The following dialogue has been selected from transcripts of Satsang with Nick Gancitano.
[/cmsms_text][cmsms_toggles mode=”toggle” animation=”flipInX” animation_delay=”0″][cmsms_toggle title=”Why Self-Inquiry? (Video)”] [/cmsms_toggle][cmsms_toggle title=”Other than Self-Inquiry, what is the essential teaching at The Self-Inquiry Center?”]Nick: Surrender to God is knowing that All Is Consciousness and that All is Just Happening according to the will of God. If All Is Consciousness, then the ‘All’ must be Do-ing it All: thinking, acting, feeling, experiencing pleasure, suffering and even getting enlightened. It is simple, if the One Consciousness is everywhere, then everywhere must be doing everything.
[/cmsms_toggle][cmsms_toggle title=”How can I end identification with the body?”]Nick: Recognize that You are not a person.
[/cmsms_toggle][cmsms_toggle title=”What is meditation?”]Nick: Meditation is effortless witnessing. Open your eyes. Notice that seeing is occurring without effort. When I say it is occurring, I mean it is happening without volition. You do not need to try to see. Eyes open will do. And you cannot stop seeing either, because it is not up to you. If your eyes are open, seeing is inevitable. Awareness is constantly happening. Awareness permeates the “I am this body” idea and the surrounding environment. Awareness is always there. The light of your awareness is always switched on, so even when you are not trying to be aware of an object, you cannot turn awareness off. Even if you try to stop seeing what is before you, you cannot. Even if your eyes close, you will go on seeing darkness on the inside of your eyelids.
Witness, as seeing occurs. Witness, as listening happens. Close your eyes and listen to the sounds surrounding you. You are not inviting sounds in, but they are there and your consciousness is filled by them. There is nothing you can do, but watch them enter you. Even earplugs will not work, because you go on hearing the sounds in your head: tasting, chewing, swallowing, talking. You are helpless. They penetrate you and you can feel them through your entire Being. When you are seeing or listening, you do so with your whole Being. When you experience, you experience with your full awareness. Try only to realize that IT is all happening effortlessly. Realize you are the awareness, that you are not separate from IT. Relax into this happening and all effort disappears. This is meditation.
When seeking ends, you become liquid and the whole universe flows in you. Then the I, or pure unconditioned consciousness, is all there is. It is immovable, still. This motionless I-consciousness is the screen through which the mind’s drama unfolds. The world of things is a vapor in that consciousness, which feels steady as a boulder. This effortless witnessing is meditation, it is God. It is You. You then discover that You are really a nothing pretending to be something. You are the non-physical married to the physical, seamlessly interwoven.
Questioner: So then effortlessness is witnessing?
Nick: True. With meditation you are not doing anything. Not even actively witnessing, because it is just happening. It is unavoidable because you are awareness witnessing itself. As such, you’re never actually doing anything, including meditation. The paradox is that so long as you believe you have volition, you have no more control over your body than a cloud has over the sky it is in.
Questioner: Then what is Self-Inquiry?
Nick: It is the sense of Being, knowing what always Is.
Questioner: That’s a bit simplistic, what you mean by sense of Being.
Nick: Imagine being in a dark room, where you cannot even see your hand in front of your face. There are no windows or doors. Someone outside the room yells, “Who’s in there?” You feel ‘I am’ as opposed to ‘I am-not.’ Once aware of this ‘I am,’ remain aware of that awareness for a moment. Consider it for a moment. There is nothing else between That which is aware and that which I am aware of. This is Being.
Questioner: What do you mean when you say only Self-Inquiry leads to Self-Realization?
Nick: You have misunderstood. I do not say Self-Inquiry is the only way, but the most direct. All paths lead to Self-Inquiry. If “I” am always here, then the”I” is the only logical point of focus if one wishes to find the subject, That which is eternal. All objects are temporary, and therefore cannot be the eternal Self. All effort eventually leads to “I” by default, so why not begin there?
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