There is no self-consciousness when the attention is on the Self. If there is self-consciousness it is from the position of the Self observing the self-consciousness. If you are having self-consciousness, then there is a Self that is observing the self-consciousness. When there is no self-consciousness than you are just in your natural state as Your Self.
Nothing can not be described, as soon as you describe it, it’s something. As soon as you put a label on nothing, it is something. That is why the appearance, when everything comes out of nothing and everything dissolves within nothing, there is an appearance of something, this body, this life and all the concepts that come along with this body, the ‘I am somebody else’ which starts from that sense of Presence. When I know that sense of Presence, then I want to identify what that sense of Presence is, rather than just allowing. Not thinking, not labeling, just being. Not being anything in particular because if I want to be something, then I have to create a something out of nothing.
All of this life, these forms are forming, and that power is moving all of it and all of it is contained within That. That is all there is, and That You are, That Selfless Self. Invisible, Anonymous, Unidentified, Identity. Invisible, because like Maharaj says ‘You can’t see it, you feel it.’ That feeling of the sense of Presence, and if you can feel the sense of Presence, then you are the knower of that sense of Presence. You feel that sense of Presence through body form. You can’t do that without body. You don’t know yourself, you can’t feel the sense of Presence without a body form. You have to have the instrument, which is body, that sense of Presence is arising, you can feel that sense of Presence, you are the knower of the sense of Presence using the instrument of body.
This knower, with knowingness, that knows nothing. Because there is nothing other than it to know. You don’t know yourself, there is no knower that can know anything. That is where you must have the courage, living in this body form, Be with You Always and not with the outside world and all the bobbles and dangly things that are trying to attract the attention, trying to form a knower to know those things. Things can come and go, thoughts come and go, scenes come and go, people come and go, but there does not need to be a knower being formed to know something “other”. It is not a “void” because there can be a knower of a void. Through Mantra you will see that there is nothing created, there is no form being taken, just a formless sense. A formless sense that can use hands, that can speak, that can move about, without taking any position, not using mind for labeling anything. That is the spontaniety. Spontaneous Conviction, that Selfless Self, “Oh, So That I”.
Maharaj says “Everything came out of nothing, and everything dissolves back into nothing, and in between there appears to be something.” That something is just nothing, and will return to nothing. In each moment stepping forward this is happening. Something is coming out of nothing, and going back into nothing. Something, nothing, something, nothing. No thoughts, no footprints, no sense of time, no sense of you. Nothing, not even a knower of the absense of a sense of you.
“self-consciousness” comes because I perceive “other”. First I see myself and I say ‘I am’. I am what? I am John, and then all needs all requirements come along with the body. Because I believe I am a body, then I believe you are a body, then I believe in my mind that ‘my mind’ is separate from ‘your mind’, that we are two separate individuals, then I develop a fear of you because I don’t know what your thinking. I don’t know what you are doing. When I am aware and knowing that all of this is just coming through or projected from the Selfless Self, and it is like a dream where there is just one dreamer, dreaming all of this. If I don’t know myself, I don’t know “other”. I don’t take a position as a self knowing something. So it is seen like a dream, just transitory with illusory people coming, and this body is just an illusory person, and there is only one thinker. That is the key thing, there is one. Somehow, someway interacting based on beliefs and ideas that are held about yourself, that is creating a world through mind in any given moment.
Maharaj says “All needs all requirements came along with the body” if I believe I am this body then ‘I Want, I Want, I Want.’ I want to acquire body knowledge for this body. I want to acquire possessions for this body. I want to acquire publicity for this body. Money for this body. Sex for this body. ‘I’ needs these things. Because I believe I am this body. Knowing yourself in a real sense you know there is nothing you could possibly need. Everything is appearing upon your spontaneous Presence, and all these things that are being seen, appear upon the spontaneous Presence so they must be illusion. How can this formless sense of self desire a nicer car? It doesn’t even make sense. How can this formless sense of self not be happy doing what it is doing? All of this appears upon your Presence. And in this game all of this is appearing upon your Presence so that you do know yourself in a real sense, so that you can see. So that you are smacked enough times, that you don’t desire these ‘fluffy clouds’ anymore because they are seen as ‘fluffy clouds’. You will no longer create worlds of concepts, and worlds of ideas. ‘I am a doer, and I need to do more, and congratulations I did this great thing, uh-oh this is not going as planned let’s find someone to blame, because it can’t be me’. The the thought train of concepts takes you away, and your lost deeper and deeper in the belief in the illusion and further and further away from your Selfless Self.
John Richards
Sadguru Shri Ramakant Maharaj Dakshina