The seer is merely the power of seeing, although pure it witnesses the images of the mind. Patanjali 150 BCE
When we ask ourselves the question “who am I?” most of us get simple answers. I have recently heard; me, myself and last week a fellow told me that he knows as a fact that he is a combination of three types of bodies, very interesting. Most people look upon this question as a little crazy to ask. Yesterday I watched Deepak Chopra on his show ask this very question of a man from Jersey Shore, so it is a current topic.
Most of us get an answer that is a thought, a feeling or a physical sensation, like me, myself, this body, my feelings, etc… “I” notice all my thoughts, feelings and sensations. What we are looking for is that which is noticing, so what is that? Logically an answer that is a thought, feeling or sensation cannot be the true answer because “I” am that which is noticing the thought, feeling or sensation.
What is noticing the answer is the “seer” that Patanjali is talking about in the sutra written above. That which witnesses the thoughts, feelings and sensations of life is this illusive “I” that sages have been pointing us to for centuries as the “Self”.
To understand the logic a little better imagine that you are sitting in front of a phone, a basket and a dog, you can see and notice all three, which one is you? Clearly, you are not these things because, you can clearly see all three, they cannot be you the seer, you are that which notices these things. In the same way you notice your thoughts, feelings and sensations so they cannot be you, they are what you experience and you are the experiencer.
The seer is consciousness itself, it is pure, untouched, silent, still, unchanging and infinite. The seer has awareness of life; awareness springs forth from the power of consciousness creating the opportunity/possibility for life to be experienced. The seer is not the mind or intelligence and we can see this because the mind and intellect are constantly changing, moving and finite in scope, the seer is still, unmoving and infinite in scope.
The mind/intellect project and pursue ever-changing thoughts, feelings and sensations, but it actually is not conscious of what it is processing and presenting to the seer. A modern example would be the software on a computer has no idea what data it is processing and what it exhibits on the screen, it is the person witnessing the computer who knows what the data is. Here your body is the computer and your mind/intellect is the software.
The misidentification of the seen as the seer is spiritual ignorance, it is the product of the ego, it is the ego actually answering our original question with a strong and assertive “Me!” Clearly a thought, clearly believed but it still cannot be you.
Our problem of misidentification arises because the seer is not totally distinct from the mind/intellect because to the seer, it appears as if the images that the seer witnesses are the seer itself, it is a classic case of reflection; the seer mistakes this distorted reflection of images it sees for the real thing, the true Self.
The moon on the lake example works perfectly here, the moon’s reflection on the lake appears to be the moon on a still dark night, but if the water is touched by anything waves appear and the reflection of the moon becomes distorted. It would be ignorance to mistake the distorted image of the moon as the real moon, but for us we view the distorted reality of our thoughts, feelings and sensations as the real Self.
How did this happen? Every living thing is afraid of death, it is inherent in all creatures, for this to be true there must be a common memory of some kind.
Through the work that we do we have consistently found that in early childhood day-to-day things occur which sometimes are interpreted by pre-verbal children as threats to their lives, this is the fear of death, and the child then creates a form of defense we call a defensive construct to protect itself and to survive. These things are characterized in adults as things or aspects of themselves that they believe are uncontrollable, reactive, destructive and cause a sense of mental confusion. The key thing we look for is the confusion because, it is the pre-verbal mind of a child that created this so there is not a reference point or verbalization attached to this defensive construct, this is a huge problem because the person cannot find it or see it at all. When in session with someone and we see the confusion arise we know that this started during a persons pre-verbal years and that releasing it has the possibility of changing the persons experience of life dramatically.
We have found no one in our experience that does not have these problems. Once a defensive construct is in place, experience after experience is distorted so that we misidentify and have proof to support our belief in the non-self as the Self.
The work we do uncovers these defensive constructs and causes the mind and intellect to release them. We utilize the day-to-day things that bother or upset you as starting points and then using specific processes we drill down to find the source of the distortion. If you are interested in this kind of spiritual development please contact us at
info@designedbalance.com or visit
www.designedbalance.com.
Love yourself in every way and in every moment!