“There is a river of thought-waves. Everyone is being washed downstream. Everyone is clinging to these thoughts and being washed away… Just give rise to the single thought, “I want to be free.” … The entire population of the planet is moving downstream… I call this thought of freedom going against the stream and towards the source … This thought will take you to freedom. It is the most rare thought… Out of the entire population, only a handful give rise to this thought.” – W.W.L. Poonja (a.k.a. Sri Poonjaji or Papaji – Advaita Vedanta or neo-Advaita guru or master who lived and taught in India through the 20th century. Papaji was guided to his enlightenment by Ramana Maharshi and became teacher to such popular contemporary spiritual teachers as Gangaji and Mooji.)
Advaita Vedanta and its rather Zen-like off-shoot, Neo-Advaita, are non-dual schools of spiritual teaching which tell us, as does Buddhism, that enlightenment, or the realization of the unity of all, is our natural state. It describes the Universe beginning as consciousness prior to form with infinite creative capacity. This force is named Brahman and gives rise to the material universe which is animated and infused with the spirit of Brahman. This is the One Consciousness giving rise to the multiplicity of forms and as it flows through humans is named Atman, roughly the equivalent of “soul.” Brahman is, from a Western religion perspective, the equivalent of God, yet is formless, unknowable, not to be petitioned, for Creation is perfect as it is, manifesting an evolutionary dynamic shaped by the laws of karma, interconnectedness, interdependence, and impermanence. This is the core, the eternal essence, of all “things.” This is particularly relevant to humans, for humans, with their complex mental structure, create a sense of self, known as ego, which experiences separateness, and uses the creative power of consciousness (thought) to generate a false sense of self in a false world of human construction that gives rise to great imbalance and struggle. This is called “dukkha,” a kind of unnatural mental suffering.
The Western religions teach that we are “fallen,” experiencing separateness from God, that we are hopelessly sinful and can only have salvation through God’s grace. The Advaita and other non-dual traditions, including the mystical traditions of the Western religions, reject this separateness as illusion caused by ego. Both Buddhism and Advaita tell us we are searching for what we already are, chasing after illusions of spiritual salvation and realization in complex dualistic theologies and rituals, when what we seek is our own perfect essence – Atman, Soul, or True Self, which we cannot not already be. As is taught by the mystics of all non-dual traditions, our “salvation is in rediscovering this essence, yet even in our searching we are confused by our dualistic egoic minds, searching for what we think we do not have. The “freedom” that Papaji is calling us to is to be free of the bondage of the illusion of separateness – from each other, from the manifest world, and, most importantly, from our Source, from Brahman, from God. Ultimate meditation is in realizing our true Self – Atman manifesting within the Unity of Brahman.
In the Vedantic traditions, there are two Sanskrit sayings which are meant to remind us of this Truth. They are, “Namaste” – “The Divine within me recognizes the Divine in you,” and “Tat Tvam Asi” – “Thou art That,” with “That” representing the Divine Creative Principle, or God, which also applies to all that is manifesting in the world. In other words, God is everywhere, and God is our True Self, and this is so for every person and every form and aspect of this world. Everywhere we look and every person we encounter, when seen through enlightened eyes, is God manifesting. To break free of the river of thought is to break free of the illusion of separateness and to realize in the silence of our original energy of consciousness that we are never separate from Source and all that is. This is the true spiritual experience and perspective. You know this because you have experienced it – you probably just did not realize it when it happened because your social and religious culture does not recognize it. There on a mountain top or gazing over the ocean, playing with a child or a dog, working in your garden or wood shop, painting or dancing, whenever you are truly experiencing love of a person or experience, when there is no thinking about what you are doing and you are 100% present, connected completely, feeling love or joy (which are pretty much the same thing), there you are.
The creative gift of humanity, the egoic capacity for thought, has taken an inappropriate place in the evolutionary development of humanity. It has confused this “river of thought-waves” ABOUT being a person for who we are, our “self,” and as the voice of truth. Thoughts have taken the center stage of our lives, individual thoughts creating “my world” and collective thoughts that create societies and cultures. Since these thoughts are not truth but rather constructs which can be any foolishness or cleverness, the difference between my thoughts and your thoughts, our social/cultural thoughts and your social/cultural thoughts create division, disagreement, and even conflict between me and others and among identity groups. The most damaging existential thought ever created was “others,” and the conflict this creates both within us and in our lives is the source of all the unnecessary suffering humanity experiences and inflicts.
When Papaji calls us to the thought, “I want to be free,” he is calling us to let go of all concepts, all thoughts about life and who we are, to stand in the vastness of existence as a free consciousness. This is the purpose of true meditation. It is to see that our greatest affirmation is to be presence, the presence of the energy of consciousness, the primal energy of the Universe, of Brahman individualized as Atman. He is calling us to discover ourselves as Atman, prior to becoming Bill or Jane, words that call forth a stream of thoughts ABOUT being a person in the world of our society and culture, all macro-egos, telling stories, passing them off as if they were absolute truth. Of course, they are not. We Americans (a thought story) cannot even agree on the story of being an American in the 21st century, which, of course, is very different from the thought stories of being an American in the 19th century. Yet, everyone acts as if their thought stories are true, and that other’s thought stories, if they disagree with my thought stories, are wrong. The absurdity of it ought to humble us. It ought to bring us to silence. Silence is freedom. It is the beginning of true inquiry and true observation. So, the advice of the guru is to “stop.” Stop telling yourself the stories, stop believing the stories. Go back to the beginning, look into The Silence for Atman, look to discover what it means to be consciousness materializing into the world. As the great Zen Master, Dainin Katagiri, would say, “Just stand up in the Universe,” to “be the Moment arising” in/as “wholehearted presence.” “Your existence is not just in the small scale of the world – it is vast”
In free consciousness we realize we are on a planet with a complex ecosystem belonging to a species with advanced cognitive abilities which are just complex enough to create great confusion, and the species has not yet figured out how to use these cognitive abilities to live in harmony within its ecosystem. Rather, the species uses these cognitive abilities to compete and acquire and to consume in unbalanced ways, living in conflict with each other and with all life-forms sharing this planet. We are even in conflict within ourselves, in great confusion about the stories our cognitive abilities tell us, stories full of contradiction and foolish self-centeredness and self-importance. We are mentally ill on an epidemic, mass scale, for we do not know who we are or how to live harmoniously.
Papaji asked whether we want to be free of this mental illness, and if so, then you must want to be free, and you must ask the primary question, “Who am I?” Papaji’s next questions were “Who is asking the question?” and “Who is this ‘I’?” Hopefully such questions stop you, the intellect having no satisfactory answers to such questions, and if it does, they are just more of the story-spin of our egoic conditioning. These questions must be entered through the silence of original mind to discover the vast intelligence of this not-thinking mind which connects us to great truths. This Silence is the mind of Atman, That which looks and listens with primal curiosity, the Universe exploring and experiencing itself. And of course, it DOES know who you are. You are everything and everything is you. Namaste, Tat Tvam Asi. And a great peace and loving compassion arises. In such a moment, you are free of doubt and conflict. You are home.
Then….. the thoughts of me and my world return and it as if a great dimensional contraction takes place and we are back, lost in our story, our anxiety and ambition, our doubt and false certainty returning. Getting lost and returning is our practice. If you truly want to be free, you must become diligent at noticing being lost in thought-stories and stopping to return to silent presence. You must again search out the silent witness that sees the stream of thought stories and does not attach to them, just lets them pass through the witnessing consciousness of awareness, rediscovering “I am That.”