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Main Index
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"I" is present. No one doubts the fact that he exists, that he is. A man can doubt everything else in the world but he cannot doubt his own existence. Descartes has said, "Even if I doubt, I am there. Who else is there to doubt besides me?"
But who am I? What is this "I"? Who am I" I do not doubt my existence; I do not doubt that I am able to know, that I possess consciousness, perception. There is a possibility that what I know may be false, may be fantasy, but my capacity to know is real.
Let us consider these two facts. First there is the fact of your existence, and secondly, there is the fact that the ability to know exists within you. You can set out on your search on the basis of these two facts alone.
You know that you are, but you do not know who you are. So what is to be done? You must first investigate your capacity to know. You have no other alternative. Knowledge is a tremendously powerful force, but it is hidden by objects, by the things you know through it. Over and over again, in the same way one thought gives way to another, one object is replaced by another. No sooner has your knowledge been freed from one object than it is trapped by another.
But if this knowledge were freed from objects, if it simply existed without anything outer on which to focus, then what would happen? In such a void, where there was nothing to comprehend, wouldn't knowledge then turn towards itself, wouldn't knowledge then know itself? When knowledge is freed from any object it settles on itself. When it is not tied to any object it is pure. That purity, that emptiness itself is what self-knowledge is. When one's consciousness is without object, without thought, without focus, this experience is what we call self-realization.
In this realization neither ego nor object exists. Nor is there any word for this experience. Lao Tzu has said, "Whatsoever you may say about truth, it becomes a lie as soon as you have uttered it." Yet, is there anything man has said more about than truth? When we say it is indescribable we are also describing it. Knowledge is beyond words, but as with love there is an urge to talk about its bliss, its light, its
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