The only impediment to knowing who you are, to self realization, is mind.
Michael A. Singer
Note: I wasn't able to edit changes on this entry I wrote yesterday when I noted the need to do so...the Blogger Page seemed to lose all its functioning? So, I cut and pasted the revised entry here as today's entry.
I listened to Michael A. Singer's podcast from a few days ago, this morning (a litle behind ...had my grandson for a few days) and I was connecting what he was saying to Pantajali's sutras and the teachings on Turiya and the other levels of consciousness, on Samskaras, and on what Patanjali called the Purusha orthe Self" or true witness consciousness (the Objective Observer as Krishnamurti coined it). Singer wasn't necessarily using these terms but I soon realized he was speaking to what I am writing about in this book I am still working on. As I was saying in the last few entries, I am struggling to to get through a chapter. The chapter I am struggling to get through is "The Building of the Samskara-Protecting Personality". This chapter is in reference to the personal mind. Now, that I am sharing that I have this knot in my gut, "Please don't tell me Michael Singer used the exact same chapter title in his last book" lol...I haven't read wisdom untethered yet...want to wait until after I finish writing this but it it is so uncanny how much he and I seem to think alike simultaneously. I wouldn't be surprised if my chapter outline happens to be lined up exactly with his book.( I sound Grandiose, I know, but there seems to be a certain synchronicity going on between us. I am not comparing myself to Michael Singer and what he has done for the world...by any means...nor am I copying him...we seem to be sharing the same ancient wisdom in our teachings...that's all and it gets a little "kooky" at times. ). Anyway, I am struggling with this chapter because it is really too long...covers so much and I know I need to break it down into a couple of chapters.
Anyway...I digress.
I see the attachment and identification to mind and body as being in the way of us understanding and falling back into who we really are. True Self-realization involves, first of all, falling back into seeing ourselves as the Purusha (though Singer does ot use this term in his podcast).
What is the Purusha according to Patanjali's sutras and other great teachings?
It is the objective observer, the pure unchanging witness consciousness. It is awareness. It is that which 'illumintes ' all things without getting all tangled up in them. The Purusha remains passive (experiences with no need to do aything about what it is observing) and detached, in a very healthy way from that which it is observing. It is Self with a big "S".
The Pursusha or True Self is infinite
How can we visualize the Purusha or Self according to Patanjali?
Imagine a circle. Inside the circle is space...outside the circle is space. The space within is considered finite, the space outside is considered infinite but in order to have finite you must have infinite. In order to be space inside the circle, there must be space outside the circle. It is all the same space. Just because the space that appears inside the circle appears to be trapped inside some man made circle ...it is still the same space that is outside. It is infinite. It is all just infinite space with this imaginary border around a part of it that we call "me"and outside that imaginary border we call me. This space is Purusha. This space is who we are. .
What stops us from falling back into it, from realizing that we are this infinite space?
The personal mind, a section of the Universal Mind, that which creates the self concept of "me", the personality with its version of "my life" and all its drama....holds us back. It erroneously believes it encapsulated a piece of infinite space and called it "me"focusing on the finiteness of it.
Why do we narrow tha powerful Universal Mind down to a tiny personal function?
To protect ourselves. The personal mind, as I write in my book, is like a heavy protective dressing we wrap around our pain inducing samskaras, the things we stuffed and stored because we felt we couldn't handle them, our wounded little me's, and it is through this bulky dressing that we then see and experience the world. The personal mind determines how we receive the sensory data we pick up, perceive it, interpret it, and how we respond to it. This becomes our "personality" all created and directed by "personal mind".
So getting back to who we really are then in the wider perspective of mind...
... It is not about stopping the mind...mind has its purpose...[We need to ask]how did it get out of tune with that and what can I do aout it?
There is nothing wrong with mind...it is a phenomenal tool, it is the greatest gift
The mind can have an abstract, intellectual function...it can go beyond the senses
The senses and our reliance on the information they pick up are in the way of the mind sticking to its pure function...
What is mind? Nothing other than the way you use it.
We do not experience the higher function of mind when we are identified with our bodies and personalities...seeing ourselves as them. As long as we are protecting our internal wounding, our impressions from being triggered and brought to the surface; as long as we are holding our old samskaras down and making new ones by resisting what Life offers ...we are stuck in personality and will not get beyond it. We need to release our samskaras.
How do we get free of samskaras?
We need to instead of resisting Life, learn to relax into it. Instead of saying "I can't handle this" we start convincing ourselves that we can.
Sure, I can see that working for things like the weather or the slow drivers in front of us, but what about the bigger samskaras like trauma wounds?
Singer answers...
Don't worry about the big things...it is all about you letting go of that stuff you think you can't handle...but you can't just rip it out
And Patanjali, in Satchidnanda's translation, teaches
"You can't just go into the mind and erase the impressions. But they get themselves erased at one point. When?When you succeed in going within and realizing the peace and joy of your own self".
So, we stuffed these samskaras and all the things we felt we couldn't handle down below our conscious awareness so we didn't have to deal with them. These samskaras are blocking the flow of shakti...that energy we are that orginates from the Purusha and Sat/Chit/ Ananda: Eternal/Consciousness/Bliss. We built an idea of me around these samskaras...we drew an imaginary circle around body and personality and called it a finite and separate me in a field of infinite space. We began grasping, clinging, and pushing away in an attempt to soothe and protect this "me" we come to believe we are, all the while denying who we really are, failing to acknowledge the space our five senses cannot make sense of. Shakti, however, continues to do what it is meant to do...move up and out in beautiful waves of circling energy. It may be temporarily blocked by all we stuffed and stored on top of it...for now...but with Life's triggering effects and its own accumulation of energy it will eventually be strong enough to push itself up...pushing the samskaras we have being trying to hold down up into our conscious awareness again. So, in the eman time Singer encourages us to avoid putting more stuff down on top of this shakti. Patanjali encourages us to go into the space that we are and see that what we are looking for out there was always within. We are that peace and joy because we are the infinite space beyond the tiny encapsulation of it that we call personal mind.
Singer also spoke of Turiya in his podacst, though he did not use that term. He spoke of the need to go beyond the senses, and then beyond the personal mind to that highest level of mind, to the state of pure emptiness, where the Awareness experiences nothing.
Ultimately, no one can achieve eternal peace by doing something with the mind, which is a part of nature [sensory input]. That supreme joy can only be acquired when you rise above nature by complete surrender. ...which "I" can say "I and my Father are One"? The pure "I" wo is univolved and free from nature. That freedom comes once you surrender yourself completely to God. Union with God is the real yoga. The Sutra's of Patanjali page39
Singer says to that,
YOU ARE NOT A HUMAN BEING, YOU ARE GOD DESCENDED AND YOU GET TO PLAY
Hmm! So much to think about.... with the abstract, impersonal parts of our minds, from the field of infinite space that we are ,of course. :)
All is well.
Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe/ Sounds True ( August 13, 2026) The Birth of the Personal Mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orm-aZp1o54&list=PLyOuAoSmZkKoESr2acNWwhznusbBkKXsT&index=2
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali as translated by Swami Satchidananda (2011) Intregal Yoga Publications.
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