Author: Tom Das
I am not the body – I AM THAT!
Mind and Consciousness | Fully awake in Deep Sleep
Q. I have a question. If mind guides us while we are awake and in dream, and in sleep we are not conscious (because mind is switched off), doesn’t that imply mind is what we mistake for ‘consciousness’ or ‘awareness’?
Tom: Yes, that is correct. We consider ourselves to be awake/conscious in both the waking state and the dream (whilst we are dreaming) and asleep/unconscious in deep sleep.
Actually it is just the mind, ie. ignorance/duality, that is awake in ‘waking’ and dream and we are actually fully conscious in deep sleep – it is just the mind that is ‘asleep’.
This is why the in the Bhagavad Gita verse 2:69 it states: ‘What all [ignorant] beings consider as day is the night of ignorance for the wise, and what all [ignorant] creatures see as night is the day for the introspective sage.’
Also see:
Ramana Maharshi on Deep Sleep and Self-Realisation
Ramana Maharshi: the method of wakeful sleep (Jagrat Sushupti) to attain liberation
Neti-Neti is not Self-Enquiry | Ramana Maharshi – The 5 Sheaths (Pancha-Koshas)
For more on this topic see this article
Neti-Neti means ‘not this, not that’. Who am I? What am I? Not this, not that. In this context, this and that refers to objects, any object that arises. Notice, when you say neti-neti, not this, not that, it’s the mind saying it. Ramana makes this point, he says when you do neti-neti, you can only do so up to the mind. He’s talking about the teaching of the five sheaths.
This video was recorded live during a Satsang meeting with Tom Das and put together by volunteers.
To see all the guided meditations see the ‘guided meditation’ playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/c/TomDasNonduality/playlist
For recommended reading for liberation see here: https://tomdas.com/2020/10/19/recommended-reading-books-for-enlightenment-liberation-and-self-realisation/
To attend satsang, see here: https://tomdas.com/events.
To book a 1 to 1 session with Tom see here: https://tomdas.com/nondual-spiritual-counsellor/
What is the best way to deal with suffering? | Spiritual Bypassing | Vasanas and conditioning
There are two basic paths you can take with suffering. One is pure Self-Enquiry, and just like any other phenomena that is arising, you say “To whom does this occur? To me. Who am I?, in order to direct your attention away from the suffering and the thoughts and go back to the Self.
However, with strong vasanas, strong suffering, you may need to go into Maya and solve these on the level of cause and effect. Just like any other practical problem in life, we can try to solve them on the level of life.
This video was recorded live during a Satsang meeting with Tom Das and put together by volunteers.
To see all the guided meditations see the ‘guided meditation’ playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/c/TomDasNonduality/playlist
For recommended reading for liberation see here: https://tomdas.com/2020/10/19/recommended-reading-books-for-enlightenment-liberation-and-self-realisation/
To attend satsang, see here: https://tomdas.com/events.
To book a 1 to 1 session with Tom see here: https://tomdas.com/nondual-spiritual-counsellor/
The Perfect Set Up for your Spiritual Practice (Sadhana)
Practicing while engaging in the world…
This video was recorded live during a Satsang meeting with Tom Das.
To attend satsang, see here: https://tomdas.com/events.
Is there really an ‘I’ to be found? Tracing back the ‘I’
To the jiva, the individual, a pointer to It is the word ‘I’. It’s like this – if you go into the woods and you take a ball of wool with you, as you walk through the woods, you unwind the wool to leave a trail so you know the way out again so you don’t get lost. The ‘I am’, the ‘I’, is like the ball of wool that you follow to lead you out of the dark forest of ignorance.
This video was recorded live during a Satsang meeting with Tom Das and put together by volunteers.
To attend satsang, see here: https://tomdas.com/events.
Why you should write everything down
Intense fear during meditation, when staying with the I AM
Dealing with deep layers of fear and conditioning
Q: Sometimes when my meditation becomes very deep and I stay with the I Am, there comes a sense of the whole world becoming very dark together with a sense of losing myself into something really bad and dark. My body starts to react strongly as well, and it feels like some kind of primal fear arising.
This video was recorded live during a Satsang meeting with Tom Das and put together by volunteers.
To attend satsang, see here: https://tomdas.com/events.
How can any enquiry initiated by the ego reveal the ego’s own unreality? Sri Ramana Maharshi
Devotee: How can any enquiry initiated by the ego reveal its own unreality?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: The ego’s phenomenal existence is transcended when you dive into the Source wherefrom arises the aham-vritti [I-concept].
D: But is not the aham-vritti only one of the three forms in which the ego manifests itself? Yoga Vasishtha and other ancient texts describe the ego as having a threefold form.
M: It is so. The ego is described as having three bodies, the gross, the subtle and the causal, but that is only for the purposes of analytical exposition. If the method of enquiry were to depend on the ego’s form, you may take it that any enquiry would become altogether impossible, because the forms the ego may assume are legion. Therefore, for purposes of jnana vichara, you have to proceed on the basis that the ego has but one form, namely that of aham-vritti.
D: But it may prove inadequate for realizing jnana.
M: Self-enquiry by following the clue of aham-vritti is just like the dog tracing its master by his scent. The master may be at some distant, unknown place, but that does not at all stand in the way of the dog tracing him. The master’s scent is an infallible clue for the animal, and nothing else, such as the dress he wears, or his build and stature etc, counts. The dog holds on to that scent undistractedly while searching for him, and finally it succeeds in tracing him.
The teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi, Maharshi’s Gospel. Chapter VI ‘AHAM AND AHAM-VRITTI’
Tom Das 