THE ONE WHO IS AWARE OF IT
During particularly energetic passages, the classical pianists Vladimir Horowitz, and Van Cliburn, whose past performances, some of them anyway, are on YouTube, seem to be marveling at what their hands are doing. "I can't believe I'm actually doing this," their expressions seem to be saying.
The experience is not limited to classical pianists. We all have such moments. Surgeons and welders have such moments. This is the witnessing, background consciousness that Vedanta calls Atman/Brahman.
Yet this observing consciousness is all too quickly swallowed up by the thinking mind. And this thinking mind has a voice, the incessant chatter of which we are incapable of escaping, seemingly, although we do try.
Our attempts at relief include watching classical pianists on YouTube, going to movies, reading books, and so on. These, though, are just more thinking, when we stop to think about it. The bad news is that we identify with the thinking mind and its voice, believing that they are our true self. The good news is that we realize that they are not.
Eckhart Tolle, the spiritual teacher, talks about this same matter: "When you recognize that there is a voice in your head that pretends to be you and never stops speaking, you are awakening out of your unconscious identification with the stream of thinking. When you notice that voice, you realize that who you are is not the voice--the thinker--but the one who is aware of it.
Horowitz, and Cliburn, are in precisely this state of realization when they perform.
The experience is not limited to classical pianists. We all have such moments. Surgeons and welders have such moments. This is the witnessing, background consciousness that Vedanta calls Atman/Brahman.
Yet this observing consciousness is all too quickly swallowed up by the thinking mind. And this thinking mind has a voice, the incessant chatter of which we are incapable of escaping, seemingly, although we do try.
Our attempts at relief include watching classical pianists on YouTube, going to movies, reading books, and so on. These, though, are just more thinking, when we stop to think about it. The bad news is that we identify with the thinking mind and its voice, believing that they are our true self. The good news is that we realize that they are not.
Eckhart Tolle, the spiritual teacher, talks about this same matter: "When you recognize that there is a voice in your head that pretends to be you and never stops speaking, you are awakening out of your unconscious identification with the stream of thinking. When you notice that voice, you realize that who you are is not the voice--the thinker--but the one who is aware of it.
Horowitz, and Cliburn, are in precisely this state of realization when they perform.
posted by Donald L. Simons at
11:29 AM
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