Question:

Dear Ektaji,

After struggling for many days/attempts I could settle down my mind today taking my attention away from whatever my mind was creating. After a while, a sense of silence overtook me. My being had this kind of overtaking before but I was so happy that something happened that I came out of it. Today when that sudden silence came over I remembered your words to bear the silence so stayed there without reacting, stayed for a long time but the sense of being was still there watching, hunger pangs came I did not react, just the silence remained for a long time, but the curiosity to write this email brought me out of it. Is the experience genuine or mind created?

Answer:

The mind can create everything except the absence of itself – Silence!

Only when there is utter silence, then you know that the state of no-mind truly happened. Congratulations dear.

This kind of state of no-mind gives encouragement to a spiritual seeker that he can get there on his own without the assistance of any external support. Now draw inspiration from this and keep moving. P.S. Even if you are using Buddha’s directions to get there, his techniques are still just silent [non-guided] meditations. So actually, you got there through your own perseverance and power to bear the silence with Buddha’s encouragement. Great job!

What’s next?

The goal is not to remain in no-mind forever. That ‘forever’ isn’t possible while in the human body.

The goal is to attain wisdom by self-exploration of the state of mind v/s no-mind. Explore and recognize what do you refer to when you use the word ‘I’.

When is this exploration to be done? 

In that silence of no-mind, notice if there is anything called ‘the body’? is there anything called ‘the mind’? This is called Self-investigation [Atma-vichara].

What is a true self-investigation?

Let the recognition dawn on you naturally, don’t fake-believe it just because scriptures or teachers say it. You explore and find the truth within yourself.

What needs to be investigated and confirmed in the silence [no-mind state]? 

1] Check whether it is your own experience that ‘I’ am that silence, that no-mind.

2] Check whether it is your own experience that ‘I’ am not the body.

3] Check whether it is your own experience that ‘I’ am not the mind.

4] Check whether it is your own experience that ‘I’ rises after the sensation arises. Then the ‘I’ attaches itself to the sensation and says ‘I am this’.

The repetitive exposure to the state of no-mind, reveals similar insights.

When you see this phenomenon repetitively, it becomes crystal clear that ‘I’ is merely a thought that rises and falls like any other thought. It is not a continuous entity. It gives a false sense of continuity because of rapid successions, just like the fast train gives an illusion that it is one single box passing by. 

Great job! Silence/No-Mind/Void is your new friend. Keep chugging!

#AtmaNirvriti #AtmanandaKrishnaMenon #AdvaitaVedanta #Non-Duality