Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Q: Yet, you must believe in having lived before.
M: The scriptures say so, but I know nothing about it. I know myself as I am; as I appeared or will appear is not within my experience. It is not that I do not remember. In fact there is nothing to remember. Reincarnation implies a reincarnating self. There is no such thing. The bundle of memories and hope, called the "I", imagines itself existing everlastingly and creates time to accommodate its false eternity: To be, I need no past or future. All experience is born of imagination; I do not imagine, so birth or death happens to me. Only those who think themselves born can thing themselves re-born. You are accusing me of having been born - I plead not guilty!
All exists in awareness and awareness neither dies nor is re-born. It is the changeless reality itself.
All the universe of experience is born with the body and dies with the body; it has its beginning and end in awareness, but awareness knows no beginning, nor end. If you think it out carefully and brood over it for a long time you will come to see the light of awareness in all its clarity and the world ill fade out of your vision. it is like looking at a burning incense stick, you see the stick and the smoke first; when you notice the fiery point, your realize that it has the power to consume mountains of sticks and fill the universe with smoke. Timelessly the self actualizes itself, without exhausting its infinite possibilities. In the incense stick simile the stick is the body and the smoke is the mind. As long as the mind is busy with its contortions, it does not perceive its own source. The Guru comes and turns your attention to the spark within. By its very nature the mind is outward turned; it always tends to seek for the source of things among the things themselves; to be told to look for the source within, is in a way, the beginning of a new life. Awareness takes the place of consciousness, in consciousness there is the "I", who is conscious while awareness is undivided: awareness is aware of itself. The I AM is a thought, while awareness is not a thought, there is no "I am aware" in awareness. Consciousness is an attribute while awareness is not; one can be aware of being conscious, but not conscious of awareness. God is the totality of consciousness, but awareness is beyond all - being as well as not-being.
Q: Yet, you must believe in having lived before.
M: The scriptures say so, but I know nothing about it. I know myself as I am; as I appeared or will appear is not within my experience. It is not that I do not remember. In fact there is nothing to remember. Reincarnation implies a reincarnating self. There is no such thing. The bundle of memories and hope, called the "I", imagines itself existing everlastingly and creates time to accommodate its false eternity: To be, I need no past or future. All experience is born of imagination; I do not imagine, so birth or death happens to me. Only those who think themselves born can thing themselves re-born. You are accusing me of having been born - I plead not guilty!
All exists in awareness and awareness neither dies nor is re-born. It is the changeless reality itself.
All the universe of experience is born with the body and dies with the body; it has its beginning and end in awareness, but awareness knows no beginning, nor end. If you think it out carefully and brood over it for a long time you will come to see the light of awareness in all its clarity and the world ill fade out of your vision. it is like looking at a burning incense stick, you see the stick and the smoke first; when you notice the fiery point, your realize that it has the power to consume mountains of sticks and fill the universe with smoke. Timelessly the self actualizes itself, without exhausting its infinite possibilities. In the incense stick simile the stick is the body and the smoke is the mind. As long as the mind is busy with its contortions, it does not perceive its own source. The Guru comes and turns your attention to the spark within. By its very nature the mind is outward turned; it always tends to seek for the source of things among the things themselves; to be told to look for the source within, is in a way, the beginning of a new life. Awareness takes the place of consciousness, in consciousness there is the "I", who is conscious while awareness is undivided: awareness is aware of itself. The I AM is a thought, while awareness is not a thought, there is no "I am aware" in awareness. Consciousness is an attribute while awareness is not; one can be aware of being conscious, but not conscious of awareness. God is the totality of consciousness, but awareness is beyond all - being as well as not-being.
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