What Do You Need?

“Spirituality or what you call “religion” is mainly to understand this: That you don’t require anything.”
-Nisargadatta Maharaj

Obviously, Leopard Man (me, at 14 at church camp) is fully aware of Maharaj’s instructions.

Teacher: Do you see?

Student: Yes.

T: How do you know?

S: I see objects, so I know I see.

T: What is it that knows you see?

S: I don’t know; it just feels like I see.

T: Seeing is primary, “what” is seen is secondary. Secondary, because the mind, from its conditioning, adds a seer and a seen to the primary sensation of seeing. 

Seeing is a reflection of our true nature of knowing. So remember, “you” do not “possess” sight—“you” are seeing itself. Let that sink in.

Apply that understanding to everything you experience. Are you aware of your thoughts, feelings, and perceptions?

S: Yes.

T: What is your state when you know a perception? Go away now and return tomorrow and tell me.

S: (The following day.) In silence, I examined the state of perceiving itself, and I’m starting to realize that any “thing” perceived is “extra,” or added by the thought about the perception. Perceiving is first, the perceiver and the perceived are added. 

For example, a thought related to any particular sensation always occurs after the sensation. There is the sensation of hearing, then almost imperceptibly the mind adds a name to the sound, which creates “what” was heard. 

T: Good. You are opening up to being the knowing itself. Keep reminding yourself that you are not anything you are aware of—you are knowing itself. Persist in that, and at some point the reminding will become unnecessary.

Inattention is the only evil. When you are the knowing presence, you cannot be improved.

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Comments or questions are welcome.

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