Most of us recognize or strongly suspect that we are more than simply a body. Seekers, like almost all people, have the conviction or maybe a simple belief that they are something more real or profound than the lump of protoplasm seen in the mirror. The body tells us that we are hungry, but if we are fasting, the mind can override the body’s repeated calls for food. If we are a marathon runner, and our muscles ache along the way, the mind’s determination can overcome the body’s call to stop running and rest. Thus, we may be forced to conclude that we are a “something” beyond the body that is far less tangible than the body. We find ourselves holding the belief that we are the mind, or a center of awareness located somewhere in the head, that has both the mind (“my” mind) and the body (“my” body).
In the mind, we generally find our existence as more real and alive. We identify with the mind, or our mental experience, and further identify the experience as the self or “I.” We become totally involved and get carried away in what appear to be “our” thought processes and the drama of life. Very few people ever suspect or discover that a realm exists beyond the mind and mental experience.
“Mind stuff” consists of worded thoughts, thought pictures, memories, dreams, visualizations, and ultimately, our entire experience. With sufficient effort, we may be able to witness and catalog our thoughts. In Richard Rose’s terminology, we can become a Process Observer. That
is, we become someone who identifies — not with the body or with the thoughts and emotions passing through the mind — but with the awareness that is able to witness both the body and the thought processes that transpire in the mind. In essence, we become or find ourselves to be an awareness that is beyond both the body and the mundane mind as we know or conceive it.
The description of this condition pales in comparison to the sudden and stunning realization that we are watching our thought processes. Momentarily, we become an awareness that is far superior to our ordinary, day-to-day, way of being in the world. This change in perspective
generally only comes after an intense period of meditation, in which we attempt to examine our thoughts as the subject matter for meditation.
Those who find themselves suddenly able to witness their thought processes may revel in this newfound ability to “be the Watcher.” They may mistakenly believe that the goal is to spend more and more time watching their thoughts until they become “self-aware” throughout all their waking hours. As desirable as this condition may seem, it is only a step along the way to the discovery of our true Essence.
What is the next step? What can or should we do once we recognize thought-forms as reflections, or objects, in our field of awareness? We have found that thoughts arrive, and if we are diligent, we can witness them as they pass before our awareness. We reside in or identify with the awareness that witnesses thought. At some point, we will realize that thought is inescapable while we are in a human body.
Even those who have Become, or entered into Union with the Absolute, return to a thinking mind, albeit with a vastly different perspective. Any sense of a personal self is left behind when entering the timelessness of the Absolute. Upon return to the mundane world, the mind again becomes active, and the thought processes come back to life with all their confusions, conundrums, and comparisons. Unfortunately, we have no alternative while living in this relative world of polar opposites.
by Paul Constant and Michael Casari