An interesting article about 'no doer'
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The following is excerpted from an article entitled “An Exploration Of Non-Volitional Living” by Galen Sharp, a student and friend of Wei Wu Wei (Terence Gray). The complete text of the article can be accessed at www.sentient.org. Click “Teachers.” Click “Selected Teachers.” Click “Galen.”
“You have never done anything! Because the mind has conceived itself to be an individual it also conceives of itself as the Thinker and also the 'Actor' or 'Doer'. Yet it is not anyone. The mind is not a 'thing' or entity but a process. The thinking process. Simply a process that is happening automatically, the same as the heart is beating automatically. This is why we cannot live the perfect life even though we have been taught how a 'good' person should act. We know we shouldn't get angry at our spouse or our children whom we love, but despite the greatest resolve, we still do. Why? Because we are not the thinker of our thoughts nor the doer of our actions. Because they are not our thoughts or our actions. We are not even the experiencer of the experience. What are we? We are what is perceiving the mind and that is not anyone.
“We are what is perceiving the doing, but we are not the doer. We never were. We have never done the bad things and we have never done the good things either. Thoughts are affected by the environment (such as this article), inner habits and tendencies, and by the mind's concept of a 'me', but not by any actual 'me'. We are incapable of interfering with the mind. Why? Because there is no one to interfere. We aren't anyone. Thus, we absolutely cannot have any volition. The concept of being an individual is an invention of the mind itself. It is an artifact of the way the mind works. The feeling of volition is an illusion spawned by this concept of 'me'.
“We can never find our own will (volition) in any action. Every so called action is actually an automatic re-action of the mind with an accompanying feeling of volition. It is not 'me', it is the mind automatically going its own way! Simply watch the mind. Be aware of it. That's all that can be done because that is all we are doing right now. That is all we ever do. That is all we have ever done. It is the mind that thinks and feels otherwise and we are what is aware of what the mind thinks and feels. We are perfectly open, empty and still. We are not in space or time. We can never be affected in any way. We have no needs or desires whatever. We just shine brilliantly, effortlessly.
“We are what perceives what is appearing. In fact, it is because of this perceiving that anything at all appears. What we are is the beingness of what appears. The isness, or the am-ness, if you will of the very sense of 'I am'. Another way to put it is that we are the Awareness in which everything appears (the here-now, the sense of presence, consciousness). See that we are simply and only the awareness of the mind while it goes its own way. Every sensation and feeling it has belongs to it, to manifestation ...not to ourself. With everything that appears in any way, we can say 'Not me, not me.'
“We are the Watcher, not the thinker, or the doer, or the experiencer.
“Once this is deeply and completely understood, the mind can let go of its sense of volition and its sense of being an individual, relax and just be knowledge. Everything happens by itself. Everything happens as it should. Everything happens as it must.
“When the mind lets go of its sense of self and volition there is the deepest sense of complete peace and fulfillment. It is the Bliss spoken of by the ancient masters. All fear disappears.
“We are now looking from our true Source (as we always were but didn't realize) the timeless, spaceless Absolute. The unmanifest. This is what we all are. This is the ultimate source of our light of awareness. We are perceiving the manifest from its source, the unmanifest and it unfolds spatially and temporally as it eternally IS.” -
There is one thing that puzzles me about the article though...
That is...
Is there really a perciever of the mind? Could it be that there is no perciever at all?
Perceiver seems to imply that there is something separate from the mind...watching it. -
"When there is a watcher it is merely the past watching, and that is not watching, that is just remembering and it is rather dead stuff. Watching is tremendously alive, every moment a vacancy. Watching without a single thought, watching every reaction, watching without identity, only endlessly watching, you are not really awake, you are absent minded, not all there; you are not you but watching. There is no thinker watching the thought, the thinker is the thought. Somebody passes by you and wonders what you are watching. You are watching nothing, and in that nothingness everything is." - J Krishnamurti
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I think there is watching but no watcher.Originally posted by Xabir:"When there is a watcher it is merely the past watching, and that is not watching, that is just remembering and it is rather dead stuff. Watching is tremendously alive, every moment a vacancy. Watching without a single thought, watching every reaction, watching without identity, only endlessly watching, you are not really awake, you are absent minded, not all there; you are not you but watching. There is no thinker watching the thought, the thinker is the thought. Somebody passes by you and wonders what you are watching. You are watching nothing, and in that nothingness everything is." - J Krishnamurti
There is doing but no doer.
Everything happens in the present moment... spontaneously. 'Sense of self' as a doer is just an illusion.
Thusness will have a better understanding... hmm... wonder...whether he can comment on the article or not. -
the 5 aggregates.
life after life in existence, with kamma as our inheritances, is like a dream isnt it, seemingly real and vivid in our memory. we are actors in this stage (samsara), sometimes acting as good guys, sometimes as bad guys.
when will it all end in stage (Nibbana)? -
Yes LongChen,Originally posted by longchen:I think there is watching but no watcher.
There is doing but no doer.
Everything happens in the present moment... spontaneously. 'Sense of self' as a doer is just an illusion.
Thusness will have a better understanding... hmm... wonder...whether he can comment on the article or not.
I agree with what you said. There shouldnÂ’t be a separation.
There are 2 seeds that I sense lying deep in GalenÂ’s Consciousness:
1. The meditative experience he gained on the aspect of 'No-Self'
2. The meditative experience of the 'ISness Presence, Knowingness Presence
However the imprint of the Knowingness Presence' is stronger than the understanding of 'No-Self' and serves as the seed that makes Galen remarked 'We are the Watcher, not the thinker, or the doer, or the experiencer', thus, creating separation.
The meditative experience of “AMness” is a very powerful one. It creates the impression of Certainty, Absoluteness and Realness. It creates the impression that we have touched the innermost reality of our own core being where thoughts play absolutely no role in that moment of experience. This is a very unique and sacred experience but is a double edge sword. It must be cleansed with the “Emptiness” truth otherwise there will always be separation.
What is the ultimate nature of this “ISness” Presence? Is the “ISness” Presence still the “Presence” when there is separation? When we are listening to a piece of music, where and what is this Ultimate Presence right at that moment? During meditation or when one is totally submerged in appreciating the piece of music, he might exclaim, “I become the music”, “I am the listening itself” or “I am the music itself”. The Presence is the Music is the Awareness is the ‘I’. Does it mean that the subject, the object and the action have suddenly become one? Or is there really no separation from beginning?
Separation is often the result of wrong identification, labeling and attachment. This is the problem of language and attachment. When one is free from labeling and experience is direct, there is really only listening, there is no ‘I’. This is what really is happening if we are not hypnotized and deceived by thoughts and labeling -- One complete co-arising emptiness flow, ever present and ever clear. There is no ‘ghost’ and ‘shadow’ in between, the ‘I’ is unnecessary and separation is illusionary. -
There is no ‘Watcher’ apart from the watching. There is no doer apart from the doing and ‘own will’apart from the volition. The ‘watching’, ‘doing’ and ‘action’ refer to the same process. This same process flows and continues life after life. The process reaps its own fruit. There is no escape. -
Hi Thusness,
Thanks so much for the detailed explanation.
Kind regards -
Interesting article which Thusness shared with us in the IRC channel: http://www.ahalmaas.com/essence/sunyata.htm