What Are You Before You Go to the Mind?
The question points to the timeless awareness that exists before mental activity - the Self that remains when all thought subsides.
Even to Say, 'I Want the Truth' Is That the Truth? To see that only the Truth is; you must first only want the Truth. [Silence] Truth for Truth’s sake and you must not even have the idea, that, it should be according to your taste. [For e.g.] ‘I want the truth but I want it according to what I think or it should be my way or this is what it should do for me’. So, the reorganization or the coming to the Truth is the simplest, simplest thing. And yet in a way it is the most, the biggest sacrifice you can make. If there is an ‘and’… I want the Truth and…. If there is a ‘but’ I want the Truth but… Whatever the condition might be, it is not It. This is what Guru Ji [Sri Mooji] talks about when he says ‘you must come to a place where you are completely out of moves’. You don’t even know what you want. This boy [referring to Sangha] has been saying ‘I just want it to end, I just want it to end’ but that is not it. Even in that, you know that it is not ended? You know that it is started? You do not know any of these things, but we keep up the play of this individual entity with (even) these spiritual sounding things. So... nothing! You say ‘I want this’. I say to you ‘Who do you want it for? Who is there to receive it, what you want?’ [Silence] Even if you say ‘I want Freedom’, who do you want it for? [Silence] Even if you say ‘I want the Truth’, is that the truth?
Key Teachings
- You exist as pure awareness before the mind engages - there is a state of being prior to thought
- The mind is a tool you use, not what you fundamentally are
- Inquiry into 'what am I before the mind?' reveals the essential Self that is always present
From: What Are You Before You Go to the Mind? - 3rd September 2021