Who Is That ‘You’ Who Is Aware?
We know our True Self not through thought or perception but through direct Awareness, and life can be lived trustingly from that intuitive Heart space without the mind's constant interpretation.
You are aware that you are perceiving this hand, isn’t it?
Yes.
Yes, who is that you that is aware? [Pause]
My True I.
Do you perceive this True I? [Silence]
I cannot perceive it.
Is it just a thought, the True I?
No.
Then how do you know it? Because in the world we know things with percepHon and thought isn’t it? [Silence]
Yes.
everything we know in the world because we have a thought, we have a percepHon, usually a combinaHon of both. Bit this Awareness, that I am this Awareness, you cannot think about it, neither can you perceive it.
No.
So because it is a non usual way of knowing, but it is very very simple, very organic and very natural for us. But in the human condiHon we seem to have stopped relying on this simple knowing and started relying on [points to the head] conceptual knowing, mental knowing. And that is causing all of this trouble. [Pause] Now if you don’t go to your mind in terms of what it has to report about your condiHon or your Reality in any way what can you speak just intuiHvely? [Pause]
Nothing. Nothing comes up.
Yes. So trust that Nothing also, trust that Nothing also, you see, trust that Nothing, allow yourself to remain in that Nothing, because I can tell you that this expression of Satsang also comes from that same place. [Silence] I’m not saying that so you have to rush your intuiHon to say some Satsang words in this mouth or something. I’m saying this because the mind will tell you that you cannot live from there, you need ‘me’ for the ‘daily life’ for the ‘pracHcal life’. These disHncHons we make, the mind will come and say, “but in the pracHcal life, you need the mind” But you have to check on that, whether in that same place, let’s call it IntuiHon, whether in your IntuiHon not just your true nature, your true Self apparent to you but is your IntuiHon not enough to run this life? To provide enough guidance, to move this body like it wants, is there something missing, is there something lacking in this IntuiHon? [Pause]
No.
[Whispers] Nothing more.
I can feel my body and there is some part that wants to present as if I am tense, I can see you…(Interrupts her)
This same report, make it from your Heart. [Silence]
Then there is nothing. I cannot. [Pause]
Allow yourself to trust this, allow yourself to trust this and it will use your mouth in whichever way it wants, it will use your body in whichever way it wants. This is the Divine guidance which needs no intervenHon from the mind to run this life. [Pause]
So without wanHng to, I was giving the mind the allowance to interpret what the Is-ness was saying. A; Yes, yes. So what happens is the mind is nothing but an interpreter. It is an interpreter which is trying to interpret life for you. It is to interpret what is showing up for you. It is trying to tell you that this which is appearing in front of you, this is what it means. But now we have gone beyond those trivial meanings of the mind. So it is an interpretaHon machine, it is a meaning making machine. And our condiHon has become like this that every moment if we not able to interpret everything, we feel there is something missing in our life. So it’s just going from moment to moment looking at things and saying, “Ahh, this is what this means.” Going to the next moment and saying, “What’s this, what’s this? Ahh, this is what this means.” Then, “What’s this, what’s this? Oh, this is what this means.” You see, but actually it doesn’t mean any of that, we are just grasping at these wrong subHtles and thinking that this is what life is showing us. So stay with the movie, stay with your Pure PercepHon, stay with your Heart. And you don’t have to determine the nature of anything using this interpretaHon [points to head] tool. [Silence] SomeHmes it will feel a bit wobbly because you will get into situaHons where it seems like you won’t have the answer, what does this mean, what’s happening to me!- some sensaHon is coming or somebody is saying something to you and you don’t know how to deal with it and it’s fine, allow that and you see how your Heart responds. Allow yourself the wobbliness, allow yourself the fear of feeling lost. [Silence] Otherwise in our condiHon we become so mental we can’t stand in a line. If we are standing in a line at Mc Donald’s, even before we’ve waited for the one at the counter to ask us what we want we have to repeat it to ourselves ten Hmes, “Oh, I’m going to say this, and this and this…” [Chuckling] This is the fear of meeHng life moment to moment no? We always to preempt it and say, “Ah this man is going to come to me, this is what I should tell him”; “if I get a phone call from this one, this is what I should say”. Everything has become so scripted in a way and mentally scripted that the freshness of what has to show up is just taken away from us in that. But birds don’t live like that, animals don’t live like that, trees don’t live like that, they are very free, they seem to be very free. They seem to be very free. SomeHmes I was telling them the other day, I can see from here that there is a small lotus pond and there is a paint bucket and there is water in both so someHmes the pigeon comes it drinks from the lotus pond, someHmes it drinks from the paint bucket. It is not bothering about these disHncHons, whatever shows up, it is not saying this is good, this is bad, this is beZer, this is worse. This is what I should always do, I should not do this. It’s life is not so military regimented it is just open, open. [Silence] Like you don’t know what’s going to happen in the next moment, I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next moment. That’s the joy of this. There is wonder in this, anything can show up.
I don’t want to talk for talking…I never liked talking for talking.
Now all this also we can leave aside. If your heart is pu^ng words in your mouth say them. Don’t make any pre condiHons, don’t say, I don’t like this, I like this more, I want to live like this , I don’t want to live like this, Who knows! You may become so empty that your body becomes a perfect vessel for God that you’re just always talking. [Sangha laughs] Who can tell these things, we cannot say.
Because I used to interpret this feeling, like having no feeling as something wrong and that made me very nervous. It’s not a big deal I guess.
yrs. You become open to all of this. You see the mind can make anything right or wrong, for some they are trying to come to a no feeling state because they’ve had enough with feelings, so they are trying to come to a no feeling state- I don’t want no feelings. And some are saying – only some feelings, bliss can come but anger cannot come, you see, joy can come but lust cannot come. Trying to micro manage what feelings we can have. But all of this is not true. Whatever has to come will come.
Key Teachings
- The 'I' that is aware cannot be perceived or thought about - it is known through a different, simpler, non-mental way of knowing which is our natural Awareness
- The mind is merely an interpreter and meaning-making machine; we can live from Intuition/Heart without needing mental interpretation to run our life
- Trust the 'Nothing' - the intuitive Heart space - and allow life to unfold naturally without pre-scripting it with mental thoughts
From: How Do I Know That It Is I That Is Aware? - 11th July 2019