Updated: November 13, 2024
So today I want to share a possible meditation
and an experiment that we can all do that will give us a glimpse of our true self and liberate us from not only suffering, but the illusions that scare most humans, the illusions
of old age, infirmity and death. So a normal
experience of existence is that I am here. Everything else
is there.
I am here. There's
someone inside me looking at a world
that's outside me. Of course you have
that experience too. There's
someone inside you looking at
the world outside. So this is actually
also called subject-object
split. It's an artificial subject-object
split, because "I"
and everything that I experience
when I say, "I", this body-mind
and everything that I experience,
is simultaneously co-arising,
is being experienced by that
which I call, "I". And then it's subsiding in that
"I" too. Every sensation, every perception, every thought,
every idea, every feeling, every notion, every insight,
every intuition, every creative
process in every person, and even other
sentient beings is all co-arising
and subsiding in the field
of awareness. So imagine right now that the screen
you're seeing is the field
of awareness. Okay. And then everything is happening
simultaneously. On that
screen of awareness, and that screen of awareness
has no form. It's infinite,
borderless, transparent,
invisible, whatever
you want to call it.
And that field is the screen
of consciousness in which
we are all engulfed. But that screen
of consciousness, being conscious,
is aware and is self aware as what? As this and all this simultaneously, the trees, the sky, the galaxies,
the sun, the moon, the oceans,
the rocks, the animals,
the bacteria, the foliage. Everything is
simultaneously arising
and subsiding in this infinite
field that is
engulfing us. The infinite field. That field
is the true I AM. In that field
there is an I AM that calls itself,
"Deepak Chopra". There's an I AM
that calls itself, you know, Aaron or Sarah or Tom. Only humans do this,
by the way. They give names to each other,
to themselves, and then to other experiences:
giraffe, elephant, etc.. Rock, stars,
moon sky. These are names given by humans
to simultaneously co-arising
experiences. So as far as
the field is concerned, you're
surrounded by it.
It's infinite
on all sides, and it's infinite
being its infinite
awareness. And you and I
and everything else in this field
engulfing all of us, because
it's infinite. It engulfs
everything that we call the universe. All sentient beings, all so-called
objects. They're just
perceptual activities
of that one field experiencing itself
as this, this, all this. And that's the true
I AM before it localizes itself
as, "I am Deepak Chopra".
"I am Tom". And then Tom
and Deepak Chopra
collectively agree to call their
perceptions rocks and giraffes
and insects and animals and sky
and galaxies. Get it? So we're surrounded, engulfed
by infinity, The field
of awareness. In that, there's no outside,
there's no inside. It's all bubbling as infinite modes of knowing, infinite modes of perception, which then,
actually, give the notion of infinite
perceivers and infinite things
observed. But all just
the bubbling of vrittis, or qualia,
in the field. The field. So, but this body, itself, is form,
phenomena.
You can think of it
a misty, colorful, whirling in that huge expanse of the infinite screen
of awareness, knowing itself as
this and all this. But it all this is transforming,
changing, whirling and moving everything so as body-mind, we are the
localization of that infinite
field of awareness, and it's constantly transforming
the body-mind and everything else that is going along with that body-mind,
other body-minds, other
objects on and on. The field itself is experiencing
itself as all this. Instead of thinking
of the screen and you watching
the screen, think
of the screen itself being aware of itself as you, me
and all of this and we are that. In that screen of infinite
awareness, there's only constantly
changing, bubbling of species-specific
sensations, images,
feelings, thoughts, and the entanglement of all experience that goes along
with that species. And then the
entanglement of all species in a common
ecosystem of infinite modes of knowing
and experience and we are that.
That is exactly what
chapter 13 of the Bhagvad
Gita says, "I am the field. I am the knower of the field." And the moment
of knowing, for at least humans, is mind, intellect,
ego, five senses, five
tanmatras, five… which are the subtle
senses, five motor organs,
five actually subtle motor organs
as well. And then, you know, emotions
that go with it, and thoughts
that interpret it, and all of that
one simple word: "Vrittis"
Fluctuations of awareness, appearing momentarily as this and that.
So as body-mind, this is a blink
in the eye of the infinite
being localized in itself
as form and phenomena
and finite beings. But if you shift
your identity from I am here,
I am here, and all this is me knowing itself in infinite modes
of knowing, then there is no death. No birth. Just experience,
ceaselessly of the infinite
knowing itself as the finite forms
and phenomena that we identify
ourselves. So I'll stop here. Think about this,
but shift your awareness from here
to here, infinite, and then see
yourself from here as simultaneously co-arising and subsiding
with everything, just like
the breath.
So that's what Krishna says and means when he says,
I am the field and the knower
of the field and Rumi,
in a very simple way says,
Stop acting small, you are the universe and ecstatic motion become spinning
out of nothingness, catching stars
like dust. And even as we scatter
stars like dust, we evolve not only as the
stars, but to this, which is the stars looking
at themselves from this
observation deck. Okay, I hope this
makes sense to you..