A Shortcut to Recognition of Myself as Consciousness?”
Proponent: The shortcut to Consciousness is to just be it.
Answer: There is no shortcut because consciousness is the nature of every sentient being. How can you be what you are? Your statement implies that you can do to be but you can’t do unless you already are. You can do Self inquiry along scriptural to remove the belief that you are something other than consciousness. A person can say E=MC2 but have no knowledge of what the equation means. To recognize yourself as consciousness takes a lot of effort and perseverance, not being.
Proponent: But I had the feeling that I was consciousness as a kid. It led me to did vipassana meditation at a Buddhist Centre where I daily did sadhana of asanas and meditation (all 8 limbs of yoga). A few years later I discovered another spiritual group and I was there almost daily, volunteering, meditating, doing courses.
But the last 10 years I just got sucked back into the mind, the physical experiences, the chaos of my family. And my biggest question was, “when you know/see It, how can you “un-see” It. How can a yogi go backwards??? LOL.
But, we can slip back into the World of senses, physicality, avarice etc. I got caught up again in the body and became very insecure. I’m going through my inheritance now and using drugs too. They block my brain in ways in ways that only a user can understand. But, hey, without them I wouldn’t have got through the pain and mental/physical exhaustion.
Answer: There is no evidence that the drugs saved your soul as you point out in the next paragraph.
But that is where ISHVARA comes in, as you say. A sensitivity to and faith and trust in it, even gratitude for keeping everything held together. The yogic sciences are such an overwhelmingly beautiful system. The joy and fulfilment flooding into the body cannot help but create healing in the body and mind. Release from the World in knowing one’s own Self is… well, it’s like a natural high far beyond what any drug could achieve.
So I am very excited to be Home again. Constant vigilance over the mind will keep me secure in it. Be assured my journey is not over! Deepening and living it is a moment by moment journey.
Answer: It is very easy to understand the flow of what happened. The times when the mind was quiet and peaceful is the sattvic mind so pure Consciousness, yourself, shines through.
But you did not get the knowledge that you are eternal, limitless Consciousness. Like all human beings, we start being ignorant of the Consciousness we are and think we are a mind-body with Consciousness. We think the quiet peaceful mind is it but the mind is matter and matter is threefold so it changes and trigger change in circumstances. The guna changes from sattva to rajas and tamas; they rotate round and round in any order endlessly. Gunas are trap of samsara.
So we get surprised … “I lost it!” … “got sucked back”. Yes, we lose the sattvic mind because its nature is to be lost, to change. It may be present for a long time but it will definitely change when rajas and tamas arise. What you “knew and saw” was not pure unchanging Consciousness. It was Consciousness and sattva guna. The guna changed and with the guna it seems as if the Consciousness changes or that Consciousness is gained. Anything that is gained will be lost or changed. It is that simple.
All the time, in the background, was/is the eternal Consciousness, unrecognised, unknown. It is this Consciousness that Vedanta points to and wants us to recognise and abide as. The conscious mind-body person will keep on changing, shifting, experiencing the ups and downs, gains and loss, “got it” and “oops, lost it”, etc. This is the play of the gunas. It is not Consciousness.
That is why this knowledge from Vedanta is so unique. No other tradition talks about it. Patanjali’s Ashtanga Yoga and Vipassana train the mind to be a good watcher, catch thought, emotions, sensations, consciousness as they arise. But all such traditions do not mention Consciousness with the Capital C. All others refer to small c consciousness in the mind, but that is not the Consciousness which Vedanta points to … pure Presence of Be-ing, unconditioned Awareness, complete Fulfilment, Atma (Consciousness pervading), Brahman (Consciousness universal). It is always present and never changes. It is unaffected by the gunas, beyond the mind. Hence, Consciousness is always free.
That Consciousness, you are, here and now, not a person with a mind and consciousness. You are immortal, eternal, changeless, limitless, infinite, complete and fulfilled, free from matter and gunas, here and now.
The person we think and believe we are, will never be complete nor fulfilled. It is bound, dependent, imperfect, affected by the gunas, by past karma, by personal tendencies, by space, by time. It is trapped in duality.
All that needs to be done is eliminate ignorance with knowledge and, bingo, the Consciousness we always and already are, is revealed and recognised immediately. But as discussed, it takes work, study, listening to the correct teaching repeatedly. Perseverance. This is Vedantic meditation. Persevere because ignorance is deep and strong, ‘hard-wired’. Slowly, the veil of ignorance is removed and what a blessing when recognition happens!
So, which do you identify as, a person with the mind and consciousness or Consciousness?
You decide and accept the consequences of your choice. It is really a no-brainer.
Identify as person means more suffering, even with a nice, quiet mind. It will inevitably change and you will think you “lost it” and suffer.
Identify as Consciousness and you are free, whatever the outer circumstances and the inner state of the conscious mind affected by the relevant guna. As Consciousness, You were free, You are free here and now, You will always be free … whether with a mind-body or without a mind-body … for ever and ever
