It is undeniable that the body and mind change from year to year, day to day and moment to moment. But how do I know this? Because I am the consciousness that illuminates the body and mind. Just as the sun is unchanged by the things it illuminates, I am unchanged by the body and mind.
The body is a temporary form that arises in me, pure being, like the form of a pot arising from clay. Just as clay is present and unaffected before, during and after the arising of the pot, so am I present and unaffected before, during and after the arising of the body. Therefore, there is no birth, death or decrepitude for me.
The senses are temporary forms that appear in me, pure consciousness, like waves arising from water. Just as a wave cannot belong to water because a wave is nothing separate or different from water, the senses cannot belong to me because they are nothing separate or different from me, pure consciousness. Just as water is unaffected (fundamentally unchanged) by a wave, so am I unaffected by the senses and their objects.
How strange is it that while I am absolutely clear that I am not another person’s body, I identify with this body that looks and feels closest to me, call it “myself” and claim its actions as my own. But how can this be? I witness the bodies of others the same as I witness this one—they are all thoughts known to me. As such, this body cannot be me. I merely witness it acting, the same as I witness the actions of other’s bodies. Just as I cannot be praised or blamed for the actions of other’s bodies that I witness, I cannot be praised or blamed for the actions of this body that I witness. I am the action-less, blameless self. OM.
There is no illusion for me; despite the appearance of the body and mind I know I am pure being, reality itself. Just because I have no body does not mean I am bodiless. Just because objects cannot attach themselves to me (affect me) does not mean I am unattached. Embodied and bodiless, attached and unattached are dualistic opposites. I am non-dual so I transcend them all. I am ever-free.
I am consciousness—I alone exist. Because there is only me, there is nothing within myself or outside of myself to be known, either one at a time as a series of thoughts or all at the same time as a group of thoughts. But how can I not be a knower if I am not non-consciousness? It is because knowing is a function of the mind, the same as hearing and thinking. As eternal witnessing consciousness I do not actively know the functions of the mind. Rather, I passively reveal the mind, similar to the way the sun passively illuminates the comings and goings of the world. Since anything revealed is none other than myself, nothing is ever truly revealed. OM.
End Of Knowledge 