Question:

Will the thoughts cease with the Advaita knowledge of being the Witness?

Answer:

There is Peace when you take the stand as the Witness but the Peace itself is not silent. The thoughts still continue to arise from this Peace, just like waves arise from the ocean. You just develop the skill of ‘not associating’ with the noise of the thoughts when you realize that you are beyond the mind.

The thoughts, feelings, sensations, and perceptions continue to arise because they are nothing but the body-mind-world. They are programmed to continue until their shelf-life. The only difference is that when you take a stand as the witness, you learn to dissociate from them. This throws you back into nothingness which is simply Peace [your own true nature].

Peace is not equal to ‘absence of thoughts, feeling, sensations and perceptions. That is the definition of Death of the body-mind.

Please understand, when you expect that the noise of the thoughts will reduce by you taking a witness stand, you are actually saying that when the dream character recognizes that he is the dreamer’s mind, then the dreamer’s mind stops thinking and creating thoughts. It is impossible for the dream character to dictate anything to the dreamer, do you realize that?

When I use the term Silent Witness, it does not mean that there is silence in the mind. It simply means that the mind continues to have its thoughts, like waves lashing around, BUT I-the-Witness have chosen to become silent instead of associating with the thoughts. Hope this is clear.

#AtmaNirvriti #AtmanandaKrishnaMenon #AdvaitaVedanta #Non-duality #Nisargadatta Maharaj