What is Awareness and what is mind? - Swami Dayananda Saraswati

Swamiji, please give us simple definition for “awareness”? Also, if the mind is an object, what is the subject? What is it that is aware?

To define awareness, we can only use another word—Consciousness, for example. Awareness means you are aware of something; it is opposed to inertness or non awareness. What is opposed to inertness is that which is not inert—awareness.

Awareness, therefore, can be defined as what is manifest in all forms of perception, in all forms of knowing. Awareness is qualified by different objects. When I say “I am aware of the pot,” for example, there is pot awareness. Similarly when I say “I am aware of the cloth,” there is cloth awareness. Whenever you are aware of something, that something becomes the qualifying for awareness. This awareness can be defined in terms of knowledge as such. What is basic in all forms of knowledge is pure existence (satyam). Therefore, knowledge is defined as existence, and existence is defined as knowledge. One helps to define other. The basis for all forms of knowledge is what we mean by awareness.

When you are listening to me, you are aware of me and of these words. The

fundamental principle in which these words are heard is awareness. The words, “I do not hear you,” are also said within the same principle. The not-hearing also takes place in the same awareness. What is common in all forms of perception is awareness: I hear that I don’t hear, I see that I don’t see, I think that I don’t think. All are nothing but awareness.

If, as we say, the mind is an object, what is it that is aware? The word “mind”

means “thought.” What is it that is the awarer? You are the awarer. You are

aware of thought. Opposed to the thought, therefore, there is subject—you.

In fact, both the subject and the object are awareness. But, in the beginning, to help you find out what are you are, I generally say that a thought is an object and you are the subject. Then, when you ask “what is this I that is the subject?” I reply, “You, the subject, are a witness.” And what is the nature of the witness? Awareness.

The witness, then, is awareness and the witnessed object cannot be away from awareness. Therefore, the witness and witnessed are both awareness. Even thewitness is not there, awareness remains. Similarly, thought is awareness and the thinker, the knower of the thought, is also awareness.

With reference to thought, however, awareness assume two statuses, corresponding to two types of thought in mind—subject thought and object thought. These two types of thought can be seen in the dream, where you are both the subject and the object of the dream. You are the object in that you are the one who participates in the dream world. And you are the subject, the one whose dream it is. The subject and the object are therefore one and the same. Both types of thought—Subject thought and object thought exist—in awareness and are, in fact, nothing but awareness.

Om Tat Sat

Guided Nidhidhyasana 2 - by H.H. Swami Dayananda Saraswati

Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati, in this enlightening guided contemplation on the truth of the self, awes us with the clarity of real recognition of one's absolute nature.

Click at the following link:

Guided Nidhidhyasana 2 - by H.H Swami Dayananda Saraswati

Guided Nidhidhyasana 1 - by Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati

A guided nidhidhyasana - first one - by Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati -

click the following link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24w45EXUi_E

Some thoughts about Self Inquiry

The expression ‘original consciousness’ is used by some neo-Vedanta teachers, who ask their students to negate what is ‘not original’ to arrive at the ‘original consciousness’. The expression ‘original consciousness’ used in this form is misleading – because Consciousness is unchanging – Consciousness never adds anything to itself to lose its original nature – it is not like milk becoming curd and we have to make it milk again.

The purpose of self inquiry is to arrive at the nature of ‘I’ which is invariable in every experience. The time-tested simple method give in the methodology of revealing truth in traditional Vedanta is the method of discriminating between the perceiver and the perceived, or the subject and the object. I is ever the subject, the perceiver, the witness with reference to what is perceived, never the perceived. Consciousness that shines as ‘I’ is never an object of any means of knowledge. Consciousness-I is unique in this respect.

So in the understanding of ‘I’ or me – negate whatever is objectified or objectifiable. Then what is revealed is  what shines as ‘I’ which is self-revealing, self-existing, basic, non-negatable, consciousness that is ever-present, changeless and limitless – unfettered by whatever is objectified or objectifiable in its presence -  cit svarupoham. When it is our own confirmed and ascertained recognition we can call it as assimilated knowledge.

Now we can ask is this consciousness that I am, affected or divided or displaced by any status as an experiencer or the experienced object? For example a sound is heard. That means the hearer of the sound is perceived, as well as the sound is perceived. Is the hearer or the sound heard outside consciousness-I? No. Consciousness is the presence that illuminates, accommodates unconditionally, gives life to and sustains the hearer and the heard sound. Both have no separation from Consciousness-I.

The thinker of thought and the thought

The hearer of sound and the sound

The seer of form/colour and the form/colour

The doer of action, the action and the object of action

All of these are illumined, revealed, perceived and gain being in the limitless, ever-present, unchanging Consciousness that is the truth of experiencer-I, the experience and the experienced object. Akhanda cit savarupoham.

In every experience there are two orders of realities at play and they are to be understood and recognized as such, otherwise there is no understanding of Advaita. Confirming for oneself that what shines as ‘I’ is consciousness that is separate from the personality and everything else is not advaita – it is still dvaita or duality because one may imagine that the personality is another thing, as is the rest of the universe. Then where is Advaita?

The two orders of reality have to be understood. One is an independent reality and the other is dependent. For example wave is a dependent reality – it depends on its cause water. Water the cause of wave is the independent reality because water can exist without being a wave, whereas wave cannot exist without water, because wave is nothing but water. The independent reality has the technical name of satyam and the dependent reality has the technical name mithya.

Taking the example of a sound is heard.

Sound is

Hearing of sound is

The hearer of sound is

Consciousness-I, the unchanging truth of the hearer, in whose ever-presence, the hearer, hearing and the heard comes to light – is. I am = Consciousness Is = Existence-Consciousness

It is this Existence-Consciousness which appears in multifarious forms of different experiences without undergoing any change.

Here the hearer of sound (a facet of the personality), the hearing itself and the sound are dependent on Consciousness-I, the unchanging independent reality. The hearer is mithya, the hearing is mithya, the sound is mithya -  in other words the empirical world consisting of the ever changing factors such as experiencer, the experience, the experienced object is mithya. You the ever-present changeless witness-consciousness, in whose presence the empirical world of experience comes into being, is satyam.

 These two orders of reality satyam and mithya are the basis of Advaita. Satyam is the changeless, absolute reality that is limitless consciousness. It is the very content of the changing, dependent empirical reality, without whom, the empirical reality consisting of the three-fold factors of experience, experience and experienced has no being.

We cannot say it is intellectual and dismiss it. The oneness of water and wave lies in understanding wave to be non-seperate from water, dependent on water its source, wheras water, the source is independent.

The systematic study of the tradition of teaching of Vedanta gives us knowledge that confers moksha or liberation. This knowledge may be assimilated knowledge – which is our own confirmed, ascertained knowledge that I am immediate, direct, self-revealing, self-existing, ever-present, unchanging, limitless consciousness, in whose presence the whole universe apparently comes into being, is sustained and resolves. This knowledge can also be fraught with obstacles, in which case it is unassimilated knowledge. Some teachers refer to unassimilated knowledge, when they negate intellectual knowledge. Further they condemn the systematic study of Vedanta viewing it as incapable of giving ‘direct, intuitive’ knowledge. This view is wrong and should not be promoted. What they mean by intuitive knowledge is well-ascertained and confirmed for oneself as one’s reality. This is the same as the assimilated knowledge that Vedanta reveals.

It is true that unassimilated knowledge  cannot confer moksha and so efforts must be made to remove the obstacles whatever they are.

Have ascertained that the invariable nature of I is unchanging limitless consciousness, one’s understanding is incomplete, until one recognizes that the empirical reality that one transacts with on a daily basis, consisting of  experiencer and experience, is dependent on and non-seperate from its source, the absolute, unchanging Consciousness, which is indeed the truth of the confused and ignorant experiencer.

Om Tat Sat

DISPUTING THE BELIEF IN REALITY OF THE INDIVIDUALITY

We take ourselves to be individuals separate from one another and the world. Is this true or is it a false belief? If it is true then I am always an affected being – affected by the world around –sometimes favourably and many times unfavourably. I become whatever  my conditioning allows me to be – nothing more – nothing less.

As an individual, I take myself to be limited in every which way and so I become a person with endless set of needs which beg to be fulfilled as a means to seeing myself as complete. Of course there are many unfulfilled needs and these make me live life with the endless pursuit of needs fulfilment. When needs are fulfilled legitimately there are consequent feelings of satisfaction and when they cannot be fulfilled for any reason whatsoever,  or they are fulfilled without heed to the universal code of values,  there is conflict, anger, hurt, anxiety, frustration, guilt etc.

This is my lot as an individual. Then I am like a fish imprisoned in a submarine!!! There is no freedom – there is only living being controlled helplessly by my conditioning and believing that to be my truth.

Vedanta asks us to make an inquiry into whether I am an individual and gives us a simple logical method that helps us question our belief that I am this personality that I believe myself to be. Thus it helps us to first see even the possibility that we could be wrong in our estimate of ourselves.

It points out a rule which is - that whatever you can objectify, whatever you can know or experience is not you for the simple reason that you are the subject who knows – you are never an object that is known.

For example you know the building you are staying in – and you also know that you are not the building that you objectify. Similarly, you know the clothes you are wearing and you also know that you are not the clothes that you objectify. When it come to physical things external to the body, we have no problem in understanding this. But the minute we come to our body – to the skin of the body – we look upon it as ‘I’ – even though it is clearly something we objectify and know. So too, even though we know our feelings and our thoughts – even though they are clearly objects of our knowledge, our experience –still we take them to be ‘me’.

This is THE error that causes all the sorrow in our lives.

Vedanta says strip away from your belief of yourself all that you have added through ignorance of your real self – so for the time being strip away in your understanding – the body, its physiological functions, the mind with all of its ways of thinking, beliefs, feelings, needs, memories and ignorance from your sense of ‘I’. Strip them all away from your sense of ‘I’, which is direct and immediate and see what is there. Stay with that ... stay with that ... stay with that ... again and again stay with that – ... you may say I feel sacred ... hey fear is an object of your knowledge – you are not fear – remove fear also from your understanding of yourself ... You may say I feel a void, a great discomfort ... hey void is also something you are objectifying .... you are not what you objectify ... use that assimilated rule again and again ... and stay with what remains without identifying with anything – be it thought, feeling, memory, sensation - that comes up as an object of your knowledge and experience.

As you stay through understanding, with the sense of I, from which all ideas of objects has been taken away, you begin to recognize that you are irrefutably a basic conscious being, a conscious presence – basic self-existent self-revealing consciousness that is present at all times, illumining every experience of objectification, in reality untouched by the experience. Just as sunlight is untouched by all that is illumined in its presence.

Vedanta examines the nature of reality. Whatever you experience is a changing reality - and it depends on YOU, the unchanging reality. You are the unchanging truth, the unchanging reality of the personality that you experience, independent of the personality that you experience yourself as. 

Not identifying with anything that may come up you experience yourself as vast spaciousness -you recognize that the words of Vedanta, which reveal the truth of yourself as limitless, timeless consciousness is true. You are That. You are the limitless timeless consciousness that Vedanta, the means of knowledge in the form of  words, is revealing.  This understanding is sometimes experienced as  a sense of vast spaciousness in which every experience seemingly takes place, inseparate from you.

It is only when there is identification due to ignorance with the object of experience, be it the body-mind or anything external to the body, that one assumes that one is a personality limited by the conditioning of the body-mind or the experiences in the external world. 

So to dispute your belief that you are a personality, a limited individual, first you need to see the possibility of your being something else. For that use the rule given by Vedanta – again and again and again and again see what you are not – and stay with what remains – which is the sense of ‘I’. Stay with that I-sense which has been divested of the sense of reality in all that is added on to it in ignorance. If you can do that, stay with the sense of I, which has nothing added to it – which is just ‘I am’ – just Being – that very staying will help stabilize your understanding of I to be independent of the personality. You also assimilate that the personality is not independent of you, the consciousness in whose presence it manifests and is enlivened and empowered.

And once you assimilate that you are independent of the personality whereas the personality is not independent of you, the words used by Vedanta that reveal your true nature, reveal their meaning to you and you recognize that YOU are the meaning – limitless timeless absolute consciousness from whom nothing is separate.

Om Tat Sat

Gaining Objectivity - 1

 Gaining Objectivity 1 - UNDERSTANDING THE WAYS OF THE MIND

We gain objectivity when our perception is in keeping with life as it is, things as they are – which includes people and all situations. An understanding of how the mind works reveals in which areas we are prone to lose our objectivity.

Here is a situation. A dear friend is taken severely ill. He is placed in the ICU and there are severe restrictions to meeting him. I have come down to meet him and I am told that I may not be able to see him. When I hear this I feel agitated and distressed. Why? Because my need for connection and well-being is not met.

You will notice that this situation has been analysed in terms of Event, Feeling, Need (Demand or Binding Like/Dislike). We would need to go one step further which is to understand the belief or thought behind the need, because it the belief behind the need that triggers our feelings and not really the event.

Our beliefs are formed in keeping with our life experiences, our value structure, our education and understanding, our assumptions and inferences. Our assumptions (or rules of living) and way of inferring can be whacky – way out  of reality – in which case our beliefs will also not be in keeping with reality – and in which case, in case of unfavourable events, we would be prone to much emotional suffering because of erroneous evaluations which are based on our inferences and assumptions.

In Vedanta, this emotional suffering constitutes mala or impurity – because it keeps you out of touch with the truth of your fullness. So it is important to look into the ways of our mind and become familiar with how we infer and see if it is not suffering from distortion. Cognitive Therapy has a good understanding of distorted thinking. Let’s look at some of the distortions in our ways of inference  :-

·          Black and white thinking - Seeing things in extremes, with no middle ground - good or bad, perfect versus useless, success or failure, right against wrong, moral versus immoral, and so on. Also known as ALL-OR-NOTHING THINKING.

·          Filtering -Seeing all that is wrong with oneself or the world, while ignoring any positives.

·          Over-generalisation- Building up one thing about oneself or one's circumstances and ending up thinking that it represents the whole situation. For example: "Everything's going wrong", "Because of 
this mistake, I'm a total failure". Or, similarly, believing that some thing which has happened once or twice is happening all the time, or that it will be a never-ending pattern: "I'll always be a failure", "No-one will ever want to love me", and the like.

·          Mind-reading -Making guesses about what other people are thinking, such as: "She ignored me on purpose", or "He's mad at me".

·          Fortune-telling - Treating beliefs about the future as though they were actual realities rather than mere predictions, or example: "I'll be depressed forever", "Things can only get worse".

·          Emotional reasoning - Thinking that because we feel a certain way, this is how it really is: "I feel like a failure, so I must be one", "If I'm angry, you must have done something to make me so", and the like.

·          Personalising -Assuming that something is directly connected with oneself, but without evidence: "Everyone is looking at me", "It must have been me that made her feel bad", and so on.

We not only make inferences about what is happening we then evaluate what they mean to us in terms of are they ‘helpful’, ‘hurtful’ or neutral. Our evaluations can also be distorted when they cause us to :-

1.     Catastrophise : This mainly takes on two forms :-  We  'AWFULISE'  - which is exaggerating the consequences of past, present or future events; seeing something as: awful; terrible; horrible; the worst that could happen. It often leads to the other form which is  'CAN'T-STAND-IT-ITIS' - the idea that one can't bear (put up with; withstand; overcome) some circumstance or event. Both types serve the purpose of making us feel worse about our problems.

2.     Demand (musts and shoulds) This refers to the way we may use unconditional shoulds and absolutistic musts - believing that certain things must or must not happen, and that certain conditions (for example success, love, or approval) are absolute necessities. Demanding implies that certain 'LAWS OF THE UNIVERSE' exist and must be adhered to. Demands can be directed either toward oneself or others or life in general. Our demands form the core of mala  or antahkarana-ashuddhi.  We have MUSTS on ourself, on others and for life in general.

3.     People-rating (putting a label or value on others) People-rating refers to the process of evaluating one's entire self (or someone else's) on the basis of a particular trait, behaviour or action according to some standard of value or worth leading to an evaluation of the whole person eg. "I did a bad thing, therefore I am a bad person."  In other words, it is trying to determine the total value of a person or judging their worth. It represents an overgeneralization. People-rating can lead to reactions like self-downing, depression, defensiveness, grandiosity, hostility, or over-concern with approval and disapproval.

How we react to specific events depends on our underlying beliefs or RULES OF LIVING about life. Behind most of our unhelpful emotions and behaviours are a small core of beliefs that our not in keeping with the empirical world or  Ishvara srshti. A few of these beliefs are listed below :-

·          I need love and approval from those significant to me - and I must avoid disapproval from any source.

·          To be worthwhile as a person I must achieve, succeed at whatever I do, and make no mistakes.

·          People should always do the right thing. When they behave obnoxiously, unfairly or selfishly, they must be
blamed and punished.

·          Things must be the way I want them to be, otherwise life will be intolerable.

·          My unhappiness is caused by things that are outside my control, so there is little I can do to feel any better.

These rules here all represent absolutes held in the thinking. They  cannot be sustained or fulfilled. They are a mismatch with empirical reality and what can be delivered to them by empirical reality. When these rules or inner thinking are not met by the empirical reality, the person who holds those beliefs, will become emotionally disturbed which would also affect their behaviour. When the person is highly emotionally disturbed he/ she cannot be objective.

An understanding of what constitutes impurity is the first step that helps us understand what all needs to be taken care of to gain the objectivity necessary for owning up the freedom of the self that is revealed in Vedanta.

Once mala  taken care of more or less, there is a great deal of inner freedom, there is an inner lightness and spaciousness. Then there is discrimination between what is timeless and what is not – and a committed pursuit of Vedanta (Self-Knowledge) is possible.

Om Tat Sat

Ref.  John Turton on Understanding Irrational Thinking

POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE : VEDANTA RETREAT JULY 3-9 2014 AT RISHIKESH Under the auspices of Shri Siddhivinayaka Foundation Trust, Dehradun
SWAMI BRAHMAVIDYANANDA SARASWATI Swami Brahamavidyananda  Saraswati,  a disciple of Swami Dayananda Saraswati,  is a scholar and acharya of Vedanta and Sanskrit, is. Earlier he was an engineer by profession.  He unfolds Vedanta in a systematic, lucid manner and while retaining all of its profundity, makes it very easy to understand. As the acharya of a 3-year course in Vedanta and Sanskrit conducted at Swami Dayananda Ashram in Rishikesh, he unfolded the Sanskrit commentaries of Adi  Shankaracharya on the Upanishads, as well as taught the Bhagavad-Gita and Sanskrit. The depth of his assimilated understanding of Vedanta is apparent in his nature which expresses as touching simplicity of being, love, compassion and extraordinary patience. He  lives at his ashram at  near Vadipatti, Tamil Nadu, sharing the knowledge of Advaita, with interested seekers, in different parts of the world.	Morning Sessions EXPLORING REALITIES – SELECTION FROM PANCADASHI Unfolded by Swami Brahmavidyananda Saraswati We, the human beings, dream, seek, enjoy, judge, interact and so on. This is our life. We also seek meaningfulness in our actions, in our relating. We also seek freedom, happiness and fulfilment. In the process, we have to make choices and decisions. To make choices, one has to be empowered with an understanding  of the realities with reference to the above. An incorrect understanding or assessment does not lead to success and happiness. Many a times one’s ignorance of the realities that obtain, leads to incorrect outlook, value structure and  unwise choices,. One suffers mainly due to this ignorance and non-comprehension. Vedanta, the time tested wisdom, handed down in the form of the parampara – the teaching-learning lineage, provides us with the vision of the realities and the necessary inner strength to own the vision. In the vision of Vedanta, the truth of the individual is the same as the truth of the whole, that is to say that one’s intrinsic nature is freedom, fulfilment, meaningfulness, happiness.  Panchadashi is a well-known treatise among Vedanta texts. Sri Vidyaranya  Swami the great and renowned saint of Sringeri, is the author of Panchadashi. Embellished with appropriate analogies, cogent reasoning, patience, consistency and thoroughness, the author brings out the very essence of Vedanta, helping the person analyse and understand the vision. We will be looking into some portions of Panchadashi, which deal with exploring the realities, in our sessions.
Afternoon Sessions INTERACTIVE SESSIONS ON ‘INNER TRANSFORMATION AND  GROWTH’ With Swami Brahmavidyananda Saraswati and Swamini Tattvavidyananda Saraswati These sessions include understanding the principles of inner transformation,  gaining objectivity, action as a means for personal transformation and some aspects of sadhana. The sessions will be interactive and will provide for application of the vision with reference to : ·         one’s outlook of oneself and others, ·         assimilation of the principles of growth through  effective thinking and one’s value structure, ·         discovering the person in oneself who enjoys relating, playing roles, contributing, ·         seeing the meaningfulness and profundity of creation and living,  ·         seeing the vastness of one’s true self whereby values such as acceptance, accommodation, cheerfulness are expressed with ease and grace, ·         discovering the lightness of being, appreciating the gift of life and  love that you receive and discovering the joy of sharing this with your family and friends.	SWAMINI TATTVAVIDYANANDA SARASWATI Swamini Tattvavidyananda Saraswati is a disciple of Shri  Swami Dayananda Saraswati. After a period of study of  Vedanta for 12 years at the feet of  Shri Swami Viditatmananda Saraswati she  underwent an intensive course of three and half years in Vedanta and Sanskrit under Shri Swami Dayanandaji, at the Arsha Vidya Gurukulam in Annaikatti, Coimbatore between 1995-1998. She has since been teaching the Upanishads, Bhagavad-Gita, some prakaranas, conducting Guided Meditation sessions and  workshops on Personal Growth, since the last 15 years in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Toronto and Dehradun. Her friendly and open disposition endears her to her students.
Other Features of the Retreat Guided Meditation Yoga Chanting Interactive Satsangs at Night
Accommodation at Swami Dayananda Ashram is limited to 50 people. Register early. To register write to Swamini Tattvavidyananda vedantaretreat2014@gmail.com