An extract from The Light Behind the Mind

Every spiritual enquirer is encouraged to ask some basic questions. What is the purpose and aim of this unending stream of thoughts and feelings that accompanies me through life? Is there a higher purpose hidden in the apparent randomness and aimlessness? Is there a fundamental core of my being which stays unmoved and unaffected by the changes in the mind, and transcends the radical change called death? Does each thought contain its own little packet of energy, its own natural luminosity, or does it borrow its power from some deeper and constant source? What is it that knows the rise and fall of thoughts?

These are deep questions for our reflection. They all refer to our experience here and now. Spiritual wisdom is not concerned with investigating the details of our past life. What really matters is what we are thinking of and reaching for right now. Neither Krishna, Buddha, Christ nor Lao Tzu were interested in reviewing the past life of their disciples. No spiritual teacher wants to check our curriculum vitae. If our aim is liberation, we do not need to worry ourselves about the past. The present moment is the root of our existence at all times. What is always present in the present moment is the ground of being and consciousness. Our aim in turning within in stillness, is to detect intuitively that deeper ground of being.

The Mahatma, Swami Rama Tirtha, whose name Rama, as we know, is a name of God, once came under the suspicion of the police. Two detectives were sent to question him. He welcomed them with open arms, saying: 'You have come to "detect" Rama. Yes, do detect Rama. When you detect Rama [God within], you will be truly happy.' This is the purpose of our inner quest: to detect Rama.

Our personality is like the outer court of a sacred temple. It may seem to us to be all we have and are, but there is so much more to our being: imperishable treasures, a realm that is totally free from sufferings and limitations. This realm is beyond personality, yet it is the fulfilment of all our longings. Man is thirsting for total inner freedom, pure unconstrained joy. Such freedom and joy can only be realized by awakening to our true nature.

Is it possible to discover something at the core of our personality that is without limitations? Abiding at this level, even now, is the realm of spiritual peace and freedom, just beyond the reach of our normal thoughts and feelings - a dimension of our being that remains still and undisturbed, whatever thoughts are being formed in our mind, just as the sky is undisturbed by the cloud formations that may tint or darken it for a time.

In Meditation - Its Theory and Practice, there is a section called 'Meditation on the Process of Thought'. It speaks of the way our thoughts appear, not simultaneously, but successively, one thought following and replacing its predecessor; and there is a tiny interval between the thoughts. This interval may last for only a fraction of a second, but there is, logically, a gap between one thought and the next. The practice given is inwardly to observe our thoughts, and try to be alert to the interval between one thought and the next, and then, with practice, to learn to extend that interval.

Our thoughts may be sublime or ordinary. There is the line of Shelley, for instance, which is made up of two thoughts:

The One remains, the many change and pass.

Or there are thoughts like:

Oh, it's my friend's birthday. I must buy him a present.

But in all cases, one thought ends and another begins. The practice is to witness this changeover and to try to detect the interval between thoughts.

Now this kind of self-observation will reveal to us a crucial fact about our inner life. One level of our inner being is made up of thoughts. A deeper level, highly subtle, most inward and never appearing as a thought itself, knows the thoughts from the inside. Who is this knower of thought and of the interval between thoughts? Unlike the thoughts, the knower of thoughts does not change. It is something in us that is fixed, eternal, ever itself...