I am that I AM – Part One
We have been seduced by our senses for so long, that the idea that what we consider to be the real world may actually be a projection of our minds seems absurd.
We take the evidence of our senses as irrefutable proof that what we see around us is both separate from us, and is composed of solid matter. We remain equally convinced of the reality of our own personalities, supported as they are at every moment by the inner glow of the presence of the “I am”.
It is the presence of this “I am” which stamps reality on every passing moment, and as these moments pass, so they become filed in memory and serve as a record of our past. And so, moment by moment, we build the characters of our personalities, as well as the structure of our world.
We have seen how certain types of experience are found in retrospect to be illusory. These are visions, dreams and other hallucinogenic experiences. At the time these illusory experiences occur, however, they seem very real indeed. Carl Jung called his visions “the most tremendous things I have ever experienced”, and stressed that they were “utterly real”, and that they had a quality of “absolute objectivity”.
But however impressed Jung and others like him might have been by their experiences, in the light of the normal waking world they are dismissed as mere illusions of the mind. After all, Jung’s body was lying in his hospital bed for all to see. That surely was the true reality.
Whatever Jung supposed might have happened to him while he was unconscious, was merely a series of illusions that occurred while he was in an altered state of mind. That state may well have been exalted, and was undoubtedly meaningful to him at the time, but in the context of the waking world, his experiences were obviously illusory.
But this conviction of the reality of our waking world lasts only until some other state of mind intervenes. When this happens, our former waking experiences become illusory, to be replaced by a new conviction of the objectivity and meaning that resides in the new state. Given these varied categories of experience, the realisation must surely dawn on us that all states of mind are relative, and that there is no single state of mind that is truly real.
Our sense of reality is, in every case, relative to our current state of mind. This sense of reality is readily transferred from one state to another, as soon as each new state is experienced. So dreams are seen to be illusory in the waking state, together with drug trips, visions and other hallucinations.
This waking state, however, has a particular character to it which separates it from other states. We appear to spend more time in this waking state than any other, although the passage of time in any state is entirely subjective.
Furthermore, our waking state has an internal consistency which seems different from other states. Each time we return to the waking state we find ourselves inhabiting the same body, in the same social circumstances, surrounded by the same collection of people, and subject to the same problems as when we left.
Other states seem to lack this consistency, and it is for this reason that we have come to regard the waking state as the real state. But as we have seen, there is nothing intrinsically real about the waking state. The fact that we happen to find ourselves inhabiting a particular form located in space, surrounded by objects and subject to circumstances which are conveyed to us through the agency of our senses, is something that is common to all states. It is merely a convention of thinking that calls this waking state “real”, and all other states “unreal”.
Our lives resolve themselves therefore into a succession of thoughts, feelings, images and events which impact upon our sense of individual identity. These impressions are actually reflections within consciousness, and are themselves the product of a phenomenon called mind.
The mind is thought to be a function of the human brain, which is considered to be the seat of consciousness itself. But the idea of the brain giving birth to consciousness, which then functions as the mind, does not stand up to critical analysis.
The verdict of the Sages confirms that it is the body and the brain which are the products of consciousness, and not the other way around. The entire universe is reflected within the mind. But just what is this phenomenon that we call the mind?
When Ramana Maharshi was asked about the nature of the mind, he replied that there was no such thing as a phenomenon that could be called mind. He explained that what we have come to call the “mind” is actually a collection of constituents which we call thoughts. What we call mind is simply a cloud of thoughts which covers the Sun of pure Awareness, or true Reality. The Maharshi explains:
“Because of the emergence of thoughts we surmise something from which they start. That we term mind. When we probe to see what it is, there is nothing like it. After it has vanished, Peace will be found to remain eternal.” 1
Mind is considered to be the source from which all thoughts emerge. But this, as Ramana points out, is a misconception. Just as the ego or personality is felt to be the source of all personal thoughts and actions, but which, when sought after, disappears into pure consciousness, so thoughts too have their origin in this same consciousness. The mind is simply a collective term for a variety of thoughts.
Question: “What is mind?
Maharshi: A bundle of thoughts.
Question: From where does it have its origin?
Maharshi: Consciousness of the Self.” 2
This Consciousness of the Self, according to the Maharshi, is pure Knowledge, and he adds, “the mind arises out of it and is made up of thoughts.” 3
The personal ego, or soul, is derived from this same source of pure consciousness from which all thoughts emerge. The ego is the root-thought, and all other thoughts are derived from it. As the Maharshi remarks:
“The mind is only a bundle of thoughts. The thoughts arise because there is the thinker. The thinker is the ego. The ego, if sought, will vanish automatically. The ego and the mind are the same. The ego is the root-thought from which all other thoughts arise.” 4
Once the root-thought of ‘I’ appears, all other thoughts emerge in relation to this ‘I’. The personality is then the sum total of those thoughts and feelings which have come to be associated with that ‘I’ thought. Images of various thoughts appear in consciousness which the ego then projects onto an outer environment.
Among these images is the form which the ego identifies with as its body. All other thoughts are then analyzed and filed away in memory, in terms of their relationship with this” I” source. In this way, both the concepts of the personality and of the outer world are constructed. The two, ego and world, are thus inextricably intertwined.
They are born of the same source, and both derive their meaning from the other. The ego exists in terms of its thought relationships with the outer world, while the world is the effect of various thought relationships with the ego.
The world and the personality are both complementary creatures of thought, held together by memory. There can be no world without the ego, and no ego without a world to interact with. Nisargadatta Maharaj puts it this way:
“As long as the mind is there, your body and your world are there. Your world is mind-made, subjective, enclosed within the mind, fragmentary, temporary, personal, hanging on the thread of memory.” 5
Both the ego and the world are built out of moment by moment images and events. These are retained in memory to give continuity to the ego, and order and consistency to the world. Yet when the images of the world are traced back to their source, they lead back to the ego, and when the ego is investigated, it leads unerringly back to the bliss of pure Awareness, the true Reality.
It is in this sense that the world is considered to be illusory. For the world bears the same degree of reality as that of the ego that witnesses it. Once the ego is taken to be real, then the universe assumes an outward reality also. But once the ego is found to be unreal, then the world is also seen to be illusory.
The “dewdrop” of the ego then merges into the “shining sea” of Awareness, in that recognition which has come to be called salvation, liberation, union, realization and enlightenment. This is the ultimate fruit of all living, and the ultimate goal of all religious life.
Once the thought of identity occurs, then all other thoughts are strung upon the necklace of the individual ego. It is the sum total of these thoughts that make up, for each person, his or her outer world. The universe is simply a collection of thoughts. This has not only been the focus of the teaching of Sages like Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj, but it has also been the central core of the wisdom of the ages.
“The thoughts are the content of the mind”, says the Maharshi, “and they shape the universe.” 6
This is the crucial conclusion to which we have been led. It is the content of our thoughts which gives shape to what we call the universe. The universe is not some giant cosmic stage, which exists independently of ourselves, and runs according to the whims of some supreme God. The universe is nothing more or less than the content of our minds. Our minds in turn are simply an aggregation of different thoughts.
Because the universe represents the sum total of all thoughts, then, as these thoughts change, so the universe changes as well. The corollary is equally valid. If we wish to change the universe, we need only change our thoughts!
As Sri Dattatreya points out:
“The world becomes for one whatever one is accustomed to think of it.” 7
Not only is the universe shaped by our thoughts, but our individual egos are equally moulded by our thinking. It is the thoughts which each person thinks that determines the character of that person. This is self-evident. The only identity which the ego has is the cumulative content of those thoughts which have been linked together in memory. This leads us to another fundamental conclusion.
If we wish to change ourselves, we need only change our thoughts!
The idea that each individual is the product of his or her thought, is a continuing theme in the recorded works of Sages from the East and from the West.
As we see in the Maitriyana Upanishad:
“Samsara, the transmigration of life, takes place in one’s mind. Let one therefore keep the mind pure, for what one thinks that he becomes: this is the mystery of Eternity.”
The Ashtavakra Gita points out:
“He who thinks himself to be free, is free, and he who thinks himself to be bound, is bound. True is the saying, ‘as a man thinks, so he becomes’.” 8
In the opening stanza of the Dhammapada, the summation of the teachings of the Buddha, we find:
“What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind.” 9
Confucius, the revered teacher of ancient China, sums up the knowledge of the traditions recorded in “The Poems” or “The Writings of Old”, in the following words:
“The Poems, all three hundred of them, may be summed up in one of their phrases: ‘Let our thoughts be correct’.” 10
Again, in the seventh verse of chapter twenty-three of the Book of Proverbs, we read:
“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” 11
Continued in Part Two
References:
1 “Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi”, recorded by Swami Saraswathi, Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai, 1968, p. 189.
2 Ibid, p. 178.
3 Ibid, p. 589.
4 Ibid, p. 160.
5 “I Am That”, Conversations with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, translated by Maurice Frydman, Book I, Chetana, Bombay, 1973, p. 19.
6 “Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi”, op. cit., p. 13.
7 “Tripura Rahasya”, translated by Swami Saraswathi, Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai, 1962, p. 88.
8 “Ashtavakra Gita”, translated by H. P. Shastri, Shanti Sadan, London, 1961, p. 4.
9 “The Dhammapada”, translated by Juan Mascaro, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1973, p. 35.
10 “The Sayings of Confucius”, translated by J. P. Ware, Mentor, New York, 1955, p. 25.
11 King James version of the Bible. (KJ21)
