Blog

  • Steady Wisdom: Day 28

    Steady Wisdom: 108 Verses On Changing My Thinking

    DAY 28

    The fact is that I am not conscious of anything either within or outside myself, either one at a time or simultaneously.  Nor am I non-consciousness.  Therefore I am neither a hearer nor a thinker, nor a knower of anything; I am the eternal, inmost witnessing consciousness.
    – Sarva Vedanta Siddhanta Sara Sangraha V.840
    Meditation

    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. 

    Read Series Introduction

  • Steady Wisdom: Day 27

    Steady Wisdom: 108 Verses On Changing My Thinking

    DAY 27

    I am not the body nor do I possess a body.  I am not the doer or the enjoyer.  I am ever-free consciousness, the witness of them all. 
    -Ashtavakra Samhita 15:4
    Meditation

    I am consciousness; I witness the appearance of “my” body similar to the way I witness the appearance of a tree, a house or the body of another person.  And yet, while it is abundantly clear that I am not a tree, a house or someone else’s body, I think of this body as myself, referring to it as “I” and “mine.”  I claim its actions as my own, rejoicing when the results are good and lamenting when they are not.  As such, I continuously vacillate between happiness and suffering.  But is this body myself merely because it appears to be closer to me than a tree or a house?  Is it myself simply because it appears in my consciousness more frequently than a tree or a house?  No, the body cannot be me because it is known to me.  The body cannot be me because it comes and goes while I, remain.  I am ever-free of the body. 

    Read Series Introduction

  • Steady Wisdom: Day 26

    Steady Wisdom: 108 Verses On Changing My Thinking

    Day 26

    The succession of sufferings pertaining to the body, senses and intellect is other than myself and does not belong to me because it is unreal like a dream beheld by a dreamer. I am changeless.
    -Upadesha Sahasri 10: 5 (Metrical)
    Meditation

    The body and mind are a succession of temporary forms that arise in me, pure being, like a series of images arising from the mind of a dreamer. Because the body and mind come and go, they cannot be real. Because I am changeless existence, ever-present as the essence of everything, I am real. Therefore I cannot be the body and mind. Since suffering pertains to the body and mind alone, I am free of all suffering.

    Read Series Introduction

  • Steady Wisdom: Day 25

    Steady Wisdom: 108 Verses On Changing My Thinking

    DAY 25

    As waves are only water and copper pots only copper, the universe is me alone. 
    – Aparokshanubhuti V.63
    Meditation

    As consciousness I cannot be any part of the universe that appears in me.  But as existence every part of the universe is myself.  Like waves to water and pots to copper, everything is me but I am no thing.  I am limitless.     

    Read Series Introduction

  • Steady Wisdom: Day 24

    Steady Wisdom: 108 Verses On Changing My Thinking

    DAY 24

    I am undifferentiated and formless like the sky.  I am the pure and stainless reality.  For me there is no division or non-division; no bondage, liberation or change.
    – Avadhuta Gita 7:6
    Meditation

    Owing to a trick of the eyes and impurities in the air, the formless and colorless sky falsely appears to be blue and shaped like a dome.  Similarly, owing to ignorance of my true nature, the pure and stainless reality that is myself appears to be the body-mind.  But like the sky I have no divisions nor am I a collection of parts:  I am one alone.  Because there is nothing other than myself, there is nothing to bind me.  Because I am never bound, I cannot be liberated.  I am the undifferentiated, changeless self.  OM.   

    Read Series Introduction