Saturday, October 22, 2022

You Are The Observer [Until You Are Not]

 Your relationship to what you see is always one of subject-object.[Until it isn't]. You are the subject, and what you are looking at is the object. There are many different objects coming in through your senses but there is only one object experiencing them-You.

Michael Singer, Living Unthethered, page 5

I added [ Until it isn't] to that quote above. I love the teachings of Michael Singer and I am so excited about reading, Living Untethered.  As I read it, I am also reading and studying, The Tibetan Book of the Dead. I am not recommending that anyone else do that, lol, but it is interesting to do so.  Of course, the basic underlying premise in both books is centered around the importance of understanding our minds where all so called "problems" or even  all "phenomena" are experienced.

Michael Singer's approach is much more practical and suited to our contemporary lives but the Ancient text has probably more depth and wisdom to it.  Singer is gently introducing us, it seems, to this wisdom in steps.  I am not sure if he is follower of Non-dual Vedanta in his yoga practice but it seems he is starting off with the subject-object duality before he gets into the truth that there is no duality between us and what we observe or experience. We need to see that we are not our thoughts, not that which we perceive with our five senses, and  that we are the observer before we see that there is no object nor a subject. It is a good starting point but we of course, cannot leave it at that. 

There is no duality between the object viewed and the observer. Without focusing on the view, search for the observer! Though one searches for this observer, none will be found. Tibetan Book Of The Dead, page 48

Michael Singer ( 2022) Living Untethered. New Harbinger/Sounds True: Oakland

Padmasambhava (composer), Terton Karma Lingapa (revealer), Gyurme Dorje (translator), Graham Coleman and Thupten Jinpa (editors)(2005) Tibetan Book of the Dead .Penguin: London 

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