The only impediment to knowing who you are, to self realization, is mind.
Michael A. Singer
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). Then, I realized he is 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 sound Grandiose, I know, but if I could get anyone to see and believe the synchronicity that seems to connect us, maybe they would be as blown away as I am by it). 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 w ay 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 teh 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..
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.
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...
... 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? Songer answers...
Don't worry about the big things...it is all about you letting go of that suff you think you can't handle...but you can't r just ip 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 poit. When?When you succeed in going within and realizing the peace and joy of your own self".
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 nothin.g
Ultimately, no one can acheive 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 teh 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, 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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