The way of the bird

not the small, insignificant creature that you imagined ourself to be. That concept of
yourself as a powerless individual, destined to die, is the vision of self that is wrong.
4.22 "Knowledge is a disease."
Reality is not a knower. The Self is there whether there is knowledge or not. Knowledge
means awareness of existence. In the human form, it means the appearance of the "I"
thought. This knowledge happened, just as, when you are sleeping, a dream happens.
Knowledge comes and goes according to its own laws and principles, over which no one
has any control. No individual exists to exercise control because the individual existence
is itself contained within that knowledge. The cause of this disease is not known to the
one who suffers from it. The sufferer is in fact a symptom of the disease!
4.23 "Don't know anything. Be out of knowingness. Then you are always
with yourself."
Ordinary knowledge belongs to the mind and will disappear with the death of the body on
which it depends. Self-knowledge is not knowledge in the ordinary sense. It occurs when
the false sense of "I," which is based on ordinary knowledge, is surrendered. What
remains is a different kind of knowledge, not one that is rooted in the mind, but one that
is established beyond the mind. This `pure knowledge" is not separate from existence
itself and is not separate from pure happiness and completeness. It is the "chit" aspect of
the sat-chit-ananda triad. Pure knowledge, or Self-knowledge, means abiding in the Self
because there is no difference between the Self and its knowledge. To know the Self is to
be the Self. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says:
Brahman can be apprehended only as knowledge itself. He who knows Brahman becomes Brahman!
4.24 "Sat-chit-ananda is everywhere. It's the original seed."
Jean Dunn, the disciple of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, said "Nothing can prevent the Self
from realizing itself." The whole process of creation, with all its various beings in their
diverse forms, is the expression of the power of the Self as it evolves towards Selfconsciousness.
The forms themselves, with their innate desire for positive experience, for
pleasure, and for happiness, are all ultimately born because the Self wants to realize
itself. They are all tending towards the fulfillment of that final desire that is inherent in
the original seed, sat-chit-ananda.
In the human being, the Self becomes identified with the false sense of "I" or ego. There
is then the belief that "I" am seeking happiness for "my" benefit. When you become a
spiritual seeker, that illusion remains so that you imagine "I am an aspirant" and "I am
seeking liberation." When, through the grace of the Master, Self-realization actually
occurs, it is understood that there never was any such seeker. It was the Self all along that
was drawing Itself to Itself in a purely imaginary game of separation. When this happens,
the game is over, and the Self rests contented in Itself, as far as that individual body-mind
is concerned. However, the game goes on in all the other myriad forms.