Beyond Perception

Now empty, empty, empty. All of us empty. Even if there are thoughts fluttering, that's okay. Don't try to be without thoughts; let them come and let them go. Empty, not holding on to anything. In this pure perception, is there a witnessing of something beyond perception? Are you aware of that which is beyond perception without any effort? That which you're witnessing, which people are trying to grasp, but it's ungraspable. Just by dropping it all in a moment, you say, 'No, these perceptions are in front of me. I am not touched by them. They come and go in front of me.'

And please include the body sensations, everything that you perceive. So don't have this idea that you're sitting somewhere inside the body. No, put all the sensations and perceptions that you're calling the body also in the realm of perceptions. This is clear. This is the absolute reality, the Noumenal, as Maharaj would say—the Nirguna Brahman. As simple as that.

Now, hold on to any thought and try to keep that insight alive. Grab the next thought that comes over you with your belief and remain in this insight. You cannot do it. You can try, you know, you can just be like lightly, but it doesn't happen. It's like cyanide, no? It's just like the instant you go to it, finish, finish. You've taken yourself to be limited. You've taken yourself to be contracted, and you jumped over Nirguna, Saguna, all this stuff, and taking yourself to be a non-existent body-mind entity. Some weird concoction which is body and mind in some way, you see? Some entity you've taken yourself to be that has no tangibility, no reality whatsoever.

This is what we take ourselves to be. And when we take ourselves to be that, what happens? What are we then? Stuck between birth and death, uncertain future, affected by emotion, affected by events of the world, affected by all of this—chasing security, feeling guilty, feeling pride, feeling all of this rubbish. Because that one poison pawn, or like the fruit of the apple, the bite of the apple... the whole tree of conditioning seems to be there. You're nobody. Empty. Nobody. You're nobody like 'somebody' is too tiny for you. You are just a pure witnessing.

So simply apparent, but the instant you grasp—and it's not possible to do just with your attention. Like, try to do it with your attention. Be empty and just attention, attention... nothing happens, nothing changes. You are not taking yourself to be limited, you see? The minute you buy... like, you cannot believe an object. Believe this? You can only give it attention, you see? So belief is possible only for a notion, a concept. The instant you buy that notion, what happens? Literally, you can feel like that. No entity ever takes birth like that, but it feels like you are surrounded by these sensations. Instead of you being the container for the entire universe, you now take yourself to be surrounded by these bodily sensations. You feel like you're an object sitting within all of this and you have to manage your life as a bundle of flesh.