Conversations with a Sceptic (15): Where are you between thoughts?

 Q:

Where are you between thoughts?  is a subject that one can spend a lifetime thinking about.

A:

This is getting exciting now. This is where we can go when we stop bickering about religions and start to look at things we all have in common: the capacity to think (and not think), for once.

Where am I between thoughts? Physically still in the same place, but what happens to the "I"? 

The "I" we all identify with has to be created and constantly supported by an inner narrative..."I was born in X, in a small house in Y"...."I am married"...."I like nature"...."I love animals"...etc.

Now, if we could stop the stream of thought in our mind, we could dis-identify with this constructed "I". Once we could do that, what would be left? Consciousness!

@sceptic wrote:

If, after your last thought, you pose the question, "I wonder what my next thought will be" you will find that a longer pause arises before the next thought, it is as if consciousness turns in on itself.

This is precisely what meditation tries to accomplish! Expanding that space in between thoughts to dis-identify with the superficial "I". It clears the lens through which we look at the world and let's us see reality without the tainted glasses of the "I". First you step back and become the witness of these passing thoughts, eventually even the witness will disappear and melt with all-there-is.

Consciousness truly turns on itself! And when it does, what does it see?

The inner world I've been talking about for months. The realities the ancient Vedic scriptures described in detail almost 4.000 years ago. The heavenly realms described by Jesus. The unmanifested eternal Being in Hinduism and Nirvana in Buddhism. Many names for the ONE. This is what all of the religions have in common!

All of them were kick-started by one guy who had the ability to connect to those realms and described the way to do that to others. Problems arise when less and less people in that tradition have authentic communions to keep the path alive. If there are not enough such people in a religion, then it inevitably becomes an empty shell, rigid dogma based on rituals whose true meanings were lost. And that's why I always say: A religion has only value if it enables the individual to have a direct experience of the Source (= Pure Consciousness).

By turning consciousness (not thought!) inwards, we are able to access and have a direct experience of these states. Enlightenment is just another word for this clean, unaltered pure consciousness.

Of course it doesn't happen as easily as switching a light on and off. With the exception of some special individuals who were born with this blank consciousness (Ramana Maharishi, Jesus?...), it takes a lot of dedication and hard work to peel off the layers of the "I". 

But what grander adventure is there in life?!?