श्रीरामSatsang with Ananta
Awareness & Attention

If You Want Freedom Can You First Confirm Your Bondage?

What do you know without a thought or perception? The answer is your own Self - not as an object, but as the simple, unconditioned aware presence that is always already here.

Ananta

Ahh [Laughs]... say it is okay.

Seeker

Just contemplating, the sentence itself is real nice.

Ananta

Yeah. What is that Knowing, which is not a thought or a perception?

Seeker

May be Seeing...

Ananta

You or you? [Laughs]

Seeker

Your Self.

Ananta

It’s your Self. Is that a thought or a perception? [Laughs] I am just messing with you. Why do you sound so disappointed while saying it. Is the ‘mind’ saying, ‘What is the big deal in that?’ or what is it, what is the side commentary? Because that ‘It is my Self’ should be like, ‘It is My Self.’ [Expression of awe and wonder]. It doesn’t have to be. But, ‘That is just the Self’ sounds a bit… [Ananta Sangha chuckles] coloured with some other messaging. What is the side commentary?

Seeker

No side commentary. But it didn’t come so fresh...

Ananta

No, it is okay. Then it is fine. Then it is fine. Because then it could just be statement of simplicity, ‘That is just the Self.’ As long as there is no like ‘But, is that it?’ or ‘Ahh, I have been so stupid actually I have not looked like this for so many years. I wish somebody had told me twenty years ago that this was the way to look’ or something like that. None of that is important. Sometimes I have had complaints like, ‘Now you are telling me this. I have been in Satsang with you for four years. [Ananta Sangha chuckles] Why couldn’t you have told me this before?’ She is not reacting… [Ananta and Sangha chuckle] It is okay to have that.

Seeker

Then the word that we have to use like it’s my Self. The first few times that used to happen, it felt a little open, ‘Yeah, okay, it is my Self.’ [Smile] but object less, everywhere…?’ Those kinds of questions came to actually check to confirm the understanding.

Ananta

You see, the question itself takes care of even that, isn’t it? Like, ‘What do you know without having a thought or perception? Without needing a thought or a perception? Or what do you know which is not a thought or perception?’ So, even the Self is a thought.

Seeker

Yeah, I mean what I was trying to get to was that even the word ‘myself’ or ‘yourself’ -- when I was using it I was imagining an object.

Ananta

Correct.

Seeker

This is the shape, the body, then there’s a name... so yeah, myself -- and then there is no myself.

Ananta

Yeah, it’s just a thought. And thought now trying to... also... mixed with this, less sort of a silhouette of a perception, giving you some shades and all... there’s a ‘me’ with a boundary in some way. So, what do you know, without a thought or a perception?

Key Teachings

  • The knowing that is not a thought or perception is the direct awareness of your own Being - simple, fresh, without mental commentary
  • Even the word 'Self' can become an object in the mind when accompanied by the sense of a body-boundary or conceptual understanding
  • True Self-recognition is not about finding something new, but recognizing what has always been present - without the 'but is that it?' side commentary
awarenessself-knowledgedirect knowingnon-conceptualmind as object

From: If You Want Freedom Can You First Confirm Your Bondage? - 20th July 2019