You Are Not Book.indb - Stephen H. Wolinsky Ph. D.

The Bhakti Illusion / 221
“awarer” structure, through awaring, produces awareness. As
long as there is an “awarer,” the illusion of location, origin,
source, or cause of (fill in the blank) remains. The “awarer”
structure must be dismantled.
COnTEMplATiOn
As mentioned throughout, there are innumerable numbers
of “spiritual practices” (in Sanskrit, Sadhana) that can be
given. However, even in the ones below three dangers must
always be “understood”:
1) There is a separate “I” that imagines it is doing
the process.
2) This “I” imagines it will get something.
3) The gap or void is IT. The void-gap holds the
seeds of the “I” in subtle form.
Questions to Consider:
1) What “I” is doing the process?
2) What does the “I” want from doing the process?
3) Prior to the emergence of the “I”—are you?
4) Prior to the emergence of even the “awarer” of
the void—are you?
“When the mind of the aspirant that is to quit one object
is firmly restrained (niruddha) and does not move towards
any other object, it comes to rest in a middle position between
the two and through it (i.e., the middle position) is unfolded
the realization of pure consciousness which transcends all
contemplation. . . . (In whom does it arise?) it arises in the
yogi who is deeply engrossed, i.e., deeply concentrated in one
thought.” (Spanda Karikas, p. 143)