SILENT MIND

What are we? Is our notion of self real? How does it come into existence? Is it the sum total of our experiences and awareness? Or is it a mere notion sustained by a few persistent memories, attachments and desires? Are we the sum total of a few selected thoughts and memories or all thoughts and memories? Are we sustained by a few aspects of our past or all our past? Do we come into existence by the association of these thought and memories, or do we exist without them? If we are a selection of thoughts and memories, what happens to us when we enter into deep sleep? Do we still exist then?

Such were the questions the Upanishadic seers explored in ancient India several thousands of years ago to know the secrets of existence. In doing so they followed a very unique method to minimize the interference of the mind and transcend its limitations. They silenced their minds and allowed the higher knowledge to manifest itself in their consciousness. We can do it even today. There are two types of knowing: knowing by knowing and knowing without knowing. In the former there is desire, effort and egoism, in the latter there is renunciation of effort and surrender to silence. Higher knowledge arises from the latter. This affirmed in the Kena Upanishad, which suggests that in knowing Brahman there is no knowing and in not knowing Brahman there is true knowing.

The deepest mysteries of our existence are hidden in deep sleep where neither the mind, nor the senses, nor the dreams can reach? Monks tried to enter into this state through silence, by withdrawing their minds and senses and practicing meditation and austerities.

Yoga was born this way. The purpose of yoga is to enter into deep silence and simulate deep sleep to experience stillness in the absence of mind and modifications. Anyone who has doubts as to the nature and origin of Yoga should pay attention to this very ancient concept of Hinduism. Knowledge comes through silence and silence is best achieved when we practice yoga. The roots of yoga are deeply embedded in ascetic traditions of Hinduism. Yoga was not a religion. It was a method which emerged from the same beliefs and practices that gave birth to the Upanishadic philosophy and countless ascetic traditions of Hinduism.

If we want to know truths that exist beyond the mind, we should silence the mind and prevent its interference. The Buddha also entered into the silence of his mind, but there saw nothing but an absence of desire and the becoming. Hence, he acknowledged the silencing of desires, but remained skeptical about the existence of an eternal and immutable Self.

When we reach that state, we will realize that the notion of self-created by our mind is not our real Self but a superficial individuality sustained by desires and attachments. There is a far deeper identity or individuality that is not of this world and not created by thoughts or desires. That is the real Self. 

When the world is asleep, the seer is awake and when the world is awake, the seer is asleep.

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