Nonduality Presents
ASMI
Excerpts from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's I AM THAT
compiled and edited by Miguel-Angel Carrasco
Numbers after quotations refer to pages of the edition by Chetana (P) Ltd, Bombay, 1992.
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".
To me all [persons] are equal. Differences in
appearance and expression are there, but they do not matter. Just
as the shape of a gold ornament does not affect the gold, so does
man's essence remain unaffected. (301)
There is absolutely no difference between me and others, except
in my knowing myself as I am. I know it for certain and you do
not. The difference is only in the mind and temporary. I was like
you, you will be like me. (123)
My self and your self are one. I know it, but you don't. That is
all the difference - and it cannot last. (88)
This [helping people] is mere imagination. In truth you do not
help others, because there are no others. (313)
In reality there are no others, and by helping yourself you help
everybody else. (383)
I am the other person, the other person is myself; in name and
shape we are different, but there is no separation. At the root
of our being we are one. (511)
Where are the many points [of consciousness]? In you mind. You
insist that your world is independent of your mind. How can it
be? Your desire to know other people's minds is due to your not
knowing your own mind. First know your own mind and you will find
that the question of other minds does not arise at all, for there
are no other people. You are the common factor, the only link
between the minds. Being is consciousness. "I am"
applies to all. (257)
The dreams are not equal, but the dreamer is one. I am the
insect, I am the poet - in dream. But in reality I am neither. I
am beyond all dreams. I am the light in which all dreams appear
and disappear. I am both inside and outside the dream. Just as a
man having a headache knows the ache and also knows that he is
not the ache, so do I know the dream, myself dreaming and myself
not dreaming - all at the same time. I am what I am before,
during and after the dream. But what I see in dream, I am not.
(117)
Ultimately nothing is mine or yours, everything is ours. Just be
one with yourself and you will be one with all, at home in the
entire universe. (462)
Even to talk of re-uniting the person with the self is not right,
because there is no person, only a mental picture given a false
reality by conviction. Nothing was divided and there is nothing
to unite. (143)
There is no "my self" and "his self". There
is the Self, the only Self of all. Misled by the diversity of
names and shapes, minds and bodies, you imagine multiple selves.
We both are the self. (137)
The one witness reflects itself in the countless bodies as
"I am". As long as the bodies, however subtle, last,
the "I am" appears as many. Beyond the body there is
only the One. (157)
I am one, but appear as many. (529)
Delve deeply into the sense "I am" and you will surely
discover that the perceiving centre is universal, as universal as
the light that illumines the world. All that happens in the
universe happens to you, the silent witness. On the other hand,
whatever is done,is done by you, the universal and inexhaustible
energy. (519)
All the dreams are of a common
imaginary World
and influence each other.
The variety of personal worlds is not so great. All the dreams are superimposed over a common world. To some extent, they shape and influence each other. The basic unity operates in spite of all. At the root of it all lies self-forgetfulness; not knowing who I am. In a hospital there may be many patients, all sleeping, all dreaming, each dreaming his own private, personal dream, unrelated, unaffected, having one single factor in common - illness. Similarly, we have divorced ourselves in our imagination from the real world of common experience, and enclosed ourselves in a cloud of personal desires and fears, images and thoughts, ideas and concepts. (92-93)
Love is seeing the unity under the imaginary diversity.
When all the false self-identifications are
thrown away, what remains is all-embracing love. (195)
To see myself in everybody, and everybody in myself, most
certainly is love. (91)
The consciousness in you and the consciousness in me, apparently
two, really one, seek unity and that is love. (70)