Q: New students often say “I see that what I have taken as
‘me’ is just a flow of thoughts” But then, I am only zero—in fact nothing at
all?
Swamiji: “I”
that is awareness is always present in every thought. However, this “I” itself
is free from the distinct characteristics of any given thought. The
non-recognition of this fact leads to the mistaken notion of taking oneself to
be not only the obtaining condition of the mind, but also of the body and
senses. Thought flow does not constitute ‘me’. It constitutes only the mind and
this flow has its origin, being and dissolution in awareness. Therefore, only
the non-recognition of this essential basis of all thoughts creates a situation
of divided reality such as ‘I’ thought and ‘this’ thought. This itself is
confounded further by the thought ‘this is me.’
If thought existed
independently without the awareness, there would be only one constant thought
and therefore there would be no thoughts, much less a flow of thoughts. In the
improper teaching of VedËnta, one of the mistakes is
that a change in thought flow makes ‘me’ free from problems and therefore
naturally I see myself as the thought flow. This false notion leads the
discerning student to conclude that the removal of the thought flow that is
‘me’ amounts to zero.
In fact, every thought has
two aspects – one is the awareness and
the other is the form of thought. This is exactly like the water and the wave;
one is real and the other is apparent (mithya). The non-recognition of the
real causes the false attribute-bound, ‘me.’ The recognition of this fact is
the release from the false problem.