Nonduality
Presents
ASMI
Excerpts from Sri Nisargadatta
Maharaj's I AM THAT
compiled and edited by Miguel-Angel Carrasco
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CONTENTS
1. I am not
this person, this body-mind, or any thing.
As I can't be what I perceive, I am not this body-mind or
any thing that I am conscious of.
As there must be something unchanging to register
discontinuity, I am not this body-mind, which is neither
continuous nor permanent.
As the person is a changing stream of mental objects that
I as the subject take to be my body-mind, I cannot be a
person. I am, but I can't be this or that.
As it is my presence, which is always here and now, that
gives the quality of actual to any event, I must be
beyond time and space. I was never born, nor will ever
die.
2. I am the
Self, the Witness of Consciousness, pure Awareness.
I am only the Self , which is universal and imagines
itself to be the outer self, a person.
I am not an object in Consciousness but its source, its
Witness, pure shapeless Awareness.
Only the feeling "I am", though in the World,
is not of the World nor can be denied.
3. The
World exists only as a dream in my Consciousness: Part
One
As I only know the contents of my consciousness, and as
an outside world is unprovable, all perceivables are only
in my mind.
Transient things only appear and have no substance.
What changes has no reality. Time and space are imagined,
ways of thinking, modes of perception. Only timeless
reality is, and it is here and now.
The
World exists only as a dream in my Consciousness: Part
Two
Whatever has
a form is only limitations imagined in my consciousness.
The World is but a show, a make-belief.
The World I perceive is entirely private, a dream.
Desire and fear come from seeing the World as separate
from my-Self.
While I see the dream as real, I'll suffer being its
slave.
Nothing in the dream is done by me.
4.
There is only one dreamer, the one Self, dreaming many
dreams.
In every body there is a dream, but the dreamer is the
same, the one Self, which reflects itself in each body as
"I am".
All the dreams are of a common imaginary World and
influence each other.
Love is seeing the unity under the imaginary diversity.
5.
I alone am, the One, the Supreme.
Not only the multiplicity of selves is false: even the
duality of I/World, Subject/Object, is a transient
appearance in my
Consciousness.
There is only my-Self, Consciousness.
I am not even Consciousness, which is dual and
perceivable: I am the unknown Reality beyond.
Though unknown and unknowable, my real being is concrete
and solid like a rock.
I am the light that makes Consciousness possible, pure
Awareness, the non-dualSelf, the Supreme Reality, the
Absolute, the Beingness of being, the Awareness of
consciousness.
6.
The big cycle: part one
The alternation of manifested (existence, becoming) -
unmanifested
(pure being).
The manifestation of the Absolute.
The big cycle: part two
The return to the Absolute.
There are no real differences. Only the One is.
7. The
goal: Liberation through Self-Realization
The gospel of self-realization
The enlightened one (gnani)
8.
The way to Self-Realization: Part One
Not through activity. No effort is necessary, but there
is a precondition: earnestness now
The
way to Self-Realization: Part Two
Not through knowledge of things or experiences, but
through self-knowledge.
The way to
Self-Realization: Part Three
Not through the mind.
See everything as a dream, a show, a film.
The
way to Self-Realization: Part Four
See that happiness is not pleasure; see that desires and
fears create bondage; and be free and happy through
detachment.
The way to
Self-Realization: Part Five
As self-identification with the body-mind is the poison
that causes bondage, seek liberation by seeing that
oneself is not any thing personal or perceivable.
The way to
Self-Realization: Part Six
Meditation, Witness attitude, Awareness.
No thought but "I am".
9. Miscellaneous
Why the ignorance and the illusion? What is the purpose
of it all?
Violence, Evil, Sin.
Progress.
Karma.
Death, Suicide, Reincarnation.
Religions, God.
The real Guru.
Yoga.
Love.
Numbers after quotations refer to pages of the edition by
Chetana (P) Ltd, Bombay, 1992.
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