"The very first step in understanding what this is all about is giving up the concept of an active, volitional 'I' as a separate entity and accepting the passive role of perceiving and functioning as a process." - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

All this is just an appearance in consciousness

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

If you sit here quietly, being one with the knowledge "I Am", they you are not concerned with the world or what goes on in the world. It is only when the consciousness starts operating and there are various movements in the consciousness that the behaviour in the world takes place. When I am not conscious of the existence of the body, experiences are not registered.

Just as the universe is contained in consciousness, so too this physical body is merely an appearance in consciousness, perceived and cognized by consciousness. No amount of effort can make you understand this; only the deepest apperception of this in consciousness will make that experience happen by itself.

Anyone in that condition, where the consciousness is present but the registration of the existence of the body is not, even in that state the conditions in the body change constantly. All of this is an appearance in consciousness; therefore, consciousness has to suffer all of the changing conditions.

In that state any number of events happen, but all that is really happening is a total functioning against the background of this void which, in reality, is really consciousness. There is no separate identity; what IS is the consciousness, apart from that no one can exist.

When you are very quiet, you have arrived at the basis of everything. That is the deep, dark blue state in which there are millions of stars and planets. When you are in that state, you have no awareness of your existence.

March 24, 1981.

2 comments:

  1. Excellent quote, Thanks.

    Beautifully expressed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you so much for your acknowledgment. I agree with you. These teachings are ever-fresh and excellent :)

    Hari Aum,
    Nandini

    ReplyDelete

सर्वभूताधिवासं यद्भूतेषु च वसत्यपि।
सर्वानुग्राहकत्वेन तद्स्म्यहं वासुदेवः॥

That in whom reside all beings and who resides in all beings,
who is the giver of grace to all, the Supreme Soul of the universe, the limitless being:
I AM THAT. -- Amritabindu Upanishad