Self is Non-Phenomenal (Ashtavakra Gita 1.4) - 21st October 2016

This is a good point. He says that there was a sense coming that 'I got it, I got it' and the mind then started playing on that, saying 'You're just speaking it' or 'It's just an idea.' You see, it becomes this vicious cycle of getting into some mental ideas of getting it or losing it. But authentically, when you see the truth of who you are, do you feel like you got something new? It must come with this sense that this is what I've always been. So, although we can say that the recognition seems very fresh, and when the recognition starts to happen then it can seem like the vibrance in this world seems to also go up, but the fact is that at the core of the realization, it is seen that I have always only been this.

And also, there's no sense of specialness about it. You cannot bring yourself to believe the idea that everyone else is also not this. Is there not this one seeing, this one witness, this one awareness? So once you see that you have always been this, it will also become apparent that all that is appearing is just coming and going. In this realm of appearances, there is one solitary witness of all of this. Therefore, the presumption of 'me' and 'another' starts to dissolve anyway. And if this presumption of 'me' and 'other' is dissolving, then who am I special in relation to?

So this is all I'm telling you—all this is so that you can smell for this. If it's smelling like 'Okay, I got it but he hasn't' or if there's a sense 'Oh, he is still faking it, he's still faking but I have seen clearly,' then we must just watch what is happening. Because who is this, the separate one? And okay, I'll come to another point—if I don't come to it, remind me later about this—the spotting of differences outside story, you see.

So this is very important also because this is very common. If it is as simple as what the Sage is saying—that abide in awareness with no illusion of person, you will be instantly free and at peace—if it is that simple, then what is everyone doing for tens and twenty and fifty years trying to find the Self? You see, what is the classic seeming mistake now that we can tell that everyone seems to be making? It is trying to find the Self as if it is a thing and keeping that sense of personal 'I' alive.

So just like everything else in the world, the journey for self-realization seems to have become this 'I' which we don't really want to investigate. What is happening to this one? What are the experiences of this one? What has this one found? You see, so still looking that way to see what has been found. But instead of that, this has to be turned back in some way to say: Who is this 'I' that has been on the spiritual journey, that has had these experiences? Who is this 'I'?