What is this Knowingness? - 11th Apr 2016

Ananta, please repeat about the knowingness which the other gentleman was speaking to you about.

Let's look fresh. Whatever is being perceived right now, either what I call these external objects through the senses or internal objects perceived internally, you are aware of this perceiving, isn't it? So this perceiving of phenomena is what I call the phenomenal perceiving, and that which knows of this is the knowingness or the awareness itself. So that which knows that phenomenal perceiving, perception, is happening, and also knows when it is not happening—this knowingness is ever-present. It is prior even to presence; it is present.

It's the simplest thing to know really, but it's impossible to understand. If you try to make a concept out of it, then you cannot fathom it. When you remove all layers and keep them aside, this 'I' that cannot be removed is this awareness itself. The perceiving is happening or not happening; there is a knowing of it. This is the truest 'I'.

Then this 'I' then modulates into many different senses. It can become this sense 'I am'. The presence 'I am', the beingness, is born within the 'I' itself as 'am', as beingness. Then it becomes 'I am' that which we call the waking state or the dream state, and this I am-ness is what we call consciousness. Now this 'I am' has the ability to attach ideas to itself—the ability to pretend to attach ideas to itself. So it can say 'I am good', 'I am bad', 'I am honest', 'I am dishonest', which are just ideas actually. And yet, through the power of belief, we can play as if we are all of this.

And then when we are playing as individualized consciousness, 'I am a person' consciousness, the Jivatma, then there is potential for all of this suffering in the play, because all suffering is person-centric. So this 'I' then playing as I am-ness, and I am-ness playing as a person—this is all that the game is about, you see.