You are a conscious entity, aware of sensations, thoughts, feelings, memories, and desires. You know that you exist. But what are you? What is the real you, the thing that is aware of everything you are aware of?
Neti neti, Sanskrit for “Not this, not that,” is a Hindu meditation practice where an individual seeks to find their true self by thinking of everything they are not.
- You are not your body because if a part of your body was cut off, your awareness would not be in that severed part
- You are not your brain; you have a brain, but but your true self is not within any particular neuron
- You are not your senses. If you close your eyes do you go away?
- You are not your thoughts; if you try to quiet your mind you find your thoughts going on their own. If you are aware of your thoughts you can’t be your thoughts
- Your are not your emotions; you feel emotions, but they are not you
- You are not your memories; if you lost your memory would you still be you?
- Your are not your ego. Your ego is the illusion of separation, the story of your life and relationship to others, but it is still yet another thing you are aware of
As you eliminate everything that you are not, what are you left with? You are not anything that has form, you, the part of you that is conscious and aware, are formless.
Hindus have a concept called the Brahman, the Absolute, the highest universal principal, the ultimate reality, that which is formless, yet is the source of all form. Changeless, yet the source of all change. And that’s where Neti, Neti leads you. Back of all that you are aware of, the thing you are which is awareness itself, it is the absolute, the infinite creative essence behind reality itself.
Now I’m not advocating the Hindu religion, but there is something to be learned from it. The interesting thing is that anyone can do this mediation and if you do so honestly with a desire to find the truth you end up as the absolute truth. And there is only one absolute truth, therefore we are all one. We are all part of the eternal, infinite source of reality, yet under the illusion of separation.
We know from experiments in quantum physics verifying the Observer Effect that measurement of a particle of matter by a conscious observer forces it into a definite state. But it doesn’t matter who makes the observation, once something is observed its state becomes definite for all observers. It’s like the Universe makes note of any observation by any observer and records that as reality for all.
Alan Watts
At the very least, you are pure awareness. You are that which is aware of all that you are and all that you experience. Is this awareness God? Are you God? Is what we call God really infinite creative potential which creates reality through the collective consciousness of every living organism?
Why don’t you ask God. Why don’t you ask yourself.