The thoughts of Nisargadatta Maharaj

[Walker]

Have you done what the picture says?

[Walker]

Question: How can non-action be of use where action is needed?

SNM: Where action is needed, action happens. Man is not the actor. His is to be aware of what is going on. His very presence is action. The window is the absence of the wall and it gives air and light because it is empty. Be empty of all mental content, of all imagination and effort, and the very absence of obstacles will cause reality to rush in. If you really want to help a person, keep away. If you are emotionally committed to helping, you will fail to help. You may be very busy and be very pleased with your charitable nature, but not much will be done. A man is really helped when he is no longer in need of help. All else is just futility.

[Walker]

Question: Why do the Indian teachers advocate inactivity?

SNM: Most of people’s activities are valueless, if not outright destructive. Dominated by desire and fear, they can do nothing good. Ceasing to do evil precedes beginning to do good. Hence the need for stopping all activities for a time, to investigate one’s urges and their motives, see all that is false in one’s life, purge the mind of all evil and then only restart work, beginning with one’s obvious duties. Of course, if you have a chance to help somebody, by all means do it and promptly too, don’t keep him waiting till you are perfect. But do not become a professional do-gooder.

[Dontaskme]

Have you done what the picture says?

So 'who' is to know or seek 'this doing'?

[Walker]

Answer: you.

Have you done what the picture says?

[Dontaskme]

Answer: you.

Have you done what the picture says?

Consciousness is all there is. So 'who' is to know or seek or do 'what'?

[Walker]

Answer: you.

Have you done what the picture says?

Consciousness is all there is. So 'who' is to know or seek or do 'what'?

Answer: You.

But, that doesn’t tell you any more than you know, thus the distinction between realization and knowing, and the limitation of words.

You mention “consciousness.” Here are some of his thoughts.

*

Question: You use the words ‘aware’ and ‘conscious’. Are they not the same?

SNM: 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.

*

Commentary on his observation:

Here is an example of awareness without consciousness: In your sound sleep your body hears the sound of the floorboard creak and awakens you, alert, but you don’t know why you awoke because you were not conscious of the sound and have no memory of the sound.

This is similar to seated meditation practice that encompasses pratyahara, in which an impression is made upon consciousness, either with thought or through the senses, and then that impression is released automatically and immediately, with only the prompting of practice that begins the stilling and after that, intention and will also fall away.

Eventually “consciousness of,” thoughts and sensory impression, stills. Thoughts end and only awareness remains. The benefit of the practice? Knowing thyself as AM without I, is knowing how thy body functions without the interference of choice, via both experience and the awareness of non-dual non-experience.

[Harbal]

Here is an example of awareness without consciousness: In your sound sleep your body hears the sound of the floorboard creak and awakens you, alert, but you don’t know why you awoke because you were not conscious of the sound and have no memory of the sound.

So how do you know there even was a sound?

[Walker]

You have had the experience. Everyone has.

[Harbal]

You have had the experience. Everyone has.

How do you know that? If you weren't conscious when the sound happened, and you have no recollection of it, how can you possibly know that there was a sound, and that it woke you up?

[Walker]

The body knows when something inappropriate reaches the senses, even though the rational mind is snoring like a pig. The body just has to be attentive. The body must be sensitive to the world around you. Sleeping in a danger zone will keep the body alert. Little else other than sound will reach the senses at night when sleeping, but it can be an odor that alerts the body. While sleeping the body shrugs off the normal night sounds, so when you awaken alert you don't know for sure why, so you reach out with your senses. You freeze, you may even hold your breath listening, and not knowing why you listen but you do. And then, you hear the creak again, and this time it registers in consciousness as that loose floorboard that you didn't get around to fixing, the one in front of your door. Then, mind can consciously run through a quick checklist of what the hell could be causing that noise, and that happens quite spontaneously, without choice. Harbal, must I recount your experiences for you?

[Harbal]

And then, you hear the creak again,

But it wouldn't be again if I weren't consciously aware of the first time.

and this time it registers in consciousness as that loose floorboard that you didn't get around to fixing, the one in front of your door.

That's puzzling, because the floor in front of my door is concrete.

Harbal, must I recount your experiences for you?

Perhaps just the ones I haven't experienced.

[Dontaskme]

And then, you hear the creak again,

But it wouldn't be again if I weren't consciously aware of the first time.

and this time it registers in consciousness as that loose floorboard that you didn't get around to fixing, the one in front of your door.

That's puzzling, because the floor in front of my door is concrete.

Harbal, must I recount your experiences for you?

Perhaps just the ones I haven't experienced.

Howling at this now, especially the bit about the concrete floorboards.

Omg Harbal.. please come here more often- - - I’ll never get enough of you’re delicious humour,

[Dontaskme]

The body knows when something inappropriate reaches the senses, even though the rational mind is snoring like a pig. The body just has to be attentive. The body must be sensitive to the world around you. Sleeping in a danger zone will keep the body alert. Little else other than sound will reach the senses at night when sleeping, but it can be an odor that alerts the body. While sleeping the body shrugs off the normal night sounds, so when you awaken alert you don't know for sure why, so you reach out with your senses. You freeze, you may even hold your breath listening, and not knowing why you listen but you do. And then, you hear the creak again, and this time it registers in consciousness as that loose floorboard that you didn't get around to fixing, the one in front of your door. Then, mind can consciously run through a quick checklist of what the hell could be causing that noise, and that happens quite spontaneously, without choice. Harbal, must I recount your experiences for you?

The body knows sweet FA
Consciousness is the individual awareness of your unique thoughts, memories, feelings, sensations, and environments. Essentially, your consciousness is your awareness of yourself.

In other words, limited as they are, in their ability to express the ineffable, there is no self being aware of itself except in this conception ( I Am) albeit illusory.

It is only during the duration of the beingness that the world and creation is. This power is the faith in the primordial concept ‘I am’, and that is the concept that weaves the web of creation.
The entire manifestation is an appearance in this concept.
Knowledge can only point to the illusory nature of the individual you.


When I say ‘I am’, I do not mean a separate entity with a body as its nucleus, I mean the totality of being, the ocean of consciousness.

[Walker]

And then, you hear the creak again,

But it wouldn't be again if I weren't consciously aware of the first time.

And yet, the sound awakened you, and you didn't know why because you didn't consciously hear it.