Consciousness is All There Is

All there is, is consciousness. It means that whatever is perceived is because of consciousness and is a content of consciousness. The contents of consciousness cannot be anything other than consciousness. There can be no world without the body. There can be no body without the mind. The mind is nothing but a bundle of thoughts. The mind creates the idea of individuality. Because of this creation of individuality or the first Person, the "I-thought", there is an idea of separation of the individual from the rest of creation. Because, there is a first Person, there is the idea of a second person, and third person and so on and so forth. There cannot be a mind without consciousness. Consciousness is the source of the mind.  Finally, there cannot be consciousness without the Absolute. The Absolute is the Ultimate Truth or Reality.

When the great Sages of the past talked about individual or personal consciousness versus universal consciousness, they were trying to make it easier for the seeker to understand the essence of the teaching of Advaita or non-duality from the perspective of the relative since the seeker thinks everything is relative to him or her. Actually, there is no such thing as individual or personal consciousness. Consciousness is consciousness. So, what creates the idea of individuality? The consciousness (which is the same everywhere) identifies with the body and this identity is established through the ego or the I-thought. By creation of the ego, the unlimited consciousness now believes itself to be a limited entity, the body and creates the idea of being a person, a first person -"I".  Thereby, begins all the miseries for this so called individual. Now, this individual, the first person, which is nothing but a thought (the "I-thought"), pretends to be the doer of actions and the reaper of the fruits of the actions and in doing so wants to avoid unhappiness and believes that eternal or unending happiness can be achieved by pursuing a course of right action. And thinking that the body is the form representing him or her, this individual goes through the repeated cycles of misery and suffering.  This non-entity called "I", now wants to seek out the Real Self. Really? Now, how can there be two selves? It is amazing indeed that being the Reality, you want to seek out the Reality!  Strange is this world indeed! The Guru comes along and advises careful inquiry into the nature and source of this very individual by the individual, and then it becomes clear that there is actually no individual at all in the first place. The ego is like a ghost which vanishes upon searching for it.  The mind has created the idea of being an individual entity where none exists. Then this individual believing itself to be suffering wants to pursue sadhana (or spiritual practice) to get out of this suffering and misery by seeking out the Reality.  Is it not clear that the whole idea of a seeker and seeking is just playing out in the mind. No mind, no seeker, no seeking- just being.

In self-inquiry, one is looking for the source of the ego. In doing so, the ego vanishes and is replaced by the unlimited, expanse of consciousness which takes over and there is immediate realization of the Real Self as the cause of this universe. There is no sense of an "I' when the mind is turned inwards to its Source.  The mind, in turning inwards to the Source, actually disappears in favor of the Real Self or the consciousness. If all is consciousness, who are you?

Why Self-Inquiry?

Why must I inquire into my own self? The reason is because you have taken your self to be an entity that is limited to the body and mind. An entity that is born and will die.  An entity that assumes ownership of actions. An entity that believes itself to be the do-er of actions. An entity that believes it has feelings and emotions. An entity that believes that the present is not good enough and that someday or sometime in the future, it will achieve a state of peace or happiness or some state better than the present. An entity that hopes for a better day. An entity that is suffering and pining for a better mental state.

As long as there is a BELIEF in this entity, which you call 'me' or 'I' (the first person) there will no doubt be suffering.  The false belief in this self centered entity is the cause of all suffering.

There are essentially two main ways in which this false belief can come crumbling down. One, is the sincere and complete faith and belief in the sayings of the Sages or the Guru. The Sages have repeatedly said over the ages that "the REAL YOU are not the body nor the mind".  With sheer devotion to your Guru or the Sage, and if the mind is pure enough, just this LISTENING is enough and the false 'I' will immediately vanish. However, for the majority of seekers, due to years and years of mental conditioning and the strong belief in an entity called 'me', many questions persist which prevent him/her from executing the sheer devotion needed to accept the Guru's sayings. In such cases, where the belief in the entity 'me' is very strong, it becomes necessary to investigate, inquire, as to who is this 'me'. This investigation or inquiry by a 'me' into the nature of 'me' is called Self-inquiry (or Self-enquiry if you are British or from the Commonwealth!). With this inquiry, all one is doing is convincing oneself that there is really no-thing or no-one or no-entity called 'me'. It is all just a thought. It is the prime thought or the root thought (the 'I-thought') to which all other thoughts are attached. On proving the falseness of this prime thought (the 'I-thought' or the 'me') the other thoughts have nothing to hold on to and they gradually fall away, leaving only the PURE BEING to shine through effortlessly.

Stop Struggling and Just Surrender

The author fully understands that there are many out there who do not comprehend what is being posted in this blog. Despite proclaiming to be a blog about the simplicity of seeing into your True Nature, there are many that do not just see it the way a small minority do. It might just be easier for some to not struggle to decipher the whole Truth (as there is really no 'one' to decipher it!!) and instead settle for what seems obvious to them. Remember, there is nothing to attain or gain in this entire venture. What many want is just some peace and stillness and what is wrong in asking for that? Remember, that the seeking is itself the source of suffering. Perhaps, for the struggling seeker, it may be better to stop seeking and be happy with some simple knowledge. The purpose of this article to cater to the many who are at this stage of seeking and the author hopes that reading further may be of help to them. As is commonly seen in many commercials, no guarantees are implied and individual results may vary!! The author has nothing to sell. So, what are you waiting for? Read on!

So, you see this so called 'unreal world' and 'illusory world' as real? You just cannot understand what these so called 'Non-dualists' or 'Advaitins' talk about all this 'illusory world being like a dream' etc.? Nothing wrong with that! You are not alone. The majority of the population, in fact a good 99.99% of the population does so! You are reading this so that you can have some peace, some stillness, and enjoy 'life' as it should be, correct? If not, then it is time for you to stop reading right now. If you already are an 'Awakened Non-dualist', then there is no reason for you to read this, correct?

Accepting that you are indeed a person, a person with a body and a mind, let us move on. What is needed is just a change in perspective, that is all at this stage. If you can just get this change in perspective, then you have achieved what you were struggling to achieve so far. Stop at that point and go no further. Relax into this simple understanding and let it settle in for good. When the desire to dig deeper arises in the future, do so.

Firstly, what are you missing right here and right now? What will make you complete? What will give you contentment, right now and right here? Do not just read these questions. Answer them and write it down with date and time stamp, if you will, please! Now, that you have an answer, let us go about figuring out how to satisfy that missing need or desire.

The answer in most cases is that "there is nothing missing right here and right now, but....". And then, there are a lot of thoughts after that 'but.....' and the list goes on and on. Hey, this author did not say that all needs will be satisfied, only that we will go about trying to figure out how to satisfy the needs. There is no end to the needs and wants of this body as long as there is a mind that can conjure up those needs and wants. The needs and wants are called desires. The primary desire is the desire to live. Without that desire, no other desire would exist, correct? Where did this love to be, the desire to be come from? Was it not spontaneous? If the primary desire to just BE was spontaneous, would not all other desires be spontaneous too? That means that 'Spontaneous' was responsible for the desires, not you! If 'you' were not responsible for these desires as they were spontaneous, then why are 'you' suffering especially since they cannot be fulfilled? Gotcha! Let the one who created the desires solve the problem. Since the desires arose spontaneously let them be fulfilled spontaneously. Again, Spontaneous will decide if these desires can be fulfilled or not.

No point dwelling over these thoughts and desires and suffering unnecessarily. This could include the desire to be Awakened. Leave it be. Just chill! You know by now that all your desires cannot be fulfilled or else everyone would be happy and all would be at peace in this world ( a desire of a lot of so called 'spiritualists' and 'spiritual teachers'). These 'spiritual teachers' create an illusion (an unreal utopia) of a world full of content and happy people,- if only the people would follow their teachings. However, despite several thousands of these spiritual teachers and Gurus over the past thousands of years, has there been permanent peace and lack of conflict in this world? Be honest. Knowing that there is really nothing that you can do to stop the thoughts and to fulfill the needs and desires arising from these thoughts, would a sensible 'you' still continue to try to do so? A sensible 'you' would just quit trying to control thoughts. In giving up, there is immediate sense of peace. In surrendering to the Unknown (Spontaneous), there is immediate peace to the 'you'. Let that Unknown creator of thoughts take care of fulfilling the needs of those thoughts (desires). Just surrender completely. Don't worry, things will be done and actions will go on. You will not become a lazy no-good person. Just stop pretending you are the one having the thoughts and taking care of the desires and needs. As soon as a thought arises, ask whose thought it is and where did it come from. Don't try to struggle with the thoughts. Let them arise and let them go. Just be the silent observer of these thoughts. On complete surrender to the Unknown, the actions will go on spontaneously, except there will be no 'you' struggling to do them.

For now, just be satisfied with this basic understanding and stop struggling or seeking any more. Good luck!! Questions or comment? Don't shy away! Go ahead and ask or write your comments.