श्रीरामSatsang with Ananta
Awareness & Attention

Nothing of Value Is Lost, As You Come to This Conceptual

The mind is a tiny bundle of thoughts that appears huge but cannot affect the witnessing Awareness which is your true Home beyond all space and perception.

Ananta

Where will we go to find Now? [Laughs]

Seeker

Not to the mind, for sure! [Both laugh in a unison]

Ananta

So, when we don’t go to the mind, what is there? You don’t have to actually go to your intuition, you don’t have to go to Satguru presence, whatever word you might want to call it. All you have to do is stop relying so much on your mind for a moment. Then, are you lost? Are you found? Do any opposites apply?

Seeker

You know how it feels right now, it feels like the mind is very lost, it says, ‘ It’s me and I am lost and I am experiencing this and there is a tiny bit of space…’

Ananta

Okay, [Leans in] now let’s really look together. Now the mind may be telling you it has a little bit of space and the rest of the space is coming. Now you actually look and tell me, how big is a thought? [Pauses] Mind is nothing, but a bundle of thoughts. How big is a thought?

Seeker

Right now, it is huge. Right now...

Ananta

Okay show me, how big is the thought? [Raises his hand] You cannot see the hand, you can only see the thought. You cannot see this beard, you can only see the thought.

Seeker

Well, I need to concentrate on your nose.

Ananta

Okay, just concentrate, just be with your perceptions and tell me where the thought is. Where is the thought, here also, here also [pointing to the space] Thought, thought, thought?

Seeker

[Laughs] Now nowhere.

Ananta

Now is important. Everything is Now [Raises hands dramatically] I am everywhere…. Actually, it is just a thought [Pauses]. Try to imagine the biggest thought you can. You see, can it take over the witnessing also? You say, ‘There is a little bit of space remaining’ no? Awareness is left untouched. Awareness is beyond all of this space. There are a billion spaces like that that will come and go, but Awareness will not be touched. In your mind’s version it’s saying, ‘There is a little space left.’ But, who is looking at that? That is beyond space, you cannot imagine your magnificence. [Pauses] Suppose every perception or just one big thought is all I am perceiving. My attention is fully fixated, but it can never take over that side of attention [points to the back of the head] Who lives there? Who is that one? How big is it?

Seeker

This is very funny because when you see this in other people, it is laughable. Like, how you can’t see it. Now, I’m just like that myself, I see it but I don’t see it again like…

Ananta

[Smiling] Yeah, yeah!

Seeker

I see that the ripple is such a small thing. But for me it’s somehow just huge. You know what I mean? I mean, I am really trying, Father.

Ananta

I am not saying you are not trying. Not at all. Apply one of my rules. Don’t explain, just describe it. Okay. Don’t explain, so you don’t interpret what is happening. So, if a big thought is coming and it is saying, ‘Thought thought thought’ just describe it. Don’t explain it. Don’t create your own narrative on top of what is being experienced.

Seeker

Okay, what the experience is right now is like a huge tension in the body, somehow in a field. Not just in the body, but somehow in my perception of fielders. Tension like.

Ananta

Yeah, now what makes it huge? How big is it? And what is the space in which this hugeness is coming?

Seeker

It feels like it is important, it is taking up all the space.

Ananta

‘Feels like’ is an explanation, you just keep describing it. Like, this contraction is felt in the chest area or wherever like that.

Seeker

I don’t know where even, in some kind of field area. It’s just like ‘Woah’ [Makes a gesture on the face]

Ananta

Yes yes, okay. And now, try to get that contraction to attack That which witnesses it also. So, you are aware, you are perceiving the field in which the contraction is there and it’s huge. Now let it become huger. Let it come to that You, which is witnessing also. Tell me how much progress it makes.

Seeker

Not possible. [Closes eyes and shakes head]

Ananta

Try no, try really hard, come on. Let’s make it possible today. First Satsang after a long time [Smiling]. Not possible? [Confirms]. Okay now, don’t worry about the field in which the contraction is there. Worry about That, where it is not possible. How big is That? [Silence]

Seeker

I can't say the size because it is beyond the size, which just is.

Ananta

Is it beyond size? Does it make it really tiny compared to the huge?

Seeker

Oh [Laughs]

Ananta

Okay let’s say what it is in comparison to That one. The hugeness, let's make it in comparison to That one, which is beyond space. Then what can you say about them?

Seeker

I don't know, something just doesn’t fit, how can I fit something that is huge into something that doesn’t exist?

Ananta

[Laughs] So answering your own question, so well. So, very good. Now, let’s use terminology which we use often. Which is, in front of the Attention, all of this hugeness is there. Now, That which attention is reporting back to, that you say is not possible to be affected, but you are That, no? So, how does the hugeness or the smallness of that which is on that side of attention affect You?

Seeker

I don't know, how?

Ananta

Look, look, look. Don’t try to figure it out, just look. Without sight.

Seeker

Right now, I can say, it wouldn’t affect me but that wouldn’t be completely true.

Ananta

That aspect you are talking about, I don’t care about that aspect. I only care about what you are discovering right now. Your mind is pulling you back in time, over and over again by saying, ‘But, after this I will be back, you know.’ I don’t care about that stuff. Tell me how That which is witnessing the huge or the small contraction, how can that be ever affected by…

Seeker

I feel that my body is being affected somehow and that is why I am being affected through the body, but wait a minute, I can see that.

Ananta

Very good, tell me whatever is happening in the body, how does it affect the witnessing one. Take your time. Take as much time, this is for everyone. [Silence] This is in fact Freedom. We keep imagining ‘I am affected by the perceptions which seem to squeeze me’ which is bondage. To look really and see ‘Hey, where am I in all of this?’ Where are you more, on that side of attention or this side? What seems like the primary Home? Which end of attention seems like the primary Home? The end which is reporting back to you, what is happening there?

Seeker

You are asking me?.... Silence.

Ananta

Okay, let’s do one thing. Where all this battle is happening, send yourself fully over there.

Seeker

I cannot.

Ananta

That’s quite a shame for the mind, if you cannot. It wants you fully involved in this. So, send everything you have. Every part of you, send it to the battle.

Seeker

It’s impossible.

Ananta

Now the part that you cannot send, is that your Primary Home?

Seeker

It’s beyond my home. Right?

Ananta

Yeah! What will this contraction take from you? What will the mind take from you? It can’t even touch your Reality. Some things are nothing in the light of your Being, so what?

Seeker

Now this Seeing is so fragile, like.

Ananta

It’s the thought which is fragile, because it is already gone. The seeing is still here. Don’t come back into giving what your intellect is saying a lot of importance about. You see, it will start by becoming a comedian for a bit. When it loses importance you know what it does. What it subtly does. It will start saying, ‘Hey hey, hi, I am actually a nice guy, I will make you laugh.’ It will start there and slowly, slowly, slowly ‘Oh! I am the king and owner of your life.’ [Laughs]

Seeker

Interesting.

Ananta

Give your nose as much importance as you have given your mind for tomorrow, okay? It deserves it, poor nose has been there all your life. You have not looked at it, you have not felt the sensations strongly for years. I promise you, it deserves some focus, no? What is this step- motherly behaviour towards your nose? What is your nose saying? [Laughs] You can observe the sensations on your nose. There is actually a yogic practice, to keep your attention on the tip of the nose. I learned it in Art of Living. Keep attention at the tip of your nose, yeah. I promise you, your nose is bigger than your thought. And it’s not something about your nose or all your nose…. [Laughs]

Seeker

Yeah, now it is so simple [Laughs]

Ananta

So, don’t be fearful of the future. I am with you.

Seeker

That was very interesting, Father. Thank you!

Ananta

Very good. Something is just misplacing importance into one aspect of our Being. All of our importance and our values seem to come from just one aspect of our Being. The tiny bundle of thoughts. I was telling a child the other day that I don’t hate anything, but if there is something that I do hate, it is that my children are getting bullied by this tiny mind. This tiny mind, just bullying them ‘I am so big, I am gonna get you.’ It’s nothing. Is there a mind’s report about itself? ‘I am everywhere, you can’t escape, I am so big.’ The merry-go-round seems a bit dizzy if you take yourself to be the wrong one.

Key Teachings

  • The mind appears huge but has no actual size or substance - thoughts are empty appearances that cannot touch Awareness
  • The Witness/Awareness is beyond space and cannot be affected by any contraction, thought, or perception - it remains untouched
  • Freedom comes from recognizing you are the unchanging Witness, not the mind that bullies you with its importance and narratives
awarenesswitnessmindthoughtsfreedomliberationdirect path

From: Nothing of Value Is Lost, As You Come to This Conceptual Emptiness - 28th May 2021