Now that you have hopefully convinced yourself that you are not the material body, it is time to convince yourself fully that your are not the immaterial mind. Before we go any further, what exactly is the mind? It certainly is not matter, contrary to what you may think. The mind is nothing but a bundle of thoughts. Let us examine if you can be the mind.
There are several ways in which one can go about investigating this subject. It does not matter how you convince yourself as long as you can and develop the strong conviction that there is no way you can be the mind. Depending on what hits home one can reach one's conclusion his or her own way.
One way would be to examine the subject versus the object. For example, right now you are looking at a computer screen, which is an object. If asked as to who owns the computer, you may say "my computer". In that case, there is an "I'(me) -the subject and there is the "not-I" which would be the object or in this case the computer screen. Same way, you can point to your pen and once again you may say "my pen". In this case there is the "me or I"- the subject and there is the pen (not "I"). In the same way, you can point to your hand and say "my hand". Again, "my" (the subject) and the hand ("not-me"). You can also qualify that statement by saying that "I am the knower of the existence of my hand". In this case, the knower would be "I" and the known would be "the hand" ("not I"). You can say "my thoughts" quite correctly since you know the thoughts and are aware of your thoughts. Therefore there is the "I" (the knower of the thoughts) and there are the "thoughts" ("not-I"- the known or the object of your knowledge). Since you know your thoughts you obviously cannot be the thoughts. The knower (subject) cannot be the known (object). Since you are the knower of the mind, you cannot be the mind.
Another way to go about it would be to see if you can actually be a thought. A thought is transient. It comes and goes. However, you cannot deny the fact that you exist apart from thoughts. You KNOW that you are, right now and right here. Even if the thoughts are constantly changing, you remain as you are - unchanging. In the absence of thoughts, you ARE. For instance, there are no thoughts in deep dreamless sleep. Yet, you cannot deny the fact that you existed in deep dreamless sleep. For you wake up and say "I slept". For one to have remembrance or memory of the experience of absence of thoughts(like in deep dreamless sleep) one would have to have existed then and now to recollect that experience. To put it another way, without your existence in deep dreamless sleep, there is no way you can recall your experience of ignorance or forgetfulness or absence of thoughts during sleep. Once again, you are the KNOWER of your experience of absence of thoughts (the KNOWN) in deep dreamless sleep. Therefore, the subject- "I" is beyond or prior to the object and existed in the absence of thoughts. The subject, "I", is beyond objectification for as soon as you try to objectify the "I",there has to be another "I-the knower" of the "I" that you are trying to objectify or know .
There are so many ways in which one can investigate to attain the conviction that one is not the mind. At the end of this investigation, you are sure that you are neither the mind nor the body. So, where does that leave you?
