Confused about who you are? Here is the ultimate shortcut to your Self!
(text source: The Crown Jewel of Discrimination by Adi Shankarachary,
art: @blueperegrina)
First, what you are NOT!
The physical body is made by food, sustained by food and dies without food. It seemingly covers awareness. This bag of skin, bone and waste can NEVER be the Self.
The physical body is an object. It does` nt exist before birth and after death. It changes and gains attributes every moment, making its nature uncertain. How can the physical body be the Self, that which knows to notice all this?
The prana (energy), equipped with the five organs of action, pervades the physical body and is called the pranamaya kosha, because it seems to hide the Self, limitless awareness.
The prana sheath cannot be the Self because it is a modification of the air element. It goes in an out of the body, is not sentient and is always dependent.
The subtle body is composed of:
the five organs of perception, the five organs of action, the five physiological functions, the five subtle elements beginning with space, etc.; the ego, mind, intellect, memory, ignorance, desire and action.
The subtle body contains the impressions of previous experience (vasanas ). It is the experiencer of the result of both good and bad actions. Dream is its natural state. It illumines the dream objects without the help of the physical body.
The subtle body is the individual`s tool for action. The individual, whose true nature is actionless consciousness, is free of the subtle body but becomes an apparent actor when consciousness illumines the subtle body.
The organs of perception and the mind make up the manomaya kosha. It pervades the pranamaya kosha and is very powerful because it projects the idea of duality of „I" and „mine“. It can discriminate names and attributes.
The manomaya kosha is not the Self because it changes, begins and ends, is by nature sorrowful. A object of perception. Awareness never appears as a known object.
The intellect with its thought variation and the organs of perceptions is the vijnanamaya kosha. It causes samsara and the sense of doership.
The vijnanamaya kosha illumines objects because it reflects awareness. It is a transfigured form of ignorance and it
functions as an organ of knowledge and action. It thinks the body and the sense organs is the „I".
The nature of the vijnanamaya kosha cannot be determined because it is a modification of ignorance. It is the
focus of the „I" sense and it is the individual, the one who thinks it acts. Because the impressions of the previous
actions are ingrained, it performs good and bad actions and enjoys the results.
It cannot be the Self because it changes, borrows its light from awareness, is limited, an object of perception, is
casual and dependent by time.
The anandamaya kosha is a modification born of tamas; and arises out of awareness with the gain of a desirable object. It is the pleasurable result of meritorious deeds.
It manifests fully in deep sleep. It is experienced partially in dream and waking through the contemplation or gain of desired objects.
It is not the Self, depends on the mind, is the result of meritorious actions and manifests in degrees.
When the negation of the koshas is done by logical inquiry based on the scripture, awareness is isolated and known to be the Self.
And now, this is who YOU are!
Listen carefully, now i will tell you the nature of the limitless Self, knowing which one is freed from bondage and realizes
non-separation with everything that is. The Self, Your Essential Nature
The Self, awareness, can be known by anyone with discrimination. It is self-luminous, a partless whole, distinct from the five sheaths, witness of the three states of experience (deep sleep-, dream-, waking state), changeless and untainted by anything that is in contact with it.
The inquirer said,“I negated the five sheaths, but I see only emptiness. Is there something else to be known through inquiry?“
The teacher said, “Yes, it is the knower of the emptiness. That is you, limitless awareness.“
Everthing that we perceive through the senses and the mind comes and goes in our awareness. but our awareness does not come and go. It is present, as the verse states, It means, it never fades into the past, nor is it awaiting us in the future; it is not even, truly speaking, in the present, which is defined in relation to past and future. Awareness, the Self, is timeless.
Awareness sees all by itself, but no one sees awareness. It illumines the mind, but the mind does not illumine it.
Awareness shines as „I“ in the three states of experience and witnesses the mind. It does not change.
Please know that you are the limitless, timeless awareness that shines by itself in the waking, dream and deep sleep states; that shines as experiential bliss and that shines both as „I“(no attributes) and „I“(with attributes), the innermost Self and the reflected self that illumines objects.
What is Attachment?
The „I“ in the not-self erroneously thinks it is a person, feels bound to objects and suffers the afflictions of birth and death.
How does Attachment happen?
A power called Maya resides in limitless consciousness. It is unmanifest and it gives birth to the world. It is beginningless ignorance and is of the nature of the three gunas (sattva, rajas, tamas) and beyond their effects. It is inferred from its effects by anyone with a clear mind.
This power is a great wonder and cannot be rationally explained because it is neither real nor non-existent nor a combination of the two. It is not separate nor non-separate from consciousness, nor is it made up of parts.
Maya`s predominant power, tamas, covers beginningless, effulgent, non-dual awareness as an eclipse covers the sun.
Awareness is free of impurities, but when it is eclipsed by ignorance, the individual takes the body to be the Self. It is then afflicted with the strong power of rajas, and subject to binding desire, anger, hatred etc.
Ignorance is the seed of the tree of samsara;
the sense of „I“ in the physical body is the sproud;
manifold desires are the foliage; actions are the sap;
the body is the trunk; the pranas are the branches;
the organs and action and perception are the twigs
and the sense objects are the flowers;
Its fruits are various joys and sorrows born of many actions which the individual, like a bird sitting on a branch, eats and enjoys.
Want to be free?
To utilize the scripture properly, one should be committed to one´s own dharma. From this commitment, purification of the mind follows. Recognition of the Self takes place in a pure mind and destroys ignorance and its effects.
The wise are released from samsara by the knowledge that the individual self and the limitless Self are non-separate.
If the individual self and the limitless Self are inquired into properly, their non-separation is revealed, as pointed out in the statement, „You are that.“
The oneness of „you“ and „that“ is established by their implied meanings, not their ostensible meanings, which, like the wave and the ocean, indicate mutually opposed qualities.
Verse 80
Anything made of clay is clay through and through. Anything made of awareness is awareness through and through. There is nothing but awareness, so the individual and the total are one. In this way, the identity of the individual and the total is reveale in hundreds of Vedantic statements.
The Benefits of the Knowledge
He or she is said to be liberated while living when Self-knowledge is clear, bliss is continuous and the world more or less forgotten.
**Even though he or she lives in a body, the most salient characteristic of liberated beings is the absence of the sense of „I“ and „mine“. **
He or she does not regret actions done in the past, is free of guilt, is not worried about the future and is dispassionate with reference to what happens in the present.
He or she views apparently distinct objects endowed with acceptable and unacceptable qualities equally.
He or she is not subject to elation when situations are in harmony with his or her likes or dislikes or to depression when they aren`t.
He or she is indifferent to praise or blame.
Just as the actions done in a dream are dissolved on
walking, the accumulated results of past actions are
dissolved by Self-knowledge.
The liberated are free of experieces and impartial toward them. They do not worry about the future.
The Realization
The inquirer said to the teacher, „By your grace I am blessed for I have accomplished all that is to be accomplished. I am released from samsara. I am whole and complete bliss, free from lack and always present. I am everything that is.“
„I have regained my kingdom due to your grace and the grace of Ishwara. You and Ishwara are one. I bow to you again and again.“
The teacher said, „Spend your time seeing your Self in every situation and enjoying the bliss of the Self.“
„You can go now. You are free. Live according to the results of your past actions.“
The diciple paid his respects to the teacher. His mind drowned in the ocean of bliss, he moved here and there, blessing everyone with the teachings.
The nature of the Self has now been unfolded in this dialogue for the easy understanding of seekers of liberation.
This liberating words of Shankara quench the existential thirst of those seeking relief from the scorching rays of the sun of samsara.
END OF THE SHORTCUT