http://www.non-dualitypress.com/sample/Awakening%20to%20the%20Natural%20State_sample.pdf
All problems, issues, concerns, questions, dilemmas and so
on
are for the ‘I’. For example:
• I am happy / I am sad.
• I know / I don’t know.
• I had it / I lost it.
• I was born / I will die.
• I am good / I am bad.
These are just a few examples of self-centred thinking. As
you
can see, all these binding thoughts revolve around the sense
of ‘I’. Nail down the identity of the ‘I’ and all problems
resolve.
The imagined sense of being a separate ‘I’ is the source of
all
problems. Because the ‘I’ as a thought is really very
intangible,
all types of other ideas get wrapped around it, in order to
give
it some semblance of solidity. All the self-definitions,
identities
and apparent conditioning hinge on the unexamined
sense of ‘I’.
The most direct teachings set aside all philosophizing and
theorizing and go directly into an investigation of the
import
(real meaning) of the word ‘I’. This, I believe, is Ramana
Maharshi’s self-inquiry. What is this that I call ‘I’? We are
constantly
saying ‘I,’ ‘I’ all day long, all life long, but what is it?
If the cause (‘I’) is seen to be non-existent, can all the
effects
(all the definitions built on the ‘I’) survive? I had read
about this idea for years, but my entire view of life was
radically
altered when I actually investigated this for myself. The
moment I saw that the ‘person’ I thought myself to be was not
there, that it was a false assumption, I directly experienced
a profound freedom from all problems, doubts and suffering.
It was remarkable. I did nothing at all. There was just a
looking and seeing that the person, the separate ‘I,’ was
not
there. There was not a trying to be free or solving of any
intellectual
puzzles.
That is about all I can say. You can never find the answer
in the mind, so it is useless to look there. No amount of
thinking
can free you from the riddles created by thought.
The problems, if there are any, are only created by the
mind. They are a product of thought. But you don’t have to do
anything with thought, such as get rid of it, modify it or
suppress
it. Just see that what you really are, right here and now,
is that presence-awareness that is the basis on which thought
is happening. That which is knowing all your sensations,
feelings and emotions, is radiantly aware. It is effortlessly
knowing and being. It is simply the clear, spacious presence
of awareness, or as the Buddhists say, ‘cognizing emptiness’.
Get a feel for this. Have the willingness to look at this.
Sense
it, feel it, be it, relax into it. Know with assurance that
you
are not a limited person bound up in thought. You are the
sky-like presence-awareness in which the whole universe is
appearing.
The next time you think, ‘I am this or that,’ ‘I have a
problem’
or whatever, just drop the apparent problem and ask
‘Who is this “I” that I think I am? Is this what I really
am?’
You can even investigate and try to find this ‘I’ in your
direct
experience. Is there a sensation, a thought or a feeling that
you can call ‘I’? We say ‘I’ but precisely what is it? Then it
will
dawn on you, ‘Hey! Am I not aware? Am I not present? Is not
the presence of my true nature here, perfectly untouched,
unsullied,
like the sun shining above the clouds, completely unaffected
by the appearance (and disappearance) of thought?’
This kind of looking will pull the drain plug out of the sink
of the mind, and all problems will be sucked into the void of
non-existence. I do not exaggerate when I say that a lifetime
of problems will evaporate. As they say, a cave may have been
dark for thousands of years, but when you bring a torch into
the cave, the light instantly obliterates that darkness.