Consciousness Alone Is

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

February 23, 1981

M: If you have really understood the core of the matter no questions can arise. Questions arise only to an entity. The question is usually - 'what can I do?' Where the "I" itself is not, who will want to know anything? Every manifestation is an appearance in consciousness, perceived and cognized by consciousness. There is only manifestation functioning and perceiving.

Q: My mind is too agitated for consciousness to be in consciousness.

M: You have not been listening carefully to what I have said. The words have not reached you. I have told you that consciousness is always there and anything that happens is in consciousness, so let consciousness remain in consciousness. Why do you, considering yourself as a separate entity, try to meddle in it? All that is, is consciousness.

Q: Can I ask about the meaning of suffering?

M: Now you are developing a new concept - that there is something meaningful or profound behind suffering. This concept itself is going to strangulate you. Any concept erupting out of you - how can it give you knowledge? You must get rid of all concepts. You are the very basis, the foundation, out of which concepts erupt. You are not the concepts, you are prior to concepts. You must be firmly convinced about this.

Q: Do I suppress the concepts?

M: Leave them alone. You watch the concepts erupting and disappearing. You are apart from concepts, do not identify with them.

Q: I don't have the ability to do that.

M: If you are not, where are the concepts? Where is the question of ignorance of knowledge if you are not there? The primary concept I AM hangs on to the body as its identity, hence all the trouble. Will you ever come to the conclusion that you are not the concept?