Witnessing Awareness
The mind is only one but due to its association with many sense organs, it appears as many.
Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana, Foundational text of AYURVEDA Medicine
Oneness and minuteness are the qualities of mind.
Witnessing Awareness – Dr. Vastant Lad on MIND
The mind is the only sense organ that has the capacity to see itself. The ears cannot hear themselves. The eyes cannot see themselves, unless there is a mirror. The tongue cannot taste itself. Nevertheless, the mind can see itself. It has double-arrowed attention. The mind can look outside and, at the same time, it can look inside. In the kingdom of the senses, the mind is king. Mind has the capacity to choose and is a powerful instrument of experience. Right from this moment, bring discipline and watch the mind. Watching the mind means looking at your thoughts as they are, looking at your feelings and emotions as they are, without identifying them as “this is my fear, this is my thought.” Without identification, justification, evaluation and notification, you can see a clear-cut gap between two thoughts, a space between two memories, a distance between two emotions. In that space, there is a door. Enter into that door.
Thought is like a lingering cloud in the sky of consciousness. You are not the cloud; you are only watching the cloud. In between two clouds, there is a vast space. Remember that no cloud can stay in the sky. In the same way, no thought can stay in the consciousness. Just sit quietly or lie on the floor and watch the total movement of thinking. Let the mind thinkwhat it wants. It may think about good things or bad things. It does not matter; do not judge. Just observe the thinking. When you go on observing your thinking in this way, within one week you will see that thinking becomes slower. You can clearly see a space between two thoughts. If you enter that space, you will forget your body and your problems and you will be in a dynamic space. Take care not to name it.
The vast, incredible, immeasurable space is your true nature. Your true nature is endless and boundless existence. Live in the present, in the state beyond time and aging, which can be reached through sensitive awareness. You can remain in that vast space 24 hours a day.
External sounds— the cry of a child, the barking of a dog, or a musical sound— all come into the ear and dissolve. You become the center of the whole universe, the whole existence, the whole presence.
To maintain such a state is pure love. When you are in the state of love, it is joy and bliss, which is your true nature. The molecules of bliss start flowing into your body. All disease is wiped out. You can achieve radical transformation of your brain cells simply by watching the movement of your mind at every moment.
Mano vaha srotas is profound, because it has its root in the universe and its fruit in the heart of every human being. Your heart, the fruit, and the universe, the root, merge together. Then you flower. The flowering of bliss and love takes place when the fruit and the root merge together.
“Before practicing meditation, we see that mountains are mountains.
When we start to practice, we see that mountains are no longer mountains.
After practicing a while, we see that mountains are again mountains.
Now the mountains are very free. Our mind is still with the mountains,
but it is no longer bound to anything.”
—Thich Nhat Hahn: —
