Niz and his teachings.

[Guest guest]

From <

http://www.hsuyun.org/Dharma/zbohy/Liter

ature/essays/guests/Nisargadatta/Nisarga

datta3.html >

 

 

Why not investigate the very idea of

body? Does the mind appear in the body

or the body in the mind? Surely there

must be a mind to conceive the " I-am-

the-body " idea. A body without a mind

cannot be 'my body'. 'My body' is

invariably absent when the mind is in

abeyance. It is also absent when the

mind is deeply engaged in thoughts and

feelings.

 

 

 

The perceived cannot be the perceiver.

Whatever you see, hear or think of,

remember - you are not what happens,

you are he to whom it happens.

 

 

 

When you realize that the distinction

between inner and outer is in the mind

only, you are no longer afraid.

 

 

 

You are not in the body, the body is

in you! The mind is in you. They happen

to you. They are there because you find

them interesting.

 

 

 

Changes are inevitable in the

changeful, but you are not subject to

them. You are the changeless

background, against which changes are

perceived.

 

 

....

 

The person is never the subject. You

can see a person, but you are not the

person.

Your being a person is due to the

illusion of space and time; you imagine

yourself to be at a certain point

occupying a certain volume; your

personality is due to your self-

identification with the body.

How does personality come into being?

By identifying the present with the

past and projecting it into the future.

The body-mind is like a room. It is

there, but I need not live in it all

the time

 

....

 

It is not the " I am " that is false,

but what you take yourself to be. I can

see, beyond the least shadow of doubt,

that you are not what you believe

yourself to be.

 

....

 

 

 

The self based on memory is momentary.

But such self demands unbroken

continuity behind it. You know from

experience that there are gaps when

your self is forgotten. What brings it

back to life? What wakes you up in the

morning? There must be some constant

factor bridging the gaps in

consciousness. If you watch carefully,

you will find that even your daily

consciousness is in flashes, with gaps

intervening all the time. What is in

the gaps? What can there be but your

real being, that is timeless? Mind and

mindlessness are one to it.

 

 

The succession of transient moments

creates the illusion of time, but the

timeless reality of pure being is not

in movement, for all movement requires

a motionless background. It is itself

the background. Once you have found it

in yourself, you know that you had

never lost that independent being.

 

 

What changes is not real, what is real

does not change. Now, what is it in you

that does not change? As long as there

is food, there is body and mind. When

the food is stopped, the body dies and

the mind dissolves. But does the

observer perish? It is a matter of

actual experience that the self has

being independent of mind and body. It

is being-awareness-bliss. Awareness of

being is bliss.

 

....

[Guest guest]

[...]

 

 

Q: What do you mean by saying: I know

myself as I am?

 

M: Before the mind -- I am. 'I am' is

not a thought in the mind; the mind

happens to me, I do not happen to the

mind. And since time and space are

in the mind, I am beyond time and

space, eternal and omnipresent.

 

Q: Are you serious? Do you really

mean that you exist everywhere and at

all times?

 

M: Yes, I do. To me it is as obvious,

as the freedom of movement is to you.

Imagine a tree asking a monkey: 'Do

you seriously mean that you can move

from place to place?' And the monkey

saying: 'Yes, I do.'

 

[...]

 

Q: When I practice self-enquiry, or go

within with the idea that it will

profit me in some way or other, I am

still escaping from what I am.

 

M: Quite right. True enquiry is

always into something, not out of

something. When I enquire how to get,

or avoid something, I am not really

enquiring. To know anything I must

accept it -- totally.

 

Q: Yes, to know God I must accept God -

- how frightening!

 

M: Before you can accept God, you must

accept yourself, which is even more

frightening. The first steps in self-

acceptance are not at all pleasant,

for what one sees is not a happy

sight. One needs all the courage to go

further. What helps is silence. Look

at yourself in total silence, do not

describe yourself. Look at the being

you believe you are and remember --

you are not what you see. 'This I am

not -- What am I?' is the movement of

self-enquiry. There are no other

means to liberation, all means delay.

Resolutely reject what you are not,

till the real Self emerges in its

glorious nothingness, its 'not-a-

thingness.'

 

[...]

 

Q: How can I make myself understand?

 

M: By meditating which means giving

attention. Become fully aware of your

problem, look at it from all sides,

watch how it affects your life. Then

leave it alone. You can't do more

than that.

 

Q: Will it set me free?

 

M: You are free from what you have

understood. The outer expressions of

freedom may take time to appear, but

they are already there. Do not expect

perfection. There is no perfection in

manifestation. Details must clash.

No problem is solved completely but

you can withdraw from it to a level on

which it does not operate.