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September/October 2001 Spirituality
Don't be Small Minded

by Aja

What we are is Awareness, pure and infinite. However, due only to habit and training, we identify ourselves with what is IN Awareness. All of the infinite things of the universe are in Awareness: the body, the thoughts, the emotions, the day-to-day happenings. Each of these things draws our attention and appears to create some kind of limitation. We become concerned with these things as if they are OURS. But they are just things happening in Awareness. We try to control them endlessly, whether it’s something about our body, our emotions, or the mental, social or political upheavals around us. We try to improve ourselves, as if the Self could be improved upon. We try to have power over situations and the elements, as if we were the Divine controllers. We are frustrated at every turn because the universe is not cooperating with our plans for happiness and pleasure. In essence, we are frustrated because we are associating our Self with the limitations of a body, a mind, and the things associated with that body and mind.

But here, Ashtavakra is stating clearly that we are NOT this limited version of reality. We are the Awareness itself. The moment that you let go of the concept of being or having this body, you recognize that you are that unchanging Awareness, Beingness, Consciousness. You can then recognize that this Awareness, which is what you truly are, has no specific boundaries. It is not bound by anything. It is in this Awareness that the entire universe arises. Everything is permeated by this Self, this Consciousness. In the same way that the ocean water is not separated into ‘this’ water and ‘that’ water, consciousness is not separated into ‘this’ or ‘that’ consciousness. There is not a ‘higher’ or ‘lower’ consciousness. There is only consciousness. Within this consciousness, just as in the ocean, the myriad of ‘things’ arise. Don't be fooled into separateness. These are names and forms only. Waves are only water.

When you associate with the body, the mind, the various concepts of what’s right and wrong and higher and lower, then you allow yourself to be ‘kudracittatam’ tiny minded. Why limit your Self by identifying with the smallness of individualized body mind. You are not the wave, you are the ocean itself. You would not imprison another. Why do you imprison your Self? Abandon your limitations and recognize the infinite. Don't wait for some future time to recognize what is Here and Now. Relax and let go of your concepts and be freedom itself. See what you are in this moment as Awareness. You have always been that Awareness in which EVERYTHING arises, and that Awareness permeates all things. Be happy and free. Don't be small-minded!

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