Truce
Intuition:
Thought is the movement of mind that hijacks awareness. It’s an evolutionary tool that helped human species get to where it is in Nature. Our collective ego assumes that we are the most advanced species on the planet because of our ego driven human centricity. There is no objective way to prove that humans are really the most ‘advanced’ form of consciousness on the planet. We see the entire universe via the lens of our thought, and paint a projection that is in tune with what our thoughts can process.
Quieting the mind gets rid of this core human centric ego thinking, which can be called the collective ‘I’. Applied individually, this can result in shedding of egoic layers to our personality, which in turn is nothing more than an intricately layered structure of thoughts. Each event in our lives, from early childhood , adds a thin layer of this egoic ‘I’ sense that gets thick over the years, like the bark of an old tree.
There is a very simple practice that Papaji talked about which can help chip away at these egoic thought layers that we call ‘I’/ ‘Me’. [The following is what my intuition feels he is trying to communicate]
Step 1: Catch yourself thinking a thought. Let’s call it thought ‘A’.
Step 2: Just watch the automatic process of thought ‘A’ grabbing your awareness and taking hold of it. No need to push the thought away or fight this process from happening.
Step 3: The thought , as if getting embarrassed of being put in the spotlight by your Awareness, slowly melts away into nothingness.
Step 4: There is this brief moment of quiet, this gap, before the next thought ‘B’ emerges automatically to fill that gap and the cycle starts all over again as you persist with this method.
Now, this might seem like a futile attempt to break your addiction to thought, but with enough repetitions, this methodology can start increasing the gap of ‘quietude’ between Step 3 and 4. As this gap increases in your sense of time and space, there is an opportunity for your Awareness to put the next layer of ‘I’ness up for enquiry , the root of all your thoughts:
Step 5: Use the following thought to fill the gap , instead of waiting for the next thought to emerge on its own - “Is there any real difference between the ‘sense’ of ‘I’ or ‘Me’ AND any other thought that your mind automatically generates?”
The hollow silence of the gap will echo back a resounding ‘No’ as an experiential Understanding instead of a thought based in language or logic. A feeling that is generated when one touches their true Being.
Over time, one can instantaneously access step 5, put forth the enquiry and touch the freedom. As you dip your feet in this ocean of freedom again and again, your mind gets weakened to a degree where it becomes like any other useful tool or organ in your body. Something your Awareness calls for use when the natural need arises, just like you naturally put your legs to use to stand up and walk when you need to, or when your stomach swings into action natually after it’s filled with some food.
This ‘Truce’ between your mind and your Awareness, where your Awareness can again shine through the thought clouds that have kept it blocked, is probably the most ‘practical’ way of being at peace.
Root: