Finding the person that never was

                                               Credit: Image downloaded via Google search

My favorite scene in the movie Kantara is the one in the beginning when the first bhoota kola is shown.

The son of the landlord asks Panjurli (demigod):

Is it the demigod talking or the performer talking?

Panjurli replies:

If it's the performer talking you will see me again. If it's demigod...(and disappears into the forest).

This is a profound exchange which has at its source the core of spirituality. Let me explain.

We harbor a notion that we are a "fixed" entity at the core and so is everyone around us. This leads to the belief that there exists a "person" who is happy one moment and sad at another, peaceful sometimes and angry sometimes and so on. The person underneath is a given whose reality and existence is never questioned.

While this belief seems natural and real how do we know it's the truth?

What if there is no person experiencing anger or sadness but fleeting appearances of emotions, thoughts and physical form accompanied by the assumption of the existence of an underlying "person" serving as the substratum?

What if the person is not the substratum but an accompaniment to the emotion, thought and physical form? The person shares its lifecycle with the thoughts, emotions and physical form and as temporary as what it accompanies.

We spend a big part of our life seeking happiness but very little time if any is invested into the inquiry of the "person" seeking happiness. Is the seeker real? Does the seeker exist or is that a transient appearance?

Descartes said - I think therefore I am.

Let's investigate deeper. What are you sans the thoughts, feelings and physical form?

If this sounds abstract or hypothetical, here is a concrete and real example. Every night when you are in deep sleep - there are no thoughts, feelings and physical form. And there is no person either in deep sleep.

In deep sleep there is only awareness of nothingness. That's why deep sleep gives relief and relaxation. It doesn't give relief to the person but gives relief from the (mythical) person. In deep sleep we are rewarded for being truthful.

The person returns only when deep sleep gives way to thoughts, feelings and form.

 The case with the seeker of happiness is the same as with the seeker of enlightenment. What is seeking enlightenment?  Enlightenment is not of the person but from the person.

I will leave you with a question (like the one asked in the movie to Panjurli):

Does the person have thoughts, feelings and form or do thoughts, feelings and form conjure a person?

And here is an equally mystical answer like the one Panjurli gave:

If the person has thoughts, feelings and form you will see a person. If thoughts, feelings and a form give rise to the person...

 

#nobodyhome