Mind and Awareness are Not the Same

Mind and awareness are not the same. This may be a truth, but it's something that we have to arrive at through our own experience. We may agree intellectually, and occasionally observe a thought or act with something like that, but for most of the time it remains elusive.

But what are the implications of what it means? If there can be something - call it awareness - that is separate from the mind, but which I still understand to be me, then it must be inevitable that the mind cannot represent me exclusively. Take it a step further and it means my mind and my self are not identical. And it is the awareness that is the means to discover that.

What is your mind to you? - something to think about

Answer these questions quickly without giving them much conscious thought.

 

You have to be completely honest.

There are no right answers.

They are yes/no answers, so you need not write them down, but you can if you like.

Awareness, Grace and Faith

There is an absolute relationship between the body and mind wherein there is a reflection of the one in the other, but each in their own language. A thought has some outlet in the body; a sensation in the body has a reflection in the mind. But understanding that relationship you need to interpret the language between the two.

The quality awareness must be very highly developed. It is the ability to be absolutely still and reflect without any interference whatever it observes. Apart from presence and discrimination, awareness is also highly intelligent in a way the intellect cannot be. While the intellect is active this intelligence remains unknown, unseen and unheard. Perfect awareness indicates a silent intellect. Therefore what it observes is seen very clearly and accurately, so clearly in fact that nature redresses the balance automatically and what we experience as release takes place.

Part 3: So What Does the Observer Observe?

As we have seen before, the Observer is the observer of both Experience and the Experiencer. In outer life, experience usually arises from interaction with the world through the senses. In the inner life, which is the particular focus of meditation, experience arises from stored impressions, what we call samsakaras. And the experiencer interacts with experience whether coming from outside, or as in meditation from those stored impressions.

Taking as usual our focus on the inner life, and therefore in meditation, and accepting that the experiencer is likely to react to any impression that arises, let us look more closely at the nature of experience. In instruction in meditation we do not usually find the instruction 'observe, be aware of, your experience'. Usually instruction is, 'become aware of your thoughts'. And it must have occurred to everyone at some stage, well what is thought then. And you might even have found yourself thinking when something outside of what you take to be thought arises, I should be being aware of my thoughts, not this.