Inquirer: You know what you are not, what you are you cannot know’
‘As the absolute, there is no absolute’
-Nisargadatta Maharaj
Sundari: Nisargadatta was a great sage, but his language was confusing at times. He was most likely Self-actualized, but he was never properly taught to be a Vedanta teacher. It is true that most people are identified with who they are as a person, which is not their true eternal identity. But it is not true that who you truly are cannot be known. It can be known – this is called moksa – freedom from and for the individual or person.
But it requires a qualified and prepared mind, an independent means of knowledge capable of removing ignorance of your true nature, Vedanta, the science of Consciousness, or Self-knowledge. And it requires a qualified teacher to wield the knowledge.
Your true nature, Consciousness/the nondual Self or witness, can be known in two ways: 1) as the reflection of Consciousness in a pure mind – which is still an object known to you as the Self. It is you as Consciousness, but also not you, just as your image in a mirror is you but not you. You are free of the reflection.
2) And it can be known as actualized Self-knowledge, beyond knowledge and ignorance. This is when all personal ignorance has been removed by Self-knowledge, and nondual vision has permanently obtained. You are not left with knowledge, that too is an object known to you. When you know you are the Self, you no longer identify with the conceptual egoic identity, and you ‘see’ everything spontaneously as non-separate from you. All objects, including your body/mind, are you and arise from you, but you are not dependent on any object to exist. Just as you are not dependent on your image in the mirror to exist.
James explains this beautifully in “What is the Mirror of Consciousness?
If one wall in a room is a single mirror, all the objects that appear in the mirror will be identical with the objects in the room, and the space in which the objects appear will also be identical with the room space. If you try to grasp an object appearing in the mirror, a door knob, for example, you cannot do so.
The door knob does not protrude into the mirror space as it does in the room space. It is in exactly the same dimension as the mirror. It is non-separate from the mirror. In fact it is just the mirror. Similarly, consciousness is like a multi-dimensional mirror in which all existence appears. When you touch any object, you are actually touching consciousness. When you perceive a tree, you are actually perceiving yourself.
If you have this understanding, then objects need not be removed from Consciousness for Consciousness to realize itself. They do not obscure the Self. They reveal it. Because Consciousness is formless, it cannot be directly perceived as an object is perceived, just as the glass of which a mirror is constructed is invisible until objects appear in it. When the vasanas cause a subtle object, like a thought or a feeling, to appear, it enables Consciousness to experience itself in form.
The argument that Consciousness can be known only through objects is untrue. It does not need an object, like a person, to know itself. It knows itself in the presence and the absence of objects. The objects in Consciousness, like the notions that you have about yourself, do not actually affect you at all, just as the images appearing in a mirror leave no trace on the mirror.
Om,
Sundari
