to think of yourself as bearing a name, so it is advisable if you must use the word "I" in your thoughts to call it "the I". In other words, you must make it impersonal and put the definite article before it. By doing this, you detach your thought of ego-hood from the body. You know that as long as you remain alive, that sense of self-hood will continue.
Even if half the body were cut away, and you continued to live, the consciousness of self- existence would remain un-diminished and just as powerful as before. That is perhaps one of the most elementary proofs that consciousness of the ego, the "I", is not inseparably bound up with consciousness of the physical body.
Even if half the body were cut away, and you continued to live, the consciousness of self- existence would remain un-diminished and just as powerful as before. That is perhaps one of the most elementary proofs that consciousness of the ego, the "I", is not inseparably bound up with consciousness of the physical body.
This "I", the ego, can and does sometimes separate itself from the body without any purpose or effort on your part. It does that, for instance, when you are very "absent-minded".
If you are deeply sunk in a train of thought, you will not even hear the words of someone who is speaking to you. The sense of hearing fails you. This shows that you really hear with the mind and not with ears.
If you are deeply sunk in a train of thought, you will not even hear the words of someone who is speaking to you. The sense of hearing fails you. This shows that you really hear with the mind and not with ears.
The fact that sensations of pain and pleasure may not even be felt when the mind is immersed in something else is one sign of its independence of the body.
Unless the self gives its attention to the body it becomes abstracted, withdrawn into itself, that is, into mind. The physical ear is thus but an instrument, and so the self which hears is obviously more mind than body. The body is not you. It is not the soul.
Constant reflection upon such truths is an excellent means of helping you to gain that recognition of who and what you are. Whilst you are engaged in such reflection you are turning inwards.
Another important point which may seem trivial is that although you habitually say ''My body", never do you think of saying "My body is going to cross this room." Why, then, do you refer to the body in possessive terms? Consciously you are not aware of it, but something in you makes you automatically refer to it as belonging to you. If a thing belongs to you, then it is not you.
What is that something, then, which makes you unconsciously and unreflectively take such an attitude towards the body? Definitely it is none other than the self itself.
In so far as it is united with the mind, The self, automatically tells you the body is merely your instrument. It is only when you become physically conscious that you think the body is you. You can say that it is linked up with the self and constitutes a part of the self, but you cannot say that in its totality it represents the self. Otherwise you would not consciously have the attitude of feeling that you possess the body when you use such a term as "my body".
In dreams you appear just in your waking periods, and your characteristics may be the same. How much less are you in dreams ? Just mind minus body. What is the dream state? It is nothing but a mental state. It is the mind functioning within itself. It is a series of ideas passing through consciousness. If self can detach itself so fully from the body as to re-live again in dream, which consists of a series of thoughts and mental pictures, then dream is nothing else but mind. Do not, however, make the mistake of thinking that when I say self and mind are synonymous I mean the ultimate reality. Behind the mind is still something more. But from the standpoint of the body there is a reality, and that reality is the mind. A dream, if it were sufficiently analysed by a scientist, would be proof that man is mind apart from the body, and that the soul is nothing else but mind.
In dreams you appear just in your waking periods, and your characteristics may be the same. How much less are you in dreams ? Just mind minus body. What is the dream state? It is nothing but a mental state. It is the mind functioning within itself. It is a series of ideas passing through consciousness. If self can detach itself so fully from the body as to re-live again in dream, which consists of a series of thoughts and mental pictures, then dream is nothing else but mind. Do not, however, make the mistake of thinking that when I say self and mind are synonymous I mean the ultimate reality. Behind the mind is still something more. But from the standpoint of the body there is a reality, and that reality is the mind. A dream, if it were sufficiently analysed by a scientist, would be proof that man is mind apart from the body, and that the soul is nothing else but mind.
In deep sleep the body is totally insensate. You have then, no consciousness of the ego. The body does not say "I"; neither does the mind; there are no thoughts. When you awaken, the self reappears. If the self were only body and nothing more; if there were no spirit in man, no soul, nothing to survive that temporary death of self which is sleep, you would never be able to go to sleep ; in the state of deep sleep you would have full consciousness. The body could not lose consciousness without dying if the only consciousness it had was of itself. The fact that you can completely lose the body consciousness in sleep and still continue to exist is proof that the higher consciousness has totally left the body, while the self lives on, away and utterly apart from the body. That is precisely what does happen; the soul, which is the mind, does withdraw from the body in sleep, just as it withdraws from the body in death. In the deepest stages of trance and hypnotism the mind is expelled, literally driven out of the body, and curious things happen. Sometimes it transports itself to distant places and reports what is happening there. This could not have occurred if the mind or the self were permanently a part of the body. If the body constituted the sum of your self-consciousness you could never project the consciousness without projecting the body as well. But the fact that the consciousness has been projected away from the body shows that it is something separable from the body itself.
If we merely look with an impartial and unprejudiced gaze upon our relationship to the body, and analyse it, we are forced to the conclusion that the self cannot be the body alone. The body may be a part of it, but the "I" is something more than the body, something subtler.
What, then, is left ? Your thoughts and feelings. As our psychologists go on with their investigations of sleep and dreams they will no doubt one day realize why sleep exists, and that it really is a matter of self withdrawing from the body. That is what it is. The trouble is that most people will never stop to analyse and reflect over this relationship of themselves to the physical body. They take it for granted. They will not enquire.
If you should pursue this course there would be no hope for you until you begin to enquire and to ask whether the body really represents the whole of yourself. But with the beginning of enquiry and investigation there is hope, then you can begin to find the truth. That is why analysis is important. You must; do it intellectually at first to get the right mental attitude.
We shall leave the body and turn next to the feelings. Feelings, emotions, and emotional moods are parts of your interior constitution, but they are not that one part which subsists through your life unaltered as the "I", the ego. The fact that the same person within a period of say ten years can completely change round and exhibit opposite feelings shows that the feelings cannot be the self, because the thought of "I" and the sense of "I" still continue unchanged. In a single day you may be extremely happy in the morning and very miserable in the evening. Through this variability have you changed? No, it is the feelings which have thus changed, not the "I". The sense of self- existence remains; it has not altered a bit. So there again we must be rather acute and analytical to see the difference between the "I" and the feelings. The "I", therefore, must be something separate and distinct from the feelings. So we still have to find it.
Let us turn, then, to the mind. Egoism, individuality, desires, and memories, in the ultimate, are mere phases of the mind. They are thoughts. As a matter of fact there is no difference between thoughts and feelings, except that thoughts change even faster. In the course of a day you may have experienced a thousand different thoughts. Did each of these represent your self? Decidedly not, because while they have vanished, departed, while they are dead, you continue to live. So, if those dead and vanished thoughts and those dead and vanished feelings cannot represent your self, there must still be something which gives you this sense of real self-hood, the sense of continuing to exist as your own individuality.
Let us turn, then, to the mind. Egoism, individuality, desires, and memories, in the ultimate, are mere phases of the mind. They are thoughts. As a matter of fact there is no difference between thoughts and feelings, except that thoughts change even faster. In the course of a day you may have experienced a thousand different thoughts. Did each of these represent your self? Decidedly not, because while they have vanished, departed, while they are dead, you continue to live. So, if those dead and vanished thoughts and those dead and vanished feelings cannot represent your self, there must still be something which gives you this sense of real self-hood, the sense of continuing to exist as your own individuality.
In deep sleep all thoughts disappear. If self were nothing but thoughts it would also cease to be in sleep. thoughts come and go, and yet something persists and mysteriously reveals itself again next morning.
You must therefore begin to separate self from mind. And this is the delicate turning point of your meditation, your self-analysis. First of all realize that the mind consists of thoughts, and of that which makes you aware of these thoughts. The totality of all these thoughts throughout the day gives you, shall we say the intellect. If you were able to stop your thoughts for a few seconds you would still remain conscious. You would still be aware of that part which must be searched for, that which is consciousness. There is something in you which is awareness and which is Consciousness, but which is not thought ; something which yet gives you the sense of self- hood, the sense of being, the sense of individuality, and therefore which must be in contrast to the intellect ; this is your real self.
When you look at a book, what sees the book? Is it the physical eye? Certainly the light gives the image to the eye, but the eye Has to send a message along the optic nerve to the brain and you have to become aware, conscious of that message. Until you do become aware of it, there is for you, no book, no sight of a book.
You must therefore begin to separate self from mind. And this is the delicate turning point of your meditation, your self-analysis. First of all realize that the mind consists of thoughts, and of that which makes you aware of these thoughts. The totality of all these thoughts throughout the day gives you, shall we say the intellect. If you were able to stop your thoughts for a few seconds you would still remain conscious. You would still be aware of that part which must be searched for, that which is consciousness. There is something in you which is awareness and which is Consciousness, but which is not thought ; something which yet gives you the sense of self- hood, the sense of being, the sense of individuality, and therefore which must be in contrast to the intellect ; this is your real self.
When you look at a book, what sees the book? Is it the physical eye? Certainly the light gives the image to the eye, but the eye Has to send a message along the optic nerve to the brain and you have to become aware, conscious of that message. Until you do become aware of it, there is for you, no book, no sight of a book.
In other words, the physical vibration in this physical organ has to be converted to something to a totally different nature. It becomes an idea in your mind, the idea of the book. Until this conversion takes place you cannot see the book, If you were to place a corpse in a chair and ask it to look at a book, it could not see it, though the physical eyes are there in all their fullness and perfection. But the mind is absent. The mind is needed to see. Somewhere in the winding convolutions of the brain the vibrations messages of the sensory nerves are converted into mental images, spiritual essences. How this transformation from physical to psychical is done, nobody knows.
Mind is the knower, the seeing agent in you. The eye is but an instrument. Further proof of this lies in the fact That people who have certain abnormal faculties have been able to read from a book with the eyes blindfolded. Therefore, if the mind is the seeing agent, and not the physical organ, we should ascertain what is the real seeing agent behind the mind, if there is one. There is the thought, the idea of the book, and then there is something which is aware of that thought. That something we might call the real see-er, the real witness in the mind, and that must therefore be more really yourself than the mind, which is composed of ideas alone.
Without consciousness there could be none of these thoughts. That is a very difficult point which you will need to reflect over a great deal. Your mind is simply a stream of thoughts. Buddha pointed out that thoughts constituted the mind by streaming through incessantly. Now keep up the same line of thought. There are many different mental states, but one consciousness apprehends all these. In the course of a week you may have five hundred thousand thoughts, but only one consciousness keeps them going in your mind. These thoughts are just floating, fugitive things. That cannot be the ultimate. There must be, and is, the inner light, because nothing else that we know could make us aware of them.
Because this ultimate self is the knower of the changing, it must itself be without change. If you reflect you will see that this must be so.
Mind is the knower, the seeing agent in you. The eye is but an instrument. Further proof of this lies in the fact That people who have certain abnormal faculties have been able to read from a book with the eyes blindfolded. Therefore, if the mind is the seeing agent, and not the physical organ, we should ascertain what is the real seeing agent behind the mind, if there is one. There is the thought, the idea of the book, and then there is something which is aware of that thought. That something we might call the real see-er, the real witness in the mind, and that must therefore be more really yourself than the mind, which is composed of ideas alone.
Without consciousness there could be none of these thoughts. That is a very difficult point which you will need to reflect over a great deal. Your mind is simply a stream of thoughts. Buddha pointed out that thoughts constituted the mind by streaming through incessantly. Now keep up the same line of thought. There are many different mental states, but one consciousness apprehends all these. In the course of a week you may have five hundred thousand thoughts, but only one consciousness keeps them going in your mind. These thoughts are just floating, fugitive things. That cannot be the ultimate. There must be, and is, the inner light, because nothing else that we know could make us aware of them.
Because this ultimate self is the knower of the changing, it must itself be without change. If you reflect you will see that this must be so.
What is it that registers all these changes, whether they be of the external universe or your own mental states? How do you know that you slept in deep sleep? Because immediately the sleep was over, varied thoughts came into the mind and by the contrast you knew that deep sleep was a relatively constant unchanging state. This matter requires profound meditation. That which records the changes must be something which itself remains unchanged. If the knower himself were to be constantly changing he would not be able to know that these outward things were changing. How could you know that you have constantly changing thoughts unless there were something fixed and stable in you by contrast with which you could see and perceive the difference ?
There must be some part of you which does not change in order to give you the understanding that everything else does. That is a piece of deep analysis which you can use for your meditation. If you can reflect upon it in the right way it will help you to get the true concept of the Witness-Self.
You ought to sink yourselves again and again into the stream of thinking which has brought us to this point, for you need to recognize its truth not as something imposed upon you from outside, but as something which has its own inherent Tightness and therefore is born within you, with the fullest power of conviction.
You ought to sink yourselves again and again into the stream of thinking which has brought us to this point, for you need to recognize its truth not as something imposed upon you from outside, but as something which has its own inherent Tightness and therefore is born within you, with the fullest power of conviction.
Using no other means than the facts of human life and experience of human thought in its varied phases, we have arrived in sight of the truth that the real self we seek dwells in a higher dimension than flesh, emotion, thought, and time; that it hides somewhere behind the thought-emotion "I"; and that it must indeed exist beyond all our ordinary categories.
We have come to the threshold of this mysterious Witness-Self, which is nothing but awareness or consciousness. And here our psychologists become completely confused. The modern psychologist thinks that the mind cannot be emptied of its contents, that the mind and its contents are one. This implies that he believes thoughts and consciousness cannot be separated, that they are not two separable things. If these intellectual analyses do not convince him, it would be well for him to study yoga and find out for himself. If you practise yoga successfully, you can still your mind, you can stop the working of the brain for a short time, and in that experience you find that you are perfectly aware, but that you do not think. You are then consciousness itself. You have found the Witness-Self. That is the answer of yoga.