๐๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐ญ๐ซ๐๐ฌ #013 - ๐๐๐ ๐จ๐๐ ๐ต๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ป๐๐๐๐๐๐๐
Close your eyes for a moment. Just observe what happens. Within seconds, thoughts arrive. A reminder about something pending. A flash of yesterday's conversation. A worry about tomorrow. A randomโฆ
Close your eyes for a moment. Just observe what happens. Within seconds, thoughts arrive. A reminder about something pending. A flash of yesterday's conversation. A worry about tomorrow. A random memory from twelve years ago that has no business showing up right now. The mind does not wait for an invitation. It simply produces, endlessly, like a factory that has never been shown the off switch.
And here is where most of us make the quiet but costly mistake โ we assume we are the factory. We identify completely with everything the mind produces. A fearful thought arrives and we say "I am afraid." An angry thought surfaces and we say "I am angry." A thought about being unworthy visits and we say "I am not enough." We have collapsed the distance between the thinker and the thought. Between the screen and the movie playing on it. And once that distance collapses, we are no longer watching our thoughts. We are being dragged by them.
The Upanishad speaks of Turiya โ the fourth state of consciousness, beyond waking, dreaming and deep sleep. It is described not as something to achieve, but as something that is always already there โ the pure witnessing awareness that watches all three states without being disturbed by any of them. The ancient Samkhya philosophy made an even sharper distinction โ Purusha is the pure observer, eternal and unchanging. Prakriti is everything that moves, changes, thinks and feels. We are Purusha. We have simply forgotten and started identifying with the movement of Prakriti instead.
You are not the thought that says you are not enough. You are the one who noticed that thought arrived. That noticing โ quiet, steady, unjudging โ that is closer to who you actually are.
In my next difficult moment, can I pause long enough to ask โ who is the one watching this thought? Can I find that witness even briefly?
And here is where most of us make the quiet but costly mistake โ we assume we are the factory. We identify completely with everything the mind produces. A fearful thought arrives and we say "I am afraid." An angry thought surfaces and we say "I am angry." A thought about being unworthy visits and we say "I am not enough." We have collapsed the distance between the thinker and the thought. Between the screen and the movie playing on it. And once that distance collapses, we are no longer watching our thoughts. We are being dragged by them.
The Upanishad speaks of Turiya โ the fourth state of consciousness, beyond waking, dreaming and deep sleep. It is described not as something to achieve, but as something that is always already there โ the pure witnessing awareness that watches all three states without being disturbed by any of them. The ancient Samkhya philosophy made an even sharper distinction โ Purusha is the pure observer, eternal and unchanging. Prakriti is everything that moves, changes, thinks and feels. We are Purusha. We have simply forgotten and started identifying with the movement of Prakriti instead.
You are not the thought that says you are not enough. You are the one who noticed that thought arrived. That noticing โ quiet, steady, unjudging โ that is closer to who you actually are.
In my next difficult moment, can I pause long enough to ask โ who is the one watching this thought? Can I find that witness even briefly?