An Exploration of
NON-VOLITIONAL LIVING
"Nothing
perceived can be me or mine"
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
"Cease
identification with all phenomonality"
Wei Wu Wei
Why are we so unhappy? Because not everything goes our way. Because
we dread doing the things we don't want to do, but have to do. And
we can't do many things we want to do. All this boils down to the
fact that we feel we are a person with desires that conflict with
our circumstances and our responsibilities. In other words our
'volition' is not always in line with what is happening or what
should be done. An understanding of what-we-are and what the mind
is can free us from this false sense of volition and remove the
burden of our responsibilities. Then, we actually will be happy.
Without even trying!
1. You are not the
mind.
We have been taught that the mind is ourself, thinking.
We cannot be the mind because we are what is perceiving the mind.
Look for yourself right now! You are looking at thoughts from a
higher (prior) level. We cannot perceive ourself just as our eye
cannot see itself because it is what is looking. The mind cannot be
ourself. The Chinese Ch'an master Hsi Yun (Huang Po) said, "A
perception cannot perceive." So, are you the perceptions (thoughts
and feelings) or what is perceiving them?
We feel we are the mind because of the way the mind itself works.
The mind understands things by comparing perceptions and creating
objective concepts of them so it can compare one concept with
another. This is knowledge. Naturally, it soon creates a concept of
itself as 'me' and there the trouble begins. Thus, the mind
associates the sense of 'me' with its operation and with the body
and we believe and feel we are an individual, thinking, acting
entity. This is the origin of all our suffering. Once we feel we
are an individual we begin to see and evaluate everything as it
relates to us as an individual. We become a thing in a universe of
things. A very small, vulnerable, but supremely important (at least
to ourself) individual, in a vast, infinite, seemingly purposeless,
uncaring cosmos. We lose our original, true sense of identity with
the Absolute.
2. The mind goes its own
way
By watching our thoughts over a period of time, we can see that the
mind is operating literally 'by itself '. Thoughts 'just appear'
and keep on appearing automatically. We have this feeling that it
is 'me' who is thinking, but this is just a conditioned reflex
caused by the concept of ourself as an individual. By watching
thoughts we can see how they appear unbidden, uncalled. Just try
not thinking for a even a few seconds and see that it is
impossible. No 'me' is controlling them. We may have the illusion
of purposely thinking about a particular subject, but notice that
the idea to purposely think about something comes by itself. Then
we do it, automatically, but with the false feeling we are the
'decider'. That feeling of being the 'decider' is not us, it
belongs to the mind. It is something we are perceiving.
This is not proven in just a few minutes of thought watching. It
often takes many months of diligent watching to really see it and
to be convinced. This is because the conditioned feeling of being
the 'thinker' is so deep that the very idea that the mind goes its
own way seems ridiculous. But the payoff of this single discovery
is enormous in terms of liberation and deeper understanding of
ourselves and the universe.
The very idea that the mind is operating by itself is unacceptable
for most people because it seems to remove the control of the mind
from the individual and allows the individual to cease accepting
responsibility for his actions. Then they will do all the 'bad'
things they want. This is a valid reason from the point of view of
an 'individual'. Actually, because the mind conceives of itself as
an individual, it uses this fear of harm to itself or reward for
itself as a form of inhibition to keep from doing things that would
be 'wrong' (ultimately harmful to it or to its image of itself).
However, this is not you, it is the mind regulating itself. This is
where feelings of bondage and frustration come from. Because the
mind conceives of itself as an individual, it accumulates
conflicting needs and desires. The purpose is not just to release
the inhibitions that keep us under control, but to dissolve the
mind's illusion of itself as an individual in charge of and
identified with the mind. That will, at the same time begin to
dissolve the inhibitions as well as the need for them because the
conflicting needs and desires will go with the illusory self!
3. You are not the
doer.
You have never done anything! Because the mind has conceived itself
to be an individual it also conceives of itself as the Thinker and
also the 'Actor' or 'Doer'. Yet it is not anyone. The mind is not a
'thing' or entity but a process. The thinking process. Simply a
process that is happening automatically, the same as the heart is
beating automatically. This is why we cannot live the perfect life
even though we have been taught how a 'good' person should act. We
know we shouldn't get angry at our spouse or our children whom we
love, but despite the greatest resolve, we still do. Why? Because
we are not the thinker of our thoughts nor the doer of our actions.
Because they are not our thoughts or our actions. We are not even
the experiencer of the experience. What are we? We are what is
perceiving the mind and that is not anyone.
We are what is perceiving the doing, but we are not the doer. We
never were. We have never done the bad things and we have never
done the good things either. Thoughts are affected by the
environment (such as this article), inner habits and tendencies,
and by the mind's concept of a 'me', but not by any actual 'me'. We
are incapable of interfering with the mind. Why? Because there is
no one to interfere. We aren't anyone. Thus, we absolutely cannot
have any volition. The concept of being an individual is an
invention of the mind itself. It is an artifact of the way the mind
works. The feeling of volition is an illusion spawned by this
concept of 'me'.
We can never find our own will (volition) in any action. Every so
called action is actually an automatic re-action of the mind with
an accompanying feeling of volition. It is not 'me', it is the mind
automatically going its own way! Simply watch the mind. Be aware of
it. That's all that can be done because that is all we are doing
right now. That is all we ever do. That is all we have ever done.
It is the mind that thinks and feels otherwise and we are what is
aware of what the mind thinks and feels. We are perfectly open,
empty and still. We are not in space or time. We can never be
affected in any way. We have no needs or desires whatever. We just
shine brilliantly, effortlessly.
We are what perceives what is appearing. In fact, it is because of
this perceiving that anything at all appears. What we are is the
beingness of what appears. The isness, or the am-ness, if you will
of the very sense of 'I am'. Another way to put it is that we are
the Awareness in which everything appears (the here-now, the sense
of presence, consciousness). See that we are simply and only the
awareness of the mind while it goes its own way. Every sensation
and feeling it has belongs to it, to manifestation…not to ourself.
With everything that appears in any way, we can say 'Not me, not
me.'
We are the Watcher, or better yet the Watching, not the thinker, or the doer, or
the experiencer.
Once this is deeply and completely understood, the mind can let go
of its sense of volition and its sense of being an individual,
relax and just be. Everything happens by itself. Everything happens
as it should. Everything happens as it must.
We are now looking from our true Source (as we always were but
didn't realize) the timeless, spaceless Absolute. The unmanifest.
This is what we all are. This is the ultimate source of our light
of awareness. We are perceiving the manifest from its source, the
unmanifest and it unfolds spacially and temporally as it eternally
IS.
END
Copyright © 1993, 2007 by Galen Sharp
Learn more about Wei Wu Wei whose real name was Terence Gray at
The 'Wei Wu Wei'
Archives: http://www.weiwuwei.8k.com/
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Yeah, you are right! I also feel that the mind is operating by
itself. I feel that I am a changed person but sometimes the evil
thoughts arised and it surprised me.
If the mind is operating by itself , does it mean I don't have
to feel guilty about it ? Let it comes and goes. If that is the
case, why it is said evil thoughts will create bad karma?
I hope I interpreted your article correctly.