You are not phenomenal objects, but consciousness itself, the animating consciousness which provides sentience to the sentient being; further, that you are consciousness only in manifestation, but truly you are that which is prior to consciousness itself, you are Pure Awareness. Is it not simple enough to understand, that a mere object, an appearance — which is all that a physical body is — cannot possibly perform any action whatsoever as an independent entity? It is only when the Impersonal Consciousness, in its total functioning, manifests by objectifying itself and becomes identified with each object, that the concept of the personal ‘I’ comes into being. This concept is the source of ‘bondage’, the objectivizing of ‘I’ the pure subjectivity, into an objective ‘me’. It is this ‘me’ — the I-concept, or the ego—which is the imaginary bondage, from which liberation is sought. A clear perception of what constitutes the sentient being that is seeking liberation will show how ludicrous the whole idea is. The body itself is nothing but the growth of the male sperm which gets fertilized in the female womb; the foetus is the essence of the food consumed by the parents, and in it consciousness is latent. If it is now clear that what we appear to be is nothing but the essence of food, may I ask, which particular grain of food you want to liberate? Which particular grain of food, or which of the five elements, food being the essence of the combination of the five elements, are you identifying yourself with?
”Awakening, or enlightenment, or liberation is nothing, absolutely nothing other than apperceiving profoundly, deeply, intuitively that what we are — that-which-is-here-now — is the absolute absence of whatever is imaginable or cognizable; which is the same as the absolute presence of the Unknowable Potentiality.
Can any question arise which does not have at its centre a ‘you’ or a ‘me’ as an individual — seeing or not-seeing, understanding or not-understanding, doing or not-doing? It is always a ‘me’ that is concerned. Hardly ever is it the thing seen, or the matter understood, or the act that happens. Whenever there is Para-Vritti, a complete and total change-over, a ‘metanoesis’ has happened, the change-over has not been ‘done’ or ‘achieved’ by any entity of its own volition. It is this fact, that is not realized. What is not realized is that there can be no entity which has directly, volitionally caused the change-over! Indeed it is the apperception as such (not by any individual) of this very fact that brings about the essential annihilation of the ‘you’ — the seeker — and achieves the sort of vacuum, a ‘fasting’ of the mind, which invites the presence that is the real ‘you’ (‘I’, not ‘me’). This is how the transformatory adjustment happens or comes about. It cannot be achieved. Do understand that objects and their Gunas (attributes) are not subject and object, as perceived by the senses and interpreted by the mind, but that all are objects, including human beings, mere appearances in consciousness — and finally, therefore, objects cannot and need not be ‘liberated’.
– Nisargadatta Maharaj
Happiness is not something to be pursued and achieved. It is one’s natural state.
The Greek word ‘metanoesis’ implies changing the mind, but means transformation of mind. Transformation happens.
The Sanskrit word for it is paravritti, meaning turning around at the deepest level of the heart-mind. Paravritti tells the seeker-ego, that happiness is not something to be pursued and achieved. It is one’s natural state. Ultimately happiness means not something in the flow of life, it is the attitude to life — paravritti or metanoesis. And the most important point about it, is that there is no “doing” in it. It is a pure happening.
– Ramesh Balsekar
”As long as there is you doing, it makes no difference whether there is doing or not-doing – for both are doing by you.
Paravritti, metanoesis, the ‘180 degree turn-over’, is not a turning over by a ‘doing or not-doing’ you, a turning from positive to negative; it is not done by ‘a you’. It is not done by any other ‘entity’ either. It is not done at all.
It is the timeless, unceasing prajnaic functioning of our dhyanic non-being that becomes phenomenally present when there is neither doing nor non-doing, i.e. when there is ‘fasting of the mind’.”
– Wei Wu Wei
“When energy turns in—what Buddha calls paravritti, the coming back of your energy to the source—suddenly clarity is attained. Then you can see clouds a thousand miles away, and then you can hear ancient music in the pines.”
― Osho