Don't Let It Take Another Lifetime

 

 

Every time we go to sleep, in that empty space between our last thought and actual sleep, we experience our True Nature. It happens once again in the space between when the body stirs from sleep, and the moment before the first “I” thought rises. Why aren’t these daily moments sufficient enough for us to realize that who we are is the consciousness of that silent presence? Because most of us have yet to be made aware of the significance of this recurrent empty space as a quiet harbor for Truth.

 

Instead, we have been adorned with identities given to us by those we consider older, wiser, and more aware, but who also do not recognize this simple truth. 

Just realizing the inaccuracy of our mind’s ideas about who we are is enough to change our awareness in an instant! That change need not require any more devotional practices, scripture reading, sacrificial offerings—or another lifetime. You can realize it in the time it takes to snap your fingers IF you have  the lazer focus of an Advaita teacher showing you the way.

 

The Secret

Once you look in the right direction, into the space between your thoughts, the freedom you have been seeking for thousands of lifetimes can be yours. 

 

Teachings  in the Advaita tradition of Ramana and Papaji contain no complex mantras or sutras to memorize or recite, and there are no actions for you to take to achieve a goal. Instead, they begin with the premise: you already are what you are seeking: who you are is existence itself, not any identity you now assume. Your name and form are merely a costume you wear to act out a role in the play of Leela (life in 3D).

 

Instead of just accepting that you are the “person” your mind imagines you to be, with its concepts, beliefs and delusions all included, Advaita begins with the premise that you must discard all of these mistaken ideas with the simple process of neti-neti: not this and not this. That criteria used to discern the difference between what is real and what is not comes from the Sage of Arunachala, Sri Ramana Maharshi, who said: Anything that comes and goes is not real; only what is real remains when all else goes.

 

Try putting everything you believe yourself to be to that test, and see what remains that cannot be described, but continues to exist when all else has been discarded. Within the instant of that exact insight you will BE the only thing that is left: your True Self: pure awakened consciousness.