“You are already that which you seek.”

― Ramana Maharshi

One of the most remarkable enlightened sages, Ramana Maharshi, was once asked, “How should we treat others?”

He replied, “There are no others.”

One mind, one consciousness might not make any sense to many people, which is ok. But if you are willing to look closer, Maharshi points out that what you are deep down — consciousness itself — is not different for any person.

In other words, consciousness shining out of my eyes is the same consciousness shining out of your eyes.

It is all the same. 

There is NO OUT THERE, and there is NO OTHER.

Most people don’t see this because we have been taught to regard ourselves as separate and distinct from everything around us from when we were babies.

At least, I believe this isn’t how we start when we embody this human experience. 

When we are born, we have no sense of ourselves vs. others. Babies’ experience(s) are many sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and touches.

It appears babies are hard-wired to have preferences. They like the sound of their mother’s voice and dislike loud noises. But they don’t see themselves as separate from these experiences. I suspect they are still navigating what is happening but not with the idea that those experiences are different from who they are. 

Then people start pointing at them and saying this weird sound that they eventually come to know as “my name.”

A mental construct as a distinct and separate self then starts to build. The well-meaning humans begin to bestow their beliefs onto the newest addition to the human race, and the separation gains more roots. These more realistic values keep us separate and different, and if we stray away, the guilt, shame, and fear set in.

These downloads can be very convincing. The mind is extremely powerful at clouding over the apparent fact that everything is one.

And this is reinforced and reinforced by society to the point that it feels like we’re a separate self, distinct from everything and everyone around us. 

“If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises, you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self, where there is no need for your effort to reject the thoughts.”

Then some people start to question this through various means.

Maybe they see that it doesn’t make much sense from the point of view of neuroscience that there’s a special place in the brain where our “self” resides.

Maybe they come across the teachings of an enlightened person and start to examine what experiential evidence there is for this self.

My approach is that we are not searching for experiences here. We are trying to know the one who experiences all experiences. Our search is for the witness. Who is this observer? Who is this consciousness? Sometimes it feels sad, sometimes it feels happy; sometimes it is so high, flying in the sky, and sometimes so down. Who is this watcher of all these games? – high and low, happy, unhappy, in heaven and hell. Who is this watcher? To know this watcher is to know God. And you are already it – just a little awakening is needed–no search but only awakening. — Rajneesh

However, we come by awakening, take the fear of dying out, and live presently–we eventually will wake up to what is true–we never die, just the container that houses our bodies do. 

So what about you? Ponder these questions.

How would your life change if you saw that everything is one and no actual separation? 

How would the world look if a great mass of people started to realize this?

“Mind is consciousness which has put on limitations. You are originally unlimited and perfect. Later you take on limitations and become the mind.”

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