An excerpt from the book “Awaken: An Experiential Exploration of Enlightenment“
Student: Why am I often un-aware? Why do I feel swept away by experiences that are occurring?
Master: Your thoughts effectively veil consciousness, the sense of being aware. This is why, very often, you are not aware of being aware.
Student: If that ever-present Awareness is my true nature, how can mere thoughts veil this?
Master: On a bright sunny day, all it takes is one puffy cloud to obscure the Sun. And when that cloud covers the Sun from your vantage point, the Sun in all its brightness and glory is effectively veiled. The cloud, which can be readily dispersed by the blowing wind, can so easily veil the Sun. In this way, the thoughts that come and go, including that primal thought of “I am” which is presumed to be a separate-I, veil that ever-present Awareness of True Self.
Student: Master, I understand now how thoughts, even as ephemeral and passing as they are, can veil the ever-present Awareness that is True Self. But why do I get stuck, get caught up in, get trapped in the veiling of the thoughts?
Master: Thoughts have a sticky quality to them, especially that primal thought that you are a separate-self which is extremely sticky. This is why sages of the past have likened thinking and thoughts to a web weaved by a spider.
Student: If thoughts have a sticky quality to them, how do I get unstuck from thoughts?
Master: When we are silent in body and mind, we can more clearly observe the rising and falling of thoughts. Something in us is aware of the rising and falling of thoughts, and that something isn’t a thought. That which is aware of the rising and falling of thoughts is itself pure Awareness of True Self. When we simply observe the observing, we remain aware of being aware. This is freedom from thoughts and the veiling they create. This is abidance in True Self.
See this complete dialog as well as other conversations between the Student and the Master, that enables the student to experience true self, in the book: “Awaken: An Experiential Exploration of Enlightenment.”
Love
Sundar.
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