What is actually meant by pointers? That is what we will try to clarify today. There can be many pointers pointing to the same thing. For instance, Chicago can be approached from the North, South, East, and West. Although, the pointers are from various directions, they are all pointing to Chicago. When the arrow points to Chicago, the mind immediately associates the word Chicago, with the concept that it already has, of a city, perhaps with tall skyscrapers, shoreline, etc. If the city is already known, then the image of the city appears in the mind. The pointers however are not the entity that they are pointing to. Meaning the word Chicago is not really Chicago itself, but just a word. This is very important to understand. Another example, the word Water. As soon as you hear it, the mind creates a concept of a clear colorless, tasteless, liquid. But the word water itself is not the liquid itself, but just points to that concept. As soon as a word is mentioned, the mind goes into high gear trying to connect the word to a concept which it already knows or associate with something it creates at that moment. Mostly, the pointer is mistaken to be the entity itself. This may sound silly, but as the following explanation will clarify, it is not difficult to be misled.
Here, of course, we will be talking of Reality, Awareness, THAT or the Truth ( or whatever else you may call IT). When the mind is pointed to Reality, it immediately tries to conceptualize it. The mind cannot conceptualize anything that is not occupying space and time. Depending on what the mind comes up with, it tries to make it into an object, an object occupying space and time, so that it can grasp it. Therefore a lot of pointers try to use words that make it easy for the mind to grasp this subtle message being pointed to. Words like space-like, deep blue, stillness, silence, no-thing, emptiness, are often used as pointers. But none of these words actually is the Reality that they are pointing to. For instance, the word Awareness, is beyond easy description and therefore is frequently used pointer to try and prevent the mind from trying to form a concept. One can also use the word, Non-conceptual Awareness. Even more confounding to the mind!! Some use the word Spirit or Absolute ( although now one can conceptualize a brand of vodka/spirit with the name Absolut!!). As long as the mind hears these words(pointers) it tries to understand them in the form of concepts.
The bottom line is that the answer is not in the mind. One has to come to the firm conviction that what is unknown is who they are. Whatever is known, perceived, conceptualized, cannot be what I truly am.
