I am always amazed by the profundity and clarity of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's words. There is a definitiveness behind his answers. To a question posed to him on the difference between Awareness and Consciousness, this is what he had to say. Most spiritual books, especially the New Age ones, use Awareness and Consciouness interchangeably. I was confused by these terms for a long long time, until I read "I AM THAT", Eckhart Tolle and OSHOs works.
Extract of a conversation with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj ('M' refers to Maharaj)
Q: You use the words 'aware' and 'conscious'. Are they not the same?
M: Awareness is primordial; it is the original state, beginningless, endless, uncaused, unsupported, without parts, without change. Consciousness is on contact, a reflection against a surface, a state of duality. There can be no consciousness without awareness, but there can be awareness without consciousness, as in deep sleep. Awareness is absolute, consciousness is relative to its content; consciousness is always of something. Consciousness is partial and changeful, awareness is total, changeless, calm and silent. And it is the common matrix of every experience.
Q: How does one go beyond consciousness into awareness?
M: Since it is awareness that makes consciousness possible, there is awareness in every state of consciousness. Therefore the very consciousness of being conscious is already a movement in awareness. Interest in your stream of consciousness takes you to awareness. It is not a new state. It is at once recognised as the original, basic existence, which is life itself, and also love and joy.
Q: Since reality is all the time with us, what does self-realisation consist of?
M: Realisation is but the opposite of ignorance. To take the world as real and one’s self as unreal is ignorance. The cause of sorrow. To know the self as the only reality and all else as temporal and transient is freedom, peace and joy. It is all very simple. Instead of seeing things as imagined, learn to see them as they are. It is like cleansing a mirror. The same mirror that shows you the world as it is, will also show you your own face. The thought 'I am' is the polishing cloth. Use it.
Source: I AM THAT, talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.
2 comments:
Useful clearing. This made me curious about this Guru, never heard of him before. Thanks and keep up the good writing!
Nemo,
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, a Jnani,lived in relative obscurity in Mumbai. Until the release of the book "I AM THAT"(edited by Maurice Frydman) many Indians had not even heard of him.
I AM THAT can be downloaded for free, from this link:
http://www.celextel.org/otherbooks/iamthat.html
David Godman, the author of more than 10 books on Ramana Maharishi and people who were liberated by HIS grace, lived in Mumbai for 2 years, to be with Maharaj. David Godman has presented a lively first-hand account of his interactions with Maharaj, on his website:
http://www.davidgodman.org/interviews/nis1.shtml
VS.
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