Imagine you are sitting in an indefinitely moving train that has no windows or doors! As long as you’re in the train and moving along with it, you cannot be aware of anything outside of it. What you see in the train becomes your world, and what is beyond it cannot be perceived as long as you don’t break out of the train. This train is the web of time and you are stuck in the train due to ignorance because you believe very firmly that you’re the one sitting in the train. Unless this belief is shattered from the root, you cannot realise that the entire train and all of what you see in it are happening within your own being - the being that is merely a witness of activity perceived through the senses. The senses are the ones that separate the creation from you, so you can experience the illusion of something happening outside of you with you being the epicentre of all drama. It is only when the ‘I’ exists that the word ‘Mine’ becomes possible. Ironically why this separation exists is only something that can be known when there is no questioner.
Thoughts gain energy from the core belief that you exist as a body, i.e. the premise of you being a separate entity seeking everything to be in your favour. If you did not give yourself the weightage that you’ve always been seeking, the false sense of you or the ego would never solidify itself and create more drama for you. As long as the ‘you’ engages deeply in the drama (by choice), you cannot feel the emotions that you derive. You need to be standing out of the room with glass windows to completely see what is happening in that room.
The nature of putting yourself at the centre stage is what creates all trouble - this is exactly why we tend to immerse ourself in the movies and feel the emotions. At the moment you feel the emotion, you don’t even remember in that moment that you’re just watching a movie! This is exactly what is happening in the so called real life too! Emotions arise because we want all ideal things to happen to us and to our beloved, even while we can clearly see the fact that the world we live in is not fair, and that there’s no rationale or a defined logic that ensures eternal happiness. Is there anyone in this world who has gotten all their material wants addressed one after the other without any room for disappointment? And yet we want to jump in joy when something happens in our favour and cry when it doesn’t.
Truth can never be known because knowing is an aspect of the human mind which is a manifestation of the ego. There must be a knower to know something. It is the mind through which we can see ourselves as a separate one. So unless we completely witness the mind, its activities, and it’s false creations, how can we detach ourselves from this moving train of time and realise who we really are? The only way to do it is to see that we are not what we really thought we were.
Mere observation is when the mind has no say in what has been perceived through the sense organs. That’s why they say ‘you need to see it to believe it’.. beliefs are only shattered when we realise that all our beliefs are incorrect. And the belief of the false ego is completely shattered only when all of the false knowledge is wiped out, including the knowledge of being a separate entity.
Being constantly aware of the mind and its tendencies slowly helps with enhancing your ability to merely observe without mind creating any aberrations, i.e get an as-is view of what is and not what you believe it to be. The constant effort to observe and question each and every tiny action we do, helps us to understand the nature of the human mind. As the practice intensifies, so does the ability to see more of the reality. Human consciousness is like a bubble that is of varying sizes - a person that can observe more with a stable mind has a larger bubble than one that gets easily carried away with their thoughts. Bigger the bubble, lesser the ignorance and higher the ability to control their life.
When the bubble of consciousness is small, mind and it’s tendencies will have a larger role to play in terms of their actions, decisions and behaviours. This is why they say never take a big decision when under the strong influence of any emotion. In a state of strong emotion, the ego is highly solidified, and hence the ability of seeing or accepting the truth diminishes. The emotion alone drives the action, there won’t be any rationale involved. The lesser the ego, the higher the ability to see the truth. One who can separate themselves from the stage can always take a neutral stance and can take a best course of action in a controlled manner.
The only way forward if we were to help ourselves (more than anyone else) is to be aware of the happenings inside out and become the mere witness to all of it and enjoy the movie without becoming a character in the show. See the movie as if you have nothing to do but do all that you can do to help the characters in whilst being aware that you are not the player of the game.
Stay out of it, but be an actor in it, and wait for your turn to jump out of the train!!
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