Practice self-awareness if Awareness is hard to come by

 Never mind the mind.

If its source is sought,

it will vanish leaving

the Self unaffected.

Ramana Maharshi

 

What we perceive as “self” is itself a thought, part of an intricate body-mind-world matrix. This thought self is not even stable over time, but bio-feedback systems established it as an imaginary constancy. What is stable is the perceiver/operator/creator of this matrix, which is sometimes referred to as Awareness or Self, but this statement itself is just a thought unless we experience the truth behind it. J. Krishnamurti and physicist David Bohm went over this complicated subject in a series of conversations spanning more than a decade, and David Bohm summed up the problem statement of thought disguised as a self identity well in the book, “Thought as a System”:

 

“Thought runs you. Thought, however, gives the false impression that you are running it; that you are the one who controls thought, whereas thought is the one which controls each of us and until thought is understood, better yet, more than understood—perceived—it will actually control us, but will create the impression that it is our servant, that it is just doing what we want it to do. That’s the difficulty. Thought is participating and then saying it is not participating, but it is taking part in everything.”

 

Spirituality 1.0 is the evolution of modern man with the noble mission of doing the best and most ethical thing we can with this body, mind and world that we are born into. This view of gaining control was eloquently articulated by Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius:

 

Control what you can, accept what you can’t, and navigate the chaos with wisdom, virtue and resilience. (Every Philosopher’s Philosophy in one sentence. YouTube)

 

It’s a noble mission but also a bit naïve if thought controls us while we think that we are in control instead. Modern spiritual woman comes a bit closer to the truth if she tunes into her intuition to tell her what the thought-feeling-energy is all about. Lastly, we have spiritual man who often feels that he is observing the thought-feeling-energy at work and thus has connected with Awareness that is beyond thought and self as such. Whether he actually has or not, only the environment he is in can mirror back to him. Here too, it’s easy to fall into the enlightened thinking trap where thought claims it has escaped the mind-body-world matrix for good.

 

Spirituality 2.0 is the cessation of psychological thought. It’s the end of all self identification. How to get there only God knows—maybe literally this time around! As the saying goes, if the mountain doesn’t come to the prophet, the prophet has to go to the mountain. Likewise, if Awareness is hard to come by, we can always practice self awareness.