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Something tells me this knowledge should last forever.My friends and family don't understand, my explanations fall on deafears. Undeterred, I start to meditate. One day in the stillness all boundariesdissolve and I again know freedom. I see radiance behind the eyes of peopleon the street and hear the universal sound everywhere.And when the experience fades, the memory, a sacred object in mymind, keeps me striving to become something I already know I am.How absurd! When I see the wind blowing away the clouds obscuringthe sun, I can't wait for an inner wind to blow away the misconceptionskeeping me in ignorance. But is there such a wind? It seems consciouseffort is required. This effort is constant practice of knowledge.Constant practice of knowledgeneutralizes ignoranceas a base neutralizes an acid,purifying the individual self.(5)The individual self is the body-mind-intellect-ego entity, the personwe’ve been led to believe is "us." We’re certain this entity is real but it islittle more than a reflection caused when Consciousness 16 shines on thebundle of experience-impressions 17 making up our minds. If our experienceshave been predominately positive the mind will be peaceful and we’ll thinkof ourselves as happy people; if our experiences have been positive andnegative in equal measure we’re likely to have a confused view of ourselves.If we’ve experienced wounding, betrayal, and abandonment, the mind will bewounded, resentful, and despairing and we’ll see ourselves as miserablebeings. The ‘stains of ignorance” are the mental and emotional residue thatarise out of an identification with the mind, the past. To experience andconsequently know our true, immediate, self-evident nature, the mirror of themind should be clean and undistorted.To purify the mind we need to become mindful of Self ignorance bywatching our thoughts, monitoring our feelings, and observing our speech.After examining a particular misconception discard it as “not Self.” Theverse calls for “constant” practice of knowledge because Self ignorancecontinually manifests in our consciousness as the four following limiting16 The Self. Vedanta distinguishes the Self, Conciousness without thought, from the mind, consciousness inmotion.17 This phenomenon will be explained in detail in the commentary on verse 12, page 21.12
concepts, major limbs on the tree of non-apprehension from which myriadminor branches grow.These self-limiting concepts, referred to as “not Self” are:I AM THE BODY 18Our most pervasive and severely limiting concept is "I am the body,"the source of much grief - the immense fear of disease, old age and death, forexample. Why am I not the body?First, because it is perceivable, an object of my awareness. I see orfeel it, therefore it is other than me. The Self is the perceiver.Second, because it is insentient. If I were the body the body wouldknow me just as I know it, but the body has no idea who I am. The Self iseternally sentient.Third, because it is limited and not constantly present. If I'm thebody, why don't I exist in the dream and deep sleep state? I do, in fact, existin those states - but not as a physical body. Even in the dream state where Imay have a body, the dream body is not the same as the waking state body. IfI’m the two bodies, there are two “me’s,” an obvious impossibility. In deepsleep I have neither a gross waking nor a subtle dream body. Therefore thebody isn’t me. The Self is unlimited and omnipresent.Forth, because it changes. The Self is immutable.Fifth, because the body has a shape. The Self is formless being.Sixth, because the body depends on its constituent parts and theelements. The Self is partless and self-dependent.I AM THE MIND 19At a dinner party the hostess looked down her nose at one of her guestswho was, in her opinion, unsuitably attired. The husband, noticing that hiswife was miffed, solicitously inquired,"What's the matter dear?""She hurt me," sniffed the wife.The statement "She hurt me" indicates a confusion of the "me," the Selfwith mind, the emotional function.18 Vedanta defines the body as (1) the “food sheath” and (2) the five elements: space, air, fire, water, andearth.19 The word “mind” has many meanings in spiritual literature. In this context “mind” means the feeling andemotional function.13
Page 1 and 2: SELF-KNOWLEDGE"I am composing this
Page 3: REMOVING THE WALLIf happiness or un
Page 8 and 9: "Action cannot remove ignorancefor
Page 10 and 11: lowing blissful cosmic experiences,
Page 14 and 15: ody.We aren’t our feelings and em
Page 16 and 17: The belief that I am a waker comes
Page 18 and 19: If I’m the sleeper ego, the bliss
Page 20 and 21: itself out and disappears back into
Page 22 and 23: imaginations; ego, filled with self
Page 24 and 25: The next few days saw many experien
Page 26 and 27: here, however, the subtle part, the
Page 28 and 29: state manifests as awareness and ac
Page 30 and 31: At this point in the text the “No
Page 32 and 33: time when it was appropriate? Greed
Page 34 and 35: Simply knowing that everything is a
Page 36 and 37: in the light of the Self.”(19)Tho
Page 38 and 39: ationalized or self-validating cred
Page 40 and 41: through which the Enlightened Being
Page 42 and 43: Of course the idea of a deluded Sel
Page 44 and 45: Since ultimately all transactions,
Page 46 and 47: Nearly everyone has, at moments of
Page 48 and 49: The complex process of experience i
Page 50 and 51: can't. The creative process is, acc
Page 52 and 53: eautifully mixed by the Mind (see "
Page 54 and 55: (Intellect's preoccupation with the
Page 56 and 57: attentioninwardsubtle bodystilledag
Page 58 and 59: attitudes, especially those which e
Page 60 and 61: specific results. For example, we t
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DESIRE IS STRESSOne major source of
Page 64 and 65:
Meditation and Self knowledge go ha
Page 66 and 67:
Put together, the sattvic elements
Page 68 and 69:
Sleep is a symbol for ignorance, an
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THE BODYNo particular physical posi
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THE BREATHThe breath, as you’ve u
Page 74 and 75:
If the ego insists on intruding, ma
Page 76 and 77:
of objects in the Self alone and ex
Page 78 and 79:
(40)One symptom of enlightenment si
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“As dawn dispels darkness before
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Listen carefully to the next conver
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This, the last, and the next five v
Page 86 and 87:
Imagine Consciousness arranged in l
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nothing more is to be seen, and whi
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The word, it is said, "killeth." Ho
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agitationattentionfactor“Third Ey
Page 94:
OM TAT SAT94
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