Is it the witness or a blank screen manufactured by the mind?
Question:
Is it the witness or a blank screen manufactured by the mind? Is Manolaya the same as the blank screen manufactured by the mind? How do I get out of it?
Answer:
You will know very clearly if there is someone watching the blank screen or not. If there is a watcher of the blank screen, then you know it is created by the mind. You are the one watching the blank screen. it. If you recognized there is a watcher/witness/observer, it is Manolaya.
What is Manolaya?
Manolaya means temporary masking of thoughts, feelings, emotions, images, etc. It is a blank screen manufactured by the mind. As it is manufactured and not the real witnessing background, it is temporary. The thoughts will come rushing back.
It doesn’t matter if the mind creates it. It is also good that for some time the mind has decided to shut up. It is not barking out thoughts, emotions, images, at you at least. So be grateful for that too. 🙂 But please understand this is just one temporary stage of the mind which we will learn in Buddha’s Jhanas. You are beyond this blank screen. You are the witness.
What do I do with this blank screen?
When you recognize the blank screen, there is no need for any aversion towards it, you do not need to get rid of anything. Space does not negotiate. The witness is like space. It does not negotiate.
Relax and sink back into the witnessing background. You are that witness itself. Sink back into yourself. You don’t have to become the witness, you already ARE the witness.
How do you sink back?
It is just a matter of ‘attention’. Take your attention away from the creativity of the mind and sink into yourself, dear. This is called Manonasha [destruction of the mind].
Keep it simple, girl!
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Thanks Ektaji, for the detailed explanation. I would like to clarify my experience. At the time of witnessing (with mind stopped for a short time), I experience only a void. There is no I-thought or thinking I am witnessing. When I look back upon it, I say that there was a witness watching the void. That recognition of the watcher/witness/observor is only upon retrospection ( by inference). Would this be witnessing or manolaya? Thanks!
When you are in the Knower, the knower knows that the mind id reading these lines. Knowing cannot be an afterthought. Knowing happens in the present moment. When there is no-thought, you are then the pure witness of the absence of thought[mind]. The Witness itself is the present moment in which the mind arises and sets. Don’t try to find another entity called the witness or the knower dear. It is the space in which the mind and the body arise and set every single day.