My Three Nisargadattas

1. Reading

Reading Nisargadatta can be confusing for the novice. I know because I’ve been there. It sometimes appears he is advising contradictory practices. In a way, he is. Although it is true he is always Consciousness speaking to Consciousness, he is also speaking about various aspects of one state, and instructing practices toward each.

And in his talks, Nisargadatta is speaking to a spectrum of participants and communicating to each in the manner of their current understanding. So one’s own understanding will not necessarily be similar to the understanding receiving the instructions he is giving. Don’t be concerned with that though.

Nisargadatta’s talks are not directed toward the person. They are directed toward Being. Leave the intellect out of the way. What is intended to be understood in the current moment will be understood. Upon subsequent readings, other understanding will be revealed. Each reading is a new experience.

2. Wisdom

However, a simple guideline to Nisargadatta’s wisdom will be useful. Here, in what may be the simplest, clearest, most comprehensive assertion of spiritual metaphysics I’ve ever seen, he speaks of the three ways of naming the one state:

In reality there is only one state; when distorted by self-identification it is called a person, when colored with the sense of being, it is the witness; when colorless and limitless, it is called the Supreme. [bold formatting is mine]

One could do no worse than read that one sentence once a day ad infinitum. For in effect, Nisargadatta’s Way addresses these three aspects in a spectrum of various approaches.

As an aside and a note of comparison, in Christian terminology, these would be known as the sinner (to whom God the Holy Spirit descends), God the Son (or Christ Consciousness), and God the Father. Also, Nisargadatta often refers to the Supreme as Pure Awareness, which is reflected (colored) in phenomena as Consciousness.

3. Practice

For that which is called a person, he advises: “No effort can take you there, only the clarity of understanding. Trace your misunderstandings and abandon them, that is all.” In other words, deconstruct the person; this could be called the work of the spiritual warrior. From the state of pure being like a newborn, one has been domesticated, or socially conditioned, into a person. One has identified with various thoughts which have been delivered to you by parents, relatives, teachers, and friends, with which you, as pure being, have agreed to. It is the role of the spiritual warrior or seeker, to trace these misunderstandings and abandon them, letting them drop away in the light of understanding. In doing so, one loses the human form, revealing one’s Being.

For that which is called Being or the witness, Nisargadatta advises: “There is nothing to seek and find, for there is nothing lost. Relax and watch the 'I am'. Reality is just behind it.” In a similar instruction, he says:

There is awareness [i.e The Supreme] in every state of consciousness [i.e Being, Witness]. Therefore the very consciousness of being conscious is already a movement in awareness. Interest in your stream of consciousness takes you to awareness.

In other words, being conscious of being conscious is in itself the heartfelt way to reality.

As for the Supreme, he advises: “Keep quiet, keep silent; it will emerge, or, rather, it will take you in.” Similarly, he has said: “The only way of knowing it is to be it. The mind cannot reach it. To perceive it does not need the senses; to know it, does not need the mind.” Here we arrive at the absolute instruction, the one for which there is no one to receive. Therefore, for most, it will only be valuable as a pointer to some distant space or time. It is as if Nisargadatta is pointing to that time before the Big Bang, to that space of no space: here and now.

If one were to create a timeline to these instructions, it would be:

1.      Trace misunderstandings and abandon them; deconstruct the person, lose the human form.

2.      As no person, without attachment or identification with thought, be conscious of being conscious, watch the I Am.

3.      In Being, keep silent; there is nothing further you can do; the Absolute will take you in.

But they are not a timeline, and will often be practiced simultaneously in some fashion: deconstruct thought; meditate being; be silent—be That.