Eaton Satsang
You are not . . .
On the path to self-realization one encounters the obstacle of believing the long-standing notion that you already know the truth of who or what you are. Universally, that presents as a believe that you are an independent and autonomous body/mind. Nondual spiritual teachings are intended to point you toward a recognition, or realization, that identification with the body/mind is a limited perspective of reality and this brings about all human suffering.
In order to encourage the possibility of expanding one’s viewpoint the teaching often asks you to challenge existing beliefs by pointing to 'what you are not.’ You are being asked to question, perhaps for the first time in your life, habitual beliefs and a lifetime of conditioning in order that you might become receptive to the possibility of gaining a new understanding about your true self. Initially, most people find it difficult to accept these new ideas so they are repeated over and over. Quotes reveal the many ways teachers have expressed this challenge.
Quotes
The whole idea of being here is to awaken to the truth that
you are not the body, nor the mind, nor the doer, that
you are the absolute reality.
This is really the only thing you should be concerned with.
Everything else will take care of itself.
~ Robert Adams
All that a Guru can tell you is:
"My dear Sir, you are quite mistaken about yourself.
You are not the person you think yourself to be."
Trust no one, not even yourself.
Search, find out, remove and reject every assumption
till you reach the living waters and the Rock of Truth.
Until you are free of the drug, all your religions and sciences,
prayers and Yogas are of no use to you,
for based on a mistake, they strengthen it.
But if you stay with the idea that you are not the body
nor the mind, not even their witness, but altogether beyond,
your mind will grow in clarity,
your desires — in purity,
your actions — in charity
and that inner distillation will take you to another world,
a world of Truth and Fearless Love.
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
You are not your personality.
You are not your mind.
You are not your body.
These are simply tools that are used in consciousness for the fun of expression.
They have nothing to do with who you are - nothing.
You cannot be reduced to concepts.
~ Jac O'Keeffe
You are not IN the universe, you ARE the universe, an intrinsic part of it. Ultimately you are not a person, but a focal point where the universe is becoming conscious of itself.
~ Eckhart Tolle
The most important thing in life
is to wake up to who you truly are.
You are not merely a personal being.
You are the living spirit of Truth.
You are the light of consciousness revealing all.
You are the perceiving presence
devoid of desire and attachment.
You are the wisdom and love
that shines from the source of existence.
You are unborn Awareness.
~ Mooji
Thought paints a picture of past that you call, "Who you are." It paints a picture of future that you call, "Who you are going to become." But you are not thought. You are not the past or the future. Because you are not thought, you cannot find yourself through seeking, which is a dream of thought.
In seeing that the spiritual search is happening all on its own, there is the possibility that awareness will start to see it for what it really is -- a dream of thought. When awareness sees the dream of thought known as "you and your spiritual search" and sees that it is happening spontaneously and involuntarily, all of the mental and emotional effort drops out of the search. There is a natural resting into what is.
~ Scott Kiloby
It is the nature of the mind to wander.
You are not the mind.
The mind springs up and sinks down.
It is impermanent, transitory, whereas you are eternal.
There is nothing but the Self.
To inhere in the Self is the thing.
Never mind the mind.
If its source is sought,
it will vanish leaving the Self unaffected.
~ Ramana Maharshi
You are not your thoughts.
The thoughts come to you in the same way that rain falls on you.
Nor are you a thinker.
In the absence of thought, you remain.
You are not a doer, an actor.
In the absence of action, you remain.
~ Wu Hsin
You are not your body.
Your body is not you.
You are not the doer.
You are not the enjoyer.
You are pure awareness,
The witness of all things.
You are without expectation,
Free.
Wherever you go,
Be happy!
Desire and aversion are of the mind.
The mind is never yours.
You are free of its turmoil.
You are awareness itself,
Never changing.
Wherever you go,
Be happy.
~ Ashtavakra Gita (translator unknown)
You are not a mortal being who
contains an awareness. You are the Divine Awareness, itself!
~ William Samuel
You are not an individual being, let alone an individual doer.
You're not even an individual entity!
You are nothing.
You are merely a pattern of vibrating energy.
Truly understanding that, with conviction, will help tremendously.
~ Ramesh Balsekar
Why have spiritual teachers over thousands of years pointed to the idea that we are not the body?
It isn’t because you are not (now come on, you're obviously here). It’s because with body identification, we forget the spirit part. We forget that we are pure consciousness. Identifying ourselves as purely body, the mind takes itself as only form, the experience of being separate from the whole results, and suffering ensues. This is for the most part, the human condition . . . .
We are both form and the formless. We are the body, we are life, and we are pure consciousness, awareness, which everything is made up of. We are the resolution of the paradox. We are both, as One.
~ Susanne Marie
You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.
~ Rumi
Be prepared to know that you are not your thoughts.
You have thoughts.
The number is estimated to be in the region of 90,000 daily.
But they are not you and do not define you.
~ Jac O'Keeffe
You are not sad, sadness arises.
You are not humble, humility arises.
You are not depressed, depression arises.
You are not fatigued, fatigue arises.
You are not hungry, hunger happens.
You are not acting, action happens.
You are not thinking, thoughts happen.
You are a sentient, transparent screen
which cognizes the phenomena that appear on it.
~ Wu Hsin
Self-Realization or Enlightenment is nothing more than
the deepest possible understanding that
there is no individual doer of any action -
neither you nor anyone else.
Also you are not the thinker of any thoughts,
nor the experiencer of any experiences - they happen.
When IT happens, no bright lights are likely
to flash in your head!
~ Ramesh Balsekar
I can assure to you, I can swear to you
that you are not the body-mind phenomena.
I can assure to you, I can swear to you
that you are not the doer.
No matter what experience you're going through mentally,
physically or otherwise, it is not the truth about you.
You think you are a frail body
that goes through the world for maybe seventy,
eighty years and then that is the end of you, but that's not so.
You are not that body at all.
That body does not even exist.
It appears to exist. It appears to exist as the personal I.
When you investigate the personal I
you will find that there is no body, no mind, no world,
no problems, no God, no universe. You are that!
You are that absolute consciousness
which was never born and can never die.
You are that absolute reality that has always been and will always be,
the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
~ Robert Adams
Are you aware that you are conditioned?
Most people are second-hand human beings.
The truly religious man is he who, realizing his conditioning, is breaking through that conditioning.
As long as you remain within that field of the culture, of society, of greed, of envy, of achievement, you are not a free human being. You may think you have free will, but you are just part of this monstrous society, a conditioned human being.
~ Jiddu Krishnamurti
It is enough to know what you are not. You need not know what you are.
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
