Book Excerpt

[Guest guest]

This essay is excerpted from Ken Wilber's new book:

ONE TASTE. It was originally posted to the advaitin

mailing list november of last year.

 

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So Who Are You?

by Ken Wilber

 

The witnessing of awareness can persist through waking, dreaming

and deep sleep. The Witness is fully available in any state,

including your own present state of awareness right now. So I'm

going to talk you into this state, or try to, using what are known in

Buddhism as " pointing out instructions. " I am not going to try to

get you into a different state of consciousness, or an altered state

of consciousness, or a non-ordinary state. I am going to simply

point out something that is already occurring in your own present,

ordinary, natural state.

 

So let's start by just being aware of the world around us. Look out

there at the sky, and just relax your mind; let your mind and the

sky mingle. Notice the clouds floating by. Notice that this takes no

effort on your part. Your present awareness, in which these clouds

are floating, is very simple, very easy, effortless, spontaneous. You

simply notice that there is an effortless awareness of the clouds.

The same is true of those trees, and those birds, and those rocks.

You simply and effortlessly witness them.

 

Look now at the sensations in your own body. You can be aware of

whatever bodily feelings are present-perhaps pressure where you

are sitting, perhaps warmth in your tummy, maybe tightness in

your neck. But even if these feelings are tight and tense, you can

easily be aware of them. These feelings arise in your present

awareness, and that awareness is very simple, easy, effortless,

spontaneous. You simply and effortlessly witness them.

 

Look at the thoughts arising in your mind. You might notice various

images, symbols, concepts, desires, hopes and fears, all

spontaneously arising in your awareness. They arise, stay a bit,

and pass. These thoughts and feelings arise in your present

awareness, and that awareness is very simple, effortless,

spontaneous. You simply and effortlessly witness them.

 

So notice: you can see the clouds float by because you are not

those clouds-you are the witness of those clouds. You can feel

bodily feelings because you are not those feelings-you are the

witness of those feelings. You can see thoughts float by because

you are not those thoughts-you are the witness of those thoughts.

Spontaneously and naturally, these things all arise, on their own, in

your present, effortless awareness.

 

So who are you? You are not objects out there, you are not

feelings, you are not thoughts-you are effortlessly aware of all

those, so you are not those. Who or what are you?

 

Say it this way to yourself: I have feelings, but I am not those

feelings. Who am I? I have thoughts, but I am not those thoughts.

Who am I? I have desires, but I am not those desires. Who am I?

 

So you push back into the source of your own awareness. You

push back into the Witness, and you rest in the Witness. I am not

objects, not feelings, not desires, not thoughts.

 

But then people usually make a big mistake. They think that if they

rest in the Witness, they are going to see something or feel

something-something really neat and special. But you won't see

anything. If you see something, that is just another object-another

feeling, another thought, another sensation, another image. But

those are all objects; those are what you are not.

 

No, as you rest in the Witness-realizing, I am not objects, I am not

feelings, I am not thoughts-all you will notice is a sense of freedom,

a sense of liberation, a sense of release-release from the terrible

constriction of identifying with these puny little finite objects, your

little body and little mind and little ego, all of which are objects that

can be seen, and thus are not the true Seer, the real Self, the pure

Witness, which is what you really are.

 

So you won't see anything in particular. Whatever is arising is fine.

Clouds float by in the sky, feelings float by in the body, thoughts

float by in the mind-and you can effortlessly witness all of them.

They all spontaneously arise in your own present, easy, effortless

awareness. And this witnessing awareness is not itself anything

specific you can see. It is just a vast, background sense of

freedom-or pure emptiness-and in that pure emptiness, which you

are, the entire manifest world arises. You are that freedom,

openness, emptiness-and not any itty bitty thing that arises in it.

 

Resting in that empty, free, easy, effortless witnessing, notice that

the clouds are arising in the vast space of your awareness. The

clouds are arising within you-so much so, you can taste the

clouds, you are one with the clouds. It is as if they are on this side

of your skin, they are so close. The sky and your awareness have

become one, and all things in the sky are floating effortlessly

through your own awareness. You can kiss the sun, swallow the

mountain, they are that close. Zen says " Swallow the Pacific

Ocean in a single gulp, " and that's the easiest thing in the world,

when inside and outside are no longer two, when subject and

object are nondual, when the looker and looked at are One Taste.

You see?

 

kw.

 

 

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" Truth waits for eyes unclouded by longing "

 

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