Knowing the Self

 

 

“The witness of all things,
Awareness
Without action, clinging or desire.

Meditate on the Self.
One without two,
Exalted awareness.

Give up the illusion
Of the separate self.

Give up the feeling,
Within or without,
That you are this or that.

My child,
Because you think you are the body,
For a long time you have been bound.

Know you are pure awareness.

With this knowledge as your sword
Cut through your chains.

And be happy!

Ashtavakra Gita – The self

“Both praise and blame cause concern,
For they bring people hope and fear.
The object of hope and fear is the self -
For, without self, to whom may fortune and disaster occur?

Therefore,
Who distinguishes himself from the world may be given the world,
But who regards himself as the world may accept the world.”

Tao Te Ching – Ch 13- The Self 

Forgetting Ourselves

“The purpose of studying Buddhism is not to study Buddhism but to study ourselves. It is impossible to study ourselves without some teaching. If you want to know what is water, you want science, and scientist wants laboratory, and in various ways they may study what is water. So it is possible to know what kind of element water has, or when wind comes, what kind of form water takes, and what is the nature of water, but it is impossible to know water itself. It is same thing with ourselves. It is impossible to know what is “I.” That is why we have teaching. By teaching we will understand what is ourselves. But teaching is not ourselves. It is some explanation of ourselves. So if you attach to the teaching, or to the teacher, that is big mistake. To study teaching is to know yourselves — through teaching you should know yourselves. So that is why we do not attach ever to the teaching, or to the teacher. The moment you meet a teacher you should leave the teacher, and you should be independent. So that you can be independent you want teacher. So you study yourselves. You have teacher for yourselves, not for the teacher.”

From Zen Mind: Beginner’s mind by Shunryu Suzuki- Ch 12.

“If you could rid of yourself just once,
The secret of secrets
Would open to you.
The face of the unknown,
Hidden beyond the universe
Would appear on the
Mirror of your perception.”

-Rumi-