Download PDF - Stillness Speaks

Since ultimately all transactions, even the good, are perishable onemight be tempted to despair - yet there is a way out: cut loose expectations ofsecurity and permanence and take what comes for what it is; experience thechanges without clinging, and understand that non-attachment frees the mindto seek the Self’s lasting bliss. Though courage and honesty are required,living in the now is infinitely more satisfying than living with expectations.Once this fact sinks in, one takes the obvious imperfections of time-boundlife as an attractive advertisement for Self-Knowledge.The second reason for discriminating away the belief in the body,mind, and intellect as self is more subtle - because they are "perceivedobjects." That physical objects are perceived is easy to grasp. Nor does ittake a genius to see that ideas and emotions also perceived objects. Thisverse takes us a step deeper, informing us that the three bodies themselves areperceived objects.What does this mean? When we think, we see the thought. But whydon’t we see the thinker seen with the same clarity? Because, we think weare the thinker. The verse says the intellect (the thinker), the mind (thefeeler/emoter), and the physical body (sense organs) are perceived objects.Who perceives them? The Self.This teaching is based on a simple fact - one cannot be what oneperceives. 55 For example, you see your hand. Are you the hand? The handis just insentient meat. Identifying with the body, the hand seems to be you,but actually you are the perceiver. Common sense tells us that the perceivercannot be the perceived. Applying this simple principle to every part of yourbeing (mind, intellect, ego, and Unconscious) see that you are none of it.Though discrimination is usually not an issue during periods ofhappiness, a serious seeker should continue to inquire “Who's happy. If theone feeling wonderful at the moment wasn’t previously feeling so good, theego, an object of perception, has been identified. Not only will the inquiryidentify the Self by default but it will remove the expectation that thehappiness will last, since the ego is known to constantly change.Discriminating the Self (the ultimate subject) from the not-Self (thebodies and their objects) is difficult because conditioning has inextricablybound us to "perceived objects," subtle and gross. The text is notsuggesting the ego be weaned from its attachments, although that never55 That this truth is contradicted by a more profound truth (that the perceiver and the perceived are one) iscaused by the fact that the former is intended to help the discriminator out of Maya (the world) where the lawsof duality are at work. When the discrimination is successful and the Self realized, no separation exists in themind between the perceiver and the perceived, although they are physically perceived as separate.44