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.
The big cycle: part two
The return to the Absolute.
There is the body and there is the Self. Between
them is the mind, in which the Self is reflected as "I
am". Because of the imperfections of the mind, its crudity
and restlessness, lack of discernment and insight, it takes
itself to be the body, not the Self. All that is needed is to
purify the mind so that it can realize its identity with the
Self. When the mind merges in the Self, the body presents no
problems. It remains what it is, an instrument of cognition and
action, the tool and the expression of the creative fire within.
The ultimate value of the body is that it serves to discover the
cosmic body, which is the universe in its entirety. As you
realize yourself in manifestation, you keep on discovering that
you are ever more than what you have imagined. (274)
Consciousness as such is the subtle counterpart of matter. Just
as inertia (tamas) and energy (rajas) are attributes of matter,
so does harmony (sattva) manifest itself as consciousness. You
may consider it in a way as a form of very subtle energy.
Wherever matter organizes itself into a stable organism,
consciousness appears spontaneously. With the destruction of the
organism, consciousness disappears. (265)
The mind produces thoughts ceaselessly, even when you do not look
at them. When you know what is going on in your mind, you call it
consciousness. This is your waking state - your consciousness
shifts from sensation to sensation, from perception to
perception, from idea to idea, in endless succession. Then comes
awareness, the direct insight into the whole of consciousness,
the totality of the mind. The mind is like a river, flowing
ceaselessly in the bed of the body; you identify yourself for a
moment with some particular ripple and call it "my
thought". All you are conscious of is your mind; awareness
is the cognizance of consciousness as a whole. (221)
Consciousness comes and goes, awareness shines immutably. When
there is a person, there is also consciousness. "I am",
mind, consciousness denote the same state. If you say "I am
aware", it only means "I am conscious of thinking about
being aware". There is no "I am" in awareness.
Witnessing is of the mind. The witness goes with the witnessed.
In the state of non-duality, all separation ceases. (488)
It [the witness] is both [real and unreal]. The last remnant of
illusion, the first touch of the real. To say: "I am only
the witness" is both false and true: false because of the
"I am", true because of the witness. It is better to
say "there is witnessing". The moment you say "I
am", the entire universe comes into being along with its
creator. (362)
The witness is merely a point in awareness. It has no name and
form. It is like the reflection of the sun in a drop of dew. The
drop of dew has name and form, but the little point of light is
caused by the sun. (399)
Watch yourself closely and you will see that whatever be the
content of consciousness, the witnessing of it does not depend on
the content. Awareness is itself and does not change with the
event. The event may be pleasant or unpleasant, minor or
important, awareness is the same. Take note of the peculiar
nature of pure awareness, its natural self-identity, without the
least trace of self-consciousness, and go to the root of it and
you will soon realize that awareness is your true nature, and
nothing you may be aware of, you can call your own. When the
content is viewed without likes and dislikes, the consciousness
of it is awareness. But still there is a difference between
awareness as reflected in consciousness and pure awareness beyond
consciousness. Reflected awareness, the sense "I am
aware" is the witness, while pure awareness is the essence
of reality. Reflection of the sun in a drop of water is a
reflection of the sun, no doubt, but not the sun itself. Between
awareness reflected in consciousness as the witness and pure
awareness there is a gap, which the mind cannot cross. (437-8)
Consciousness does not shine by itself. It shines by a light
beyond it in which it appears, which gives it being. Don't be all
the time immersed in your experience. Remember that you are
beyond the experiencer, ever unborn and deathless. In remembering
it, the quality of pure knowledge will emerge, the light of
unconditional awareness. (190)
By its very nature, the mind is outward turned; it always tends
to seek for the source of things among the things themselves; to
be told to look for the source within, is, in a way, the
beginning of a new life. Awareness takes the place of
consciousness; in consciousness there is the "I", who
is conscious, while awareness is undivided; awareness is aware of
itself. The "I am" is a thought, while awareness is not
a thought; there is no "I am aware" in awareness.
Consciousness is an attribute while awareness is not; one can be
aware of being conscious, but not conscious of awareness. God is
the totality of consciousness, but awareness is beyond all -
being as well as not-being. (263)
The totality of conscious experience is nature. As a conscious
self your are a part of nature. As awareness, you are beyond.
Seeing nature as mere consciousnes is awareness. There are levels
in consciousness, but not in awareness. It is of one block,
homogeneous. Its reflection in the mind is love and
understanding. There are levels of clarity in understanding and
intensity in love, but not in their source. The source is simple
and single, but its gifts are infinite. Only do not take the
gifts for the source. Realize yourself as the source and not as
the river, that is all. Of course, you are [the river too]. As an
"I am" you are the river, flowing between the banks of
the body. But you are also the source and the ocean and the
clouds in the sky. Wherever there is life and consciousness, you
are. Smaller than the smallest, bigger than the biggest, you are
, while all else appears. (403)
Awareness is primordial; it is the original state, beginningless,
endless, uncaused, unsupported, without parts, without change.
Consciousness is on contact, a reflection against a surface, a
state of duality. There can be no consciousness without
awareness, but there can be awareness without consciousness, as
in deep sleep. Awareness is absolute, consciousness is relative
to its content; consciousness is always of something.
Consciousness is partial and changeful, awareness is total,
changeless, calm and silent. And it is the common matrix of every
experience. Since it is awareness that makes consciousness
possible, there is awareness in every state of consciousness.
Therefore, the very consciousness of being conscious is already a
movement in awareness. Interest in your stream of consciousness
takes you to awareness. It is not a new state. It is at once
recognized as the original, basic experience, which is life
itself, and also love and joy. (29)
Awareness with an object we call witnessing. When there is also
self-identification with the object, caused by desire or fear,
such a state is called a person. In reality there is only one
state; when distorted by self-identification it is called a
person, when coloured with the sense of being, it is the witness;
when colourless and limitless, it is called the Supreme. (401)
One word may convey several and even contradictory meanings. The
"I am" that pursues the pleasant and shuns the
unpleasant is false; the "I am" that sees pleasure and
pain as inseparable sees rightly. The witness that is enmeshed in
what he perceives is the person; the witness who stands aloof,
unmoved and untouched is the watch-tower of the real, the point
at which awareness, inherent in the unmanifested, contacts the
manifested. (351)
The "I am" in movement creates the world. The "I
am" at peace becomes the Absolute. Of course you can [change
the world you project]. But you must cease identifying yourself
with it and go beyond. Then you have the power to destroy and
re-create. (351)
As long as you are ignorant of yourself as the creator, your
world is limited and repetitive. Once you go beyond your
self-identification with your past, you are free to create a new
world of harmony and beauty. Or you just remain, beyond being and
non-being. (389)
The world has only as much power over you as you give it. Rebel.
Go beyond duality. (351)
The person merges into the witness, the witness into awareness,
awareness into pure being, yet identity is not lost, only its
limitations are lost. It is transfigured and becomes the real
Self, the sadguru, the eternal friend and guide. (447)
When I look through the mind, I see numberless people. When I
look beyond the mind, I see the witness. Beyond the witness there
is the infinite intensity of emptiness and silence. (355)
Without the one [the witness] the other [the "I am"]
cannot be. Yet they are not one. It is like the flower and its
colour. Without flower, no colours; without colour, the flower
remains unseen. Beyond is the light which on contact with the
flower creates the colour. Realize that your true nature is that
of pure light only, and both the perceived and the perceiver come
and go together. That which makes both possible, and yet is
neither, is your real being, which means not being a
"this" or "that", but pure awareness of being
and not-being. When awareness is turned on itself, the feeling is
of not knowing. When it is turned outward, the knowables come
into being. To say "I know myself" is a contradiction
in terms for what is "known" cannot be
"myself". (395)
There must be love in the relation between the person who says
"I am" and the observer of that "I am". As
long as the observer, the inner self, the higher self, considers
himself apart from the observed, the lower self, despises it and
condemns it, the situation is hopeless. It is only when the
observer (vyakta) accepts the person (vyakti) as a projection or
manifestation of himself and, so to say, takes the self into the
Self, the duality of "I" and "this" goes, and
in the identity of the outer and the inner the Supreme Reality
manifests itself. This union of the seer and the seen happens
when the seer becomes conscious of himself as the seer; he is not
merely interested in the seen, which he is anyhow, but also
interested in being interested, giving attention to attention,
aware of being aware. Affectionate awareness is the crucial
factor that brings Reality into focus. When the vyakti realizes
its non-existence in separation from the vyakta, and the vyakta
sees the vyakti as his own expression, then the peace and silence
of the avyakta state come into being. In reality the three are
one: the vyakta and the avyakta are inseparable, while the vyakti
is the sensing-feeling-thinking process. (292-3)
[Between vyakta and avyakta] there is no difference. It is like
light and daylight. The universe is full of light which you do
not see; but the same light you see as daylight. And what the
daylight reveals is the vyakti. (251)
The state of identity is inherent in reality and never fades. But
identity is neither the transient personality (vyakti), nor the
karma-bound individuality (vyakta). It is what remains when all
self-identification is given up as false - pure consciousness,
the sense of being all there is, or could be. Consciousness is
pure in the beginning and pure in the end; in between it gets
contaminated by imagination which is at the root of creation. At
all times consciousness remains the same. To know it as it is, is
realization and timeless peace. (395)
Beyond the self (vyakta), lies the unmanifested (avyakta), the
causeless cause of everything. (143)
All happens in consciousness and you are the root, the source,
the foundation of consciousness. The world is but a succession of
experiences and you are what makes them conscious, and yet remain
beyond all experience. It is like the heat, the flame and the
burning wood. The heat maintains the flame, the flame consumes
the wood. Without heat there would be neither flame nor fuel.
Similarly, without awareness there would be no consciousness, nor
life, which transforms matter into a vehicle of consciousness.
(404)
What relationship can there be between what is and what merely
appears to be? Is there any relationship between the ocean and
its waves? The real enables the unreal to appear and causes it to
disappear. The succession of transient moments creates the
illusion of time, but the timeless reality of pure being is not
in movement, for all movement requires a motionless background.
It is itsef the background. Once you have found it in yourself,
you know that you had never lost that independent being,
independent of all divisions and separations. But don't look for
it in consciousness, you will not fint it there. Don't look for
it anywhere, for nothing contains it. On the contrary, it
contains everything and manifests everything. It is like the
daylight that makes everything visible while itself remaining
invisible. (410)
The seeker is he who is in search of himself. Soon he discovers
that his own body he cannot be. Once the conviction "I am
not the body" becomes so well grounded that he can no longer
feel, think and act for and behalf of the body, he will easily
discover that he is the universal being, knowing, acting; that in
him and through him the entire universe is real, conscious and
alive. This is the heart of the problem. Either you are
body-conscious and a slave of circumstances, or you are the
universal consciousness itself - and in full control of every
event. Yet consciousness, individual or universal, is not my true
abode; I am not in it, it is not mine, there is no"me"
in it. I am beyond, though it is not easy to explain how one can
be neither conscious nor unconscious, but just beyond. I cannot
say that I am in God or I am God; God is the universal light and
love, the universal witness: I am beyond the universal even.(320)
Ultimately you will come to see that you are neither the
particular nor the universal, you are beyond both. As the tiny
point of a pencil can draw innumerable pictures, so does the
dimensionless point of awareness draw the contents of the vast
universe. Find that point and be free. (389)
The enlightened (gnani) is neither [conscious or unconscious].
But in his enlightenment (gnana) all is contained. Awareness
contains every experience. But he who is aware is beyond every
experience. He is beyond awareness itself. (265)
There can be no experience beyond consciousness. Yet there is the
experience of just being. There is a state beyond consciousness,
which is not unsconscious. Some call it super-consciousness, or
pure consciousness, or supreme consciousness. It is pure
awareness free from the subject-object nexus. Consciousness is
intermitent, full of gaps. Yet there is the continuity of
identity. What is this sense of identity due to, if not to
something beyond consciousness? (310)
To take appearance for reality is a grievous sin and the cause of
all calamities. You are the all-pervading, eternal and infinitely
creative awareness -consciousness. All else is local and
temporary. (42)
Creation - reflection - rejection: Brahma - Vishnu - Shiva : this
is the eternal process. All things are governed by it. After the
stage of creation, comes the stage of examination and reflection,
and finally the stage of abandonment and forgetting. The
consciousness remains, but in a latent, quiet state. Understand
that the One includes the Three and that you are the One, and you
shall be free of the world process. (394)
There are no real differences. Only the One is real.
There is the body. Inside the body appears to be
an observer, and outside a world under observation. The observer
and his observation as well as the world observed appear and
disappear together. Beyond it all, there is void. This void is
one for all. (378)
The knower comes and goes with the known, and is transient; but
that which knows that it does not know, which is free of memory
and anticipation, is timeless. (395)
The known is but a shape and knowledge is but a name. The knower
is but a state of mind. The real is beyond. All knowledge is in
memory; it is only recognition, while reality is beyond the
duality of the knower and the known. How misleading is your
language! You assume, unconsciously, that reality also is
approachable through knowledge. And then you bring in a knower of
reality beyond reality! Do understand that to be, reality need
not be known. Ignorance and knowledge are in the mind, not in the
real. (423)
To become free, your attention must be drawn to the "I
am", the witness. Of course, the knower and the known are
one, not two, but to break the spell of the known the knower must
be brought to the forefront. Neither is primary, both are
reflections in memory of the ineffable experience, ever new and
ever now, unstranslatable, quicker than the mind. (424)
They [the person and the witness] appear to be two, but on
investigation they are found to be one. Duality lasts as long as
it is not questioned. The trinity: mind, self, spirit (vyakti,
vyakta, avyanta) , when looked into, becomes unity. These are
only modes of experiencing: of attachment, of detachment, of
transcendence. (363)
They [matter and spirit] are one, or two, or three. On
investigation, three become two, and two become one. Take the
simile of face - mirror - image. Any two of them presuppose the
third which unites the two. In sadhana, you see the three as two,
until you realize the two as one. (479)
You are really in search of yourself, without knowing it. You are
love-longing for the love-worthy, the perfect lovable. Due to
ignorance you are looking for it in the world of opposites and
contradictions. When you find it within, your search will be
over. (401)
Pain and pleasure, good and bad, right and wrong: these are
relative terms and must not be taken absolutely. They are limited
and temporary. (264)
What you see is yours, and what I see is mine. The two have
little in common. To find the common factor you must abandon all
distinctions. Only the universal is in common. (533)
When you look at anything, it is the ultimate you see, but you
imagine that you see a cloud or a tree. (201)
We love variety, the play of pain and pleasure, we are fascinated
by contrasts. For this we need the opposites and their apparent
separation. We enjoy them for a time and then get tired and crave
for the peace and silence of pure being. (416)
My world is free from opposites, of mutually destructive
discrepancies; harmony pervades; its peace is rocklike; this
peace and silence are my body. (485)
In the mirror of your mind, images appear and disappear. The
mirror remains. Learn to distinguish the immovable in the
movable, the unchanging in the changing, till you realize that
all differences are in appearance only, and oneness is a fact.
This basic identity -you may call God, or Brahman, or the mattrix
(Prakriti) , the words matter little- is only the realization
that all is one. Once you can say with confidence born from
direct experience "I am the world, the world is
myself", you are free from desire and fear on one hand and
become totally responsible for the world on the other. The
senseless sorrow of mankind becomes your sole concern. (496)
A man who knows that he is neither body nor mind cannot be
selfish, for he has nothing to be selfish for. Or you may say he
is equally "selfish" on behalf of everybody he meets;
everybody's welfare is his own. The feeling "I am the world,
the world is myself" becomes quite natural; once it is
established, there is just no way of being selfish. To be selfish
means to covet, acquire, accumulate on behalf of the part against
the whole. (510-1)
I have no shape, nor name. It is attachment to a name and shape
that breeds fear. I am not attached. I am nothing, and nothing is
afraid of no thing. On the contrary, everything is afraid of
Nothing, for when a thing touches Nothing, it becomes nothing.
(88)
Reality is neither subjective nor objective, neither mind nor
matter, neither time nor space. These divisions need somebody to
whom to happen, a conscious separate centre. But reality is all
and nothing, the totality and the exclusion, the fullness and the
emptiness, fully consistent, absolutely paradoxical. You cannot
speak about it, you can only lose your self in it. When you deny
reality to anything, you come to a residue which cannot be
denied. (208)
No relation [between Reality and its expressions]. In Reality,
all is real and identical. As we put it, saguna and nirguna are
one in Parabrahman. There is only the Supreme. In movement, it is
saguna. Motionless, it is nirguna. But it is only the mind that
moves or does not move. The real is beyond, you are beyond. (489)
Unmanifested, manifested, individuality, personality (nirguna,
saguna, vyakta, vyakti), all these are mere words, points of
view, mental attitudes. There is no reality in them. The real is
experienced in silence. (89)
In reality the three are one: the vyakta and the avyakta are
inseparable, while the vyakti is the sensing-feeling-thinking
process. How can there be relation when they are one? All talk of
separation and relation is due to the distorting and corrupting
influence of "I-am-the-body" idea. The outer self
(vyakti) is merely a projection on the body-mind of the inner
self (vyakta) , which again is only an expression of the Supreme
Self (avyakta) , which is all and none. (293)
All attributes are personal. The real is beyond all attributes.
(528)
As water remains water regardless of the vessels, as light
remains itself regardless of the colours it brings out, so does
the real remain real regardless of conditions in which it is
reflected. (15)
If I ask you what is the taste of your mouth, all you can do is
to say: it is neither sweet nor bitter, nor sour nor astringent;
it is what remains when all these tastes are not. Similarly, when
all distinctions and reactions are no more, what remains is
reality, simple and solid. (410)
When all names and forms have been given up, the real is with
you. You need not seek it. Plurality and diversity are the play
of the mind only. Reality is one. (38)
In reality there is only the source, dark in itself, making
everything shine. Unperceived, it causes perception. Unfelt, it
causes feeling. Unthinkable, it causes thought. Non-being, it
gives birth to being. It is the immovable background of motion.
Once you are there, you are at home everywhere. (381)