Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!mips!pacbell.com!att!emory!gatech!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!eagle!data.nas.nasa.gov!news From: johnw@farside.eng.ready.com (John Wheeler) Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern Subject: Heart of the matter... Message-ID: <1991May16.181746.23861@nas.nasa.gov> Date: 16 May 91 18:17:46 GMT Sender: news@nas.nasa.gov Organization: Ready Systems Lines: 81 Approved: prabhu@amelia.nas.nasa.gov Hi, let us get to the heart of the matter. Let us say you are sitting quietly in your room, at ease, meditating. Your eyes are closed. Ocassionally, you hear a distant sound, maybe a bird, a car horn, whatever. You also sometimes feel your senses registering the chair or floor on which you are sitting. Then you notice your thoughts. They arise and pass away. All kinds of thoughts may arise. Some are linked and manifest in what seems to be chains or links, i.e. one thought leads to the next, and to another, and so on. Sometimes you have thoughts which you call memories, but still these too are thoughts. So memory itself is thought. There is no memory apart from thought. (Incidentally, if there is no memory apart from thought, then it is illogical to say thought arises from memory.) So, as you sit there you are aware of various sensations and thoughts that arise in your experience. Are you with me so far? Let us say for the sake of argument that it is very quiet and your senses become very still, perhaps you are deeply absorbed in your contemplation. This can happen. You decide to become curious about your thoughts, how they function, etc. Again, you notice that they arise and pass; they constantly change. You are quite aware of all this. You even notice that some are linked, etc. as I said above. But also some are not linked. Let us say, as you are watch your thoughts for some reason they slow down. It happens sometimes. You may even see a thought begin and end, and another begin and end etc. Now, for the purpose of analysis let us look, as though through a microscope at one brief span of time, say one or two seconds. Perhaps, in those two seconds four or five thoughts arise (I am just picking a number). Are you still with me? This is not far-fetched, I am talking of something we all experience, right? Now, in that interval with the four or five thoughts going by, I would like to ask you "Who are you?" In other words, who are you that is aware of those thoughts. If you say that you are those thoughts, that would be silly, since they all pass away in the next second (you obviously don't pass away, when the thoughts pass away). So there are the thoughts of which you are aware and there is you, who are aware of the thoughts. This is logical, right? Let us forget about the thoughts themselves. They are transient, fleeting, etc, perhaps even conditioned to some extent by memory etc. What I am interested to know is what is the nature of the one in you who knows the thoughts? If you say that he is himself just thought, I say, how can one thought be aware of another? Thoughts are objects perceived. How can one object perceive another? I say that what you are is not a thought at all. It is of an entirely different nature. Why do I say this?: 1) Thoughts are many, you are singular 2) Thoughts are objects, you are the knower of the objects (subject) 3) Thoughts are not conscious, but you are conscious 4) Even when all thoughts subside (strange as it may seem) you are still conscious of the absence of thoughts Does this interest you? Are you with me? So I ask what is the nature of the one in you that knows thought? What can you tell me about him (you)? I am not so interested in thoughts as I am you who knows thought. What can you tell me about him? Take care, johnw P.S. I am studying under a fully enlightened sage in California. He is a fully awakened master, who is in the state of Buddha himself. I say this sincerely, from my own experience, of studying with him for several years. His life and realization accords with the enlightened masters of ancient times. Other students of his have awakened to the truth, many more are doing so. This is a sign of the genuineness of his realization. Only a realized being can lead others to freedom. Whatever I may have learned and expressed in these messages, is just an infintesimal drop I've gleaned from the ocean of his wisdom.