Question:

Didi, please, please share with me your own experience of the Journey within Awareness/Witness. I might be there but I am not confident if it is my ‘ego’ thinking I am there. Your invaluable knowledge might help many others like me. I want to say confidently that I will meet you in your ‘Desh’ [land of awareness/knowingness/consciousness/witness]. Please, please, please!

Answer:

Sure dear, this will be a long email. Be ready with your notebook, pen and some time to slowly read through. Meet me in my ‘Desh’ girl 😉

There are 2 legs to any Spiritual Journey on any TRUE Spiritual path.

Leg 1] The Journey to the Witness

Leg 2] The Journey within the Witness

1] The Journey to the Witness:

I have spoken at length regarding the first leg of the journey in Advaita & Kabir & Japji Sahib knowledge sessions [available freely on the website https://gnyanasangha.com/ and on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSmpjZ1AyKXvzn-btEa-tog/channels

The journey to the Witness can be completed in one second for the true and sincere seeker for whom spiritual progress has Number 1 priority.

Who finds it difficult to complete the first leg?

The one who is stuck in either of the following:

• • Material level Vasanas/Desires that emerge from attachment to worldly people/situations/things.
  • Spiritual level Vasanas/Desires that emerge from attachment to spiritual sangha/guru/practices/scriptures/intellectual reasoning of spiritual wisdom.

One must be able to let go of every attachment to be able to recognize the witness, even if it lasts for a second.

1.5] Transitional phase:

Once the witness is recognized, one is bound to shuttle between the Witness [Real I] & the Ego/Mind/Intellect [Fake I] for a while. This interim phase lasts a short while for some and longer for others.

Two essential insights are a part of this transitional phase:

• • The actual experience of ‘I am NOT the body’ [not just an intellectual understanding] becomes clear.

• • The actual experience of ‘I am NOT the mind’ [not just an intellectual understanding] becomes clear.

2] The Journey within the Witness:

The journey within the awareness or the witness is the journey in the void. The term ‘Void’ or ‘Shunyata’ or has been used to describe it as most people experience the witness as a ‘blankness’. This void starts bringing invaluable insights to the seeker who has crossed the obstacles described in the first leg. Reminder – these are experiential insights not intellectual.

There is no mind in that space of witness to be able to describe the insights of the void. Only when the mind emerges from its DIP into the void, can it formulate the following descriptions of the insights from the void. I will state a few insights that can happen to you, not necessarily in this order:

Initial insights as they occurred to me, but they can occur in a different sequence for different people:

• • The void is pure energy, that is alive, that gives the ‘sense of being alive’ to everything, that’s why it is described as consciousness.

• • The void is devoid of ‘presence of mental objects & physical objects’, that’s why it is described as no-thingness or emptiness. 

• • The void is the background screen on which the [mental objects] thoughts, feelings arise, play for a while, and dissolve. The void is the background screen on which your thoughts project the physical objects, that play for a while and dissolve. That is why it is described as ‘Leela’ [Play].

• • The void is most prominent in the deep sleep state and least in the waking state, but nevertheless it is always present. Mind/Intellect/Ego might appear and disappear so they are temporary. Even the experience of the body is absent in the deep sleep state. Only the VOID exists permanently.

• • The void projects the world every morning and switches off the projection every night. This brings clarity that the waking state is not different from the dreaming state. I do not have experiential proof that matter exists. ‘Matter’ is just an assumption. It is all MAAYA [illusion].

• • The void is beyond time & space because time-space appears in this void, plays for a while, and dissolves too. This is akin to your direct experience of deep sleep where there is NO TIME and NO SPACE.

• • The void is where the mind’s cravings & aversions die. Therefore, there is ‘desirelessness‘. That is why all scriptures/spiritual masters have expressed desirelessness as a virtue that helps one get there easily.

• • The void is neutral, neither positive, nor negative, neither good, nor bad, neither right nor wrong; that is why it is the land beyond the opposites.

• • The void is where the mind’s doer-ship dies. That is how you realize that ‘I am NOT the doer’. It is all happening. It is a flow.

• • The void is all-pervading, just like space. It has no subjective or objective qualities [no color, no form, no sound, no taste, no height, no width, it is not near, not far, etc]. That’s why it is called ‘Nirgun’, beyond all qualities.

• • The void is not just limited to my inner environment, it is limitless. It is in him, her, it, there & there. We are all just a field of that limitlessness. There is no individual, personal, separate ‘I’. We are a ‘shared limitlessness’ – Anhad.

• • The void is beyond the body, it is beyond the mind, it is beyond the intellect, it is beyond what I called as ‘I’, therefore it is described as transcendental.

Advanced insights:

• • In the silence of the void, the sensations & perceptions arise first. Then an ‘I’- thought arises. It identifies with the sensation/perception and calls it ‘My sensation’ or ‘My perception’. Once the sensation/perception subsides, this ‘I’ & ‘Mine’ also subside. There is no continuous, permanent entity called ‘I’. Anatta – ‘I’ does not exist.

• • The void is not inside objects. The objects are inside the void. The objects are made up of the stuff called void. There are no objects. There is just the void. Jagat Mithya. Brahman Satyam. 

• • Just like there is no ‘I’ & there is no ‘You’. There are no ‘Others’. 

• • The new recognition of ‘who am I’ finally dawns. The I does not exist, just a single ‘we’ exists. We are the ocean of energy not limited by bodies.
    • We are a single shared Being. This single Being is itself ‘THE ONLY TRUTH OF THIS EXISTENCE’ – ‘Sat’. 
    • This single shared Being is the ocean of consciousness – ‘Chit’. 
    • This shared Being itself is the ultimate peace of the void – ‘Ananda’.

• • There is only ONE. There are NO-TWO. Advaita! 

These are a few personal insights that I have experienced in my journey. But as explained earlier, the void is inexplicable. One can only say what it is NOT. One can never describe what it truly is as it is beyond what the intellect can grasp and put into words. May this description of my journey enhance yours sweetie!

FYI – If you need a one on one personal mentorship session to recognize if you are in Leg 2, you can send your request to questions4ekta@gmail.com.

Dive into yourself with these insights, O’ thirsty bird! Come hither, I am on the topmost branch! Come! Meet me beyond the field of yes & no. I await your arrival in my country [Desh]! 

#Non-Duality