Question:

Didi,
Is this the correct understanding: the body breathes naturally, the mind generates thoughts, the I-sense clings either to the thought and continues thinking, or it gets with the body and assumes it worked, cooked, cleaned, etc. I-sense is normally labeled as ego….and there is something which is aware of all the above, and it is just silent….

 

Answer:

Yes, dear, just a tiny correction there. The body does not breathe. There is either the heavy consolidation sensation called the body, OR there is the movement sensation called the breath.

• • The ‘I-sense’ knows the body arises and sets.
  • The ‘I-sense’ knows the breath arises and sets.

The ‘I’ only knows. And there can be only one knowing in any given instance. Either the body is known, or the breath is known. This is because there can be only one arising in any given instance.

• • The ‘I’ is not the body.
  • The ‘I’ is not the breath.
  • The ‘I’ does not breathe.
  • The ‘I’ mistakenly clings to the sensation of heaviness and claims ‘I am the body’.
  • The ‘I’ mistakenly clings to the sensation of movement and claims ‘I am breathing’.

These are stories created by sewing the ‘I’ + ‘sensation of heaviness’ + ‘sensation of movement’.
Adishankaracharya terms this as superimposition.

• • The false idea of ‘I am the body’ is superimposed on the ‘I-sense’.
  • The ‘I-sense’ in turn is superimposed on the Pure Consciousness field.

The ‘I-sense ‘, when identified with an arising, is Ego.
The ‘I-sense ‘, free of the illusory identification, is the Witness.

That which knows this dance of the ‘I-sense’ lies beyond. It is the Pure Consciousness, the Not-I, the quiet emptiness on which all arises, including the ‘I’.Don’t quit until you get there!

 

#AdvaitaVedanta #Non-Duality #AstavakraSamhita