Where did I come from?
Parents, grandparents, forefathers…
but ultimately from where?
FAMILY TREE
Where did I come from?
Parents, grandparents, forefathers…
but ultimately from where?
FAMILY TREE
Another method of realization is reflection. A king had a dream that he became a beggar. In the dream he was pained and tortured and he was hungry and dying. In that state of total helplessness and shock, he woke up to find himself sleeping in the king's palace. His experience was so deep that it left a question in his mind – “Am I a beggar who is dreaming that I am a king” or “Am I a king who is dreaming that I am a beggar?”
Taking this forward, one can reflect and realize the truth. In our waking state, our body and mind are awake and we believe we are what we are. In our dream state, our body is asleep, while our mind is awake, and we believe we are what the mind imagines us to be in the dream. When we go into a deep sleep state, both the body and mind are asleep, and we seem to become nothing. We experience bliss in a state of deep sleep. But we know that we slept like a log. Who actually knows that we slept? The three states of consciousness – being awake, dreaming, and deep sleep – make it seem like we are three different people. In reality, what are we? A reflection on the above leads to a realization. We are the fourth one that sees the coming and the going of the three states of consciousness. We don't become any of the three states – the waker, the dreamer, or the sleeper – but rather we pass through these three states of consciousness. Who is the one actually passing through these three states?
We, the Energy, realize this truth by reflection. Just as the king was made to reflect and realize that he was neither the king who was awake nor the beggar that he was dreaming to be nor that nothingness that he became in that spell of deep sleep before he woke up in a shock. He realized that he was the Energy that inhabited the body–mind complex passing through these three experiences of a king, a beggar, and nothingness. He was neither a king nor the beggar nor the emptiness, but an energy – the fourth entity, which is the truth who passed through these three experiences.
To understand the above reflective method better, one can also reflect upon the experience of the station master. The station master's occupation calls for standing at the railway platform and flagging off the trains as they arrive and depart every day. In the morning, the Intercity Express arrives; passengers board the train, and it departs. In the afternoon, the Non-Stop Express zooms by, and he facilitates its passing by without stopping. Some hours later, the Evening Superfast Express stops and passengers disembark. He flags off the train in a few minutes. Does the station master think that he is the train that comes and goes or is he the watcher of the trains that arrived and departed? He is very clear; he is not the trains, but he is the station master.
However, our ego, mind and body confuse us to be the three states of consciousness that arrive and depart. In a way, we imagine ourselves to be the three trains that come and go and not the watcher who observes the three trains or the three states of consciousness. Reflection of who we are truly can lead to the realization that we are the watcher – the fourth entity – and not the three states that seem to come and go.
In both the above methods, through questioning or reflection, one may understand the truth and realize that one is not the ego, the mind, and the body that experiences its transitory state. While there are few who will understand the concept, most will be unable to realize the truth. This is because of our ego, mind, and body. They are the enemies of realization. They stop us from using our intellect to realize the truth.
Another method of realization is through meditation. What is the Meditation Method? It is a method wherein we focus on one thought. We slow down the thinking process and contemplate on just one idea or concept. Shutting off the body and mind from creating perceptions and thoughts and concentrating on a simple question with the intellect. Who am I? Am I this body? Am I the mind? In this method, the body and mind are both still as if asleep. Only the intellect meditates and contemplates on one point: “If I am the body, then which body am I – the body that I was born as or the body that I inhabit today or the body that will grow old and die? The body is constantly changing. So, what am I? Such contemplation can lead to realization and Liberation. Through meditation, the mind is made still. It stops wandering and focuses on the truth that helps us understand that we have a body, but we are not the body. This method of continuously probing “Who am I?” with deep concentration can lead to realization that “I am not this body. I am the energy that gives power to the body.”
Isn't it true that when we were conceived, we were just a tiny zygote – the fusion of two human cells? Life developed in the embryo. Then our body developed around the energy till finally we were delivered on Earth!
What are we in reality – the baby that was born or the fusion of the cells that initially developed as the zygote or rather still the embryo? One who realizes that one is just the energy that takes birth as the baby knows that one is neither the zygote nor the embryo nor the baby, but the life – the energy that passed through these life cycles! One will realize this only if one is committed to seeking the truth through meditation.
What happens next? The body grows. How does it grow? It grows through the food we consume, be it pizza, pasta, burger, or rice. So, are we the food that takes the body from a baby to a full-fledged adult? Of course not, we are intelligent enough to differentiate between food and us. The same “ME” grows, ages, decays, and dies. What happens at death?
At death, the body is as it is. There is no change in the form of the body but suddenly the doctor pronounces – “Dead”! Who died? What died? What happened? The body that housed the energy died. The energy seems to have departed from the body.
What are we? The dead body that lies on the floor or the energy that departed? If we are sensible enough to understand that we are the energy that departed, then why should we relate ourselves to be the body that died and further still why should we feel the pain and misery of the body that aged and decayed, which we never were? We may know this. In fact, all of us know, but very few realize what we actually are. If at death, we are not the body, then even now, we are not the body, but we don't realize this till we question within, in Meditation.
It is like somebody driving a car; the car meets with an accident. The crash is complete, but the driver is unscratched. He walks out of the accident. What does he say? He says my car crashed or met with an accident. He doesn't feel the pain that the car feels. Of course you may laugh and say how can the car feel pain? But just to understand how the driver feels, we make this comparison. He knows he is not the car. It was his car. He was the driver of the car, but he knows the difference between who he is and what the car is. Just like this knowledge, if we realize that the driver of this body and the body are different, we will not attach ourselves to the pain and misery of the body. The body may grow old, may get diseased, and will decay and die, but we don't die. This is because we are not the body. This realization can lead to Liberation!