Contemplation

Before the mind, I am

Aug 8, 2024

In the words of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj,

"Before the mind -- I am. 'I am' is not a thought in the mind; the mind happens to me, I do not happen to the mind. And since time and space are in the mind, I am beyond time and space, eternal and omnipresent."

Sounds simple enough, doesn't it?

Except, there is the lingering belief that space and time exist outside the mind, independent of you.

Let me show you that it is not so.

Close your eyes for a moment.

Notice that this space you're experiencing is not visual.

That's why you're still experiencing it with the eyes closed.

This is the canvas of the mind; the infinite potential.

And what you're are hearing, feeling, sensing, or seeing, that is the painting; also the mind.

There's no particular thing apart from all this that can be called 'the mind'.

The space and the seeing, hearing, sensing, feeling, knowing, is what the mind actually is.

Now open the eyes.

What has changed?

Nothing.

There is still just the seeing, hearing, sensing, feeling.

This entire world is the mind.

So, if all this is mental, if all of this is the mind, are not space and time contained within it?

Space is the perception of distance.

I mean the direct experience of space, without words and intellectual knowledge.

What you know as space is the perception of depth.

The apparent distance between apparent objects.

A shape here and a shape there, a sound there, a sensation here.

The distance is always between the phenomena; between points on the canvas.

If there are no phenomena being observed, there is no space as such.

And what is time here?

Only the perception of change.

Because this is not a still painting.

The shapes move, the thoughts and feelings flow, life gets lived.

When the movement really stops, there is no sense of time.

So, time too is a dimension of this canvas.

Time and space and everything contained within them exist only as the mind.

That is what your dreams have been trying to tell you.

Don't you experience time and space in your dreams?

Where do those bubbles of spacetime exist?

Don't say, "My head."

Heads exist in space.

The question is, where does space exist?

It is only the mind where space and time can appear out of nothing.

There's nothing apart from the mind where an entire world can appear out of the blue.

The still mind; the mind at rest, gives birth to spacetime itself.

So, this is it -- the miraculous container.

The canvas for all that is ever perceived or can ever be conceived of.

There's nothing in the canvas that can be called 'me'.

But when the mind is quiet; at peace and content, there is a wordless knowledge that shines forth.

The sense that I Am.

It is pouring out.

Colouring the painting.

Pure Being-Consciousness-Bliss.

In the painting, that is what I am.

I am the color.

I am the light.

I am this I Am.

I am not the canvas.

The canvas is this mental bubble of space and time.

And whatever appears on the canvas only gets coloured in at the point of contact called 'perception'.

That is where I am -- at that point of contact between Reality and this bubble universe.

The world appears to me, I do not appear in the world.

The mind appears to me, I do not appear in the mind.

Therefore, I am prior to the world and the mind.

You observe the world, therefore, you are prior to the world.

You are witnessing the mind, therefore you are prior to the mind.

What is truly you remains unobservable and undefined.

The mind appears to You.

You do not appear in the mind.

Whatever the state of the mind, be it tranquil or disturbed, it does not reflect upon You.

The states of this mind or the behavior of this body have no bearing on the nature of Reality.

So, do not try to judge what you are based on the states of this mind.

Leaving everything as it is, see that you remain as you are.

Prior to the mind and the world.

In a realm of your own.

Neither subjective or objective, but real.