You Won't Find the Unchanging as an Object - 18th October 2017

The simple point is clear: that for something we say is coming and going, then to even see that it is coming and going, that which perceives that it is coming and going, there must be a constant which is not coming and going. So, if you were to report that this wall behind me changes color—sometimes it is white, sometimes it is yellow, sometimes it is red, sometimes black—that means that there must be something which is not going along with the varying. It is apart from that which witnesses that. So this is clear. Then what we are talking about is really simple because the clue is that we have to find that which is the unchanging while everything is changing. What is the unchanging?

Now, this unchanging... what is our experience? Is it our experience that something is unchanging? In the world of this appearance of the world, is there anything which is unchanging? There is nothing that is unchanging. Everything is constantly in a state of flux and slowly changing. This body, how much it has changed! That which was born, that appearance body is gone. That young child roaming after chocolate, that child is gone. That adolescent with all the dollars and things is gone. This body has also been changing, yet there is something constant. It is said, 'This is my body.' Whose body is this? Who has perceived all this change? The world is changing. Now, what person is this? Thoughts? Even more transient. Even those thoughts that we believed, that we keep all our belief system in—look at your belief system of ten years ago. Is that system what you believe today? All those bundle of beliefs that you believed, look at the belief system today. It has changed.

I'm taking a breath, and a second breath. Deeply. No pleasure being... if any of these were constant, then we would not seek pleasure or try to run away from pain. It is changing. What about the states? Waking, sleep... the sleep state came, the dream state came. In experience, anything? In this constantly changing act, that which experiences all, that which perceives all of this, that is the witness to all of this, and yet by itself it remains unchanged. And if it is unchanging, then it must be very simple because it has been our constant. If we cannot find it through the senses, cannot even find it through this inner perception of thought and the imagination, sensations like emotions and all of this, we don't find who is that which is the witness of all of this. What is it, this witness of all of these changes? You.

So for a few moments, we allow that which is changing to be exactly as it is. If you are not concerned about that at all for some time, then what is it that we are finding ourselves to be? And if we put all that we are concerned about—all our so-called problems, all our so-called responsibilities, all that we consider that we have to do, that we desire—if we put all of this in a basket called 'changing,' have you also jumped in the basket? What is it that is not yet inside the basket? If everything that changes and all the concepts about everything that changes, everything is put in the basket of change, have you also gone? The world is gone, the body is gone, thoughts are gone, imagination is gone, emotions are gone. What remains?

Let's talk about that for a little bit because all our life we speak about that which changes. Can we speak anything about that which is unchanging? Can we give some time to this, some focus to this? Because actually, we know what is going to happen in the realm of change. We all know this body is born, this body will be cremated or buried somewhere ultimately. The dream starts and the dream ends; it cannot continue forever. So the story of the changing is very straightforward. Is there something which is beyond this story? Something that will not die when the phenomenal ends? So what are the clues we are finding now? That which is the unchanging, that which is beyond birth and death, that which is the witness to all that changes.