Awakening Beyond Thought

Awakening Beyond Thought

The moment we begin to observe ourselves is the beginning of freedom

When we think of freedom, what comes to mind first for many of us?

Not being controlled by anyone.

Doing what we like.

Moving away from places we do not like.

Making our own decisions about our lives.

All of these are forms of freedom.

But there is a deeper freedom than all of these.

It is not something that comes to us from outside.

It is something that must be born within us.

That freedom is to live without being controlled by our own thoughts.

A thought arises in our mind.

Then another thought follows it.

We think about an incident.

From that incident, an old memory emerges.

From that memory comes worry.

From worry comes fear.

From fear comes anger.

Within a few minutes, our mind can carry us somewhere far away.

But what do we say at that moment?

“I am thinking.”

In reality, sometimes we are not thinking at all.

Our thoughts are making us think.

This is the first truth we need to observe.

Not every thought that arises in our mind is who we are.

Our anger is not who we are.

Our fear is not who we are.

Our jealousy is not who we are.

Our memories of the past are not who we are.

They are experiences arising within us.

The moment we begin to understand this difference, a new door opens.

That is why the beginning of freedom is not in proudly saying,

“I am a great thinker.”

It lies in realizing,

“I can observe this mind that is constantly thinking within me.”

We begin to watch our thoughts.

And then a small space appears between the thought and ourselves.

That space is extremely important.

Suppose someone speaks harshly to us.

Immediately, a thought arises:

“He has insulted me!”

Then another thought follows:

“I must show him who I am!”

Then comes anger.

Behind the anger comes the urge to respond.

If we follow that urge and speak, we may regret it a few minutes later.

But what if, at the very moment the first thought arises, we simply notice:

“Anger is arising within me”?

The story might have been different.

We do not have to destroy anger.

We do not have to suppress it.

We do not have to fight with it.

We simply have to observe it.

“Here comes anger.”

That is enough.

The person who observes anger is already standing a little apart from the anger.

That small distance gives us a choice.

Should I speak?

Should I remain silent?

Should I respond after some time?

Or should I simply let this matter go?

This is where true freedom begins.

How many problems in our lives are actually created by events?

Far more problems are created by our thoughts about those events.

Someone may simply fail to smile at us.

That may be all that happened.

But the mind immediately creates a story.

“He doesn't like me.”

Then comes another thought:

“What did I do wrong?”

And then:

“Perhaps he has said something about me to others.”

And so a small incident becomes a great drama inside our minds.

What actually happened?

Someone did not smile.

That is all.

Everything else is an interpretation created by our mind.

When we begin to understand this, we start seeing life from a different perspective.

Therefore, observing our thoughts does not mean stopping our thoughts.

It means beginning to recognize when a thought is connected to reality and when it is simply a story created by the mind.

There are countless examples of this in our everyday lives.

For some people, work comes to mind the moment they wake up in the morning.

For others, it is financial problems.

For some, worries about their health.

For others, concerns about their children's future.

For some, an argument that happened yesterday.

For others, a problem that has not even happened tomorrow.

The body is still in bed.

But the mind has already travelled many miles.

We eat breakfast while the mind is somewhere else.

We work while the mind is somewhere else.

We talk with our family while the mind is somewhere else.

Even after we go to bed at night, the mind refuses to rest.

We allow the body to rest.

But we forget to give the mind a rest.

That is why, sometimes, even when everything seems to be present in our lives, there is still no peace within us.

This is where the idea of “awareness beyond thought” becomes relevant to our everyday lives.

This does not mean that thinking is useless.

Thinking is one of our greatest tools.

We need thought to build a house.

We need thought to calculate.

We need thought to work.

We need thought to solve problems.

Scientific progress itself requires thought.

But no matter how useful a tool may be, it should not always become our master.

A knife is useful in the kitchen.

But we cannot walk around holding it in our hand all the time.

In the same way, thought is a tool to be used when it is needed.

But if it continues working even when we need to rest, instead of helping us, it can exhaust us.

We often say proudly,

“I think too much.”

But thinking more is not always the solution to every problem in life.

Some questions are answered by thought.

Some are answered by time.

Some are answered by experience.

And some questions are answered by silence.

When a child smiles at us, we do not need to analyse that smile in order to experience its beauty.

When the evening sky turns red, we do not need knowledge of astronomy to appreciate its beauty.

When beautiful music touches our heart, we do not need to calculate every wavelength of its sound.

When someone we love embraces us, we do not need an explanation to experience that love.

This is where the world of experience beyond thought begins.

Beauty, love, creativity, happiness and peace cannot be completely captured by thought.

We can give a thousand reasons why a flower is beautiful.

But can we ever completely express its beauty?

We can give a thousand reasons why we love someone.

But can we contain the entire experience of that love within words?

We may try to explain why a song moves us.

Yet, even after the explanation, we may still be unable to fully describe the feeling that music created within us.

That is why some of life's deepest truths are not meant merely to be thought about.

They are meant to be experienced.

We can understand this easily when we walk in nature.

The wind moving through the trees.

The stillness of the evening.

The sound of rain falling.

The call of a bird.

The waves of the sea.

When we experience these things, our mind becomes quiet for a few moments.

At that moment, we have achieved nothing.

We have proved nothing.

We are competing with no one.

Yet, somehow, the heart feels fulfilled.

That is a small taste of awareness.

In today's world, we are losing this more and more.

There is a mobile phone in our hands.

A screen before our eyes.

Thousands of messages inside our minds.

We compare one person's life with another's.

What does he have?

What do I not have?

Where has she travelled?

Why have I not gone there?

How are their children growing?

How are mine?

The comparisons continue endlessly.

In the end, we lose even the peace we already possessed.

Then we feel that we need something more.

But sometimes what we need is not to acquire something more.

It is simply to become fully aware of what we already have.

Sitting and talking with a mother.

Holding a father's hand.

Having a quiet cup of tea with one's life partner.

Listening fully to a child without looking at the phone.

Sitting with a friend's sorrow for a while without immediately offering a solution.

These may appear to be small things.

But there is awareness in them.

Being completely present in whatever we are doing can itself become a profound spiritual practice.

Spirituality does not necessarily mean running away from the world.

It does not merely mean going to a mountain and sitting alone.

It does not merely mean standing for a long time in a temple.

Speaking with awareness.

Observing our anger.

Feeling another person's suffering.

Looking at what we have with gratitude.

Gently bringing the mind back to the present when it begins to wander.

These too are paths of spirituality.

When we begin to observe ourselves, another remarkable transformation takes place.

We become less identified with our thoughts.

Instead of saying,

“I am angry,”

we begin to see:

“Anger is arising within me.”

Instead of saying,

“I am a failure,”

we begin to see:

“There is a thought of failure within me.”

Instead of saying,

“Everything is over,”

we begin to recognize:

“This is how my mind is seeing things right now.”

This small change in language can become a profound inner transformation.

Because we have begun to step slightly away from our thoughts and observe them.

Then the mind is no longer our enemy.

It becomes a tool.

We learn how to use it.

This is the journey towards true freedom.

Problems will not disappear from our lives.

Even when we begin living with awareness, sorrow may still come.

Loss may come.

Disappointment may come.

Physical pain may come.

Difficulties in relationships may come.

But our inner way of facing them can change.

Earlier, when a problem came, we may have asked,

“Why is this happening only to me?”

Now we may begin to ask,

“What is happening within me in this situation?”

That one question takes us from the outside world to the inner world.

And that is where our real journey begins.

Awareness is not a state that we achieve in a single day.

Today we may notice our anger.

Tomorrow we may forget.

The day after, we may remember again.

That is perfectly all right.

There is no failure in awareness.

Every time we forget and begin observing again, a new awakening takes place.

One day we become angry.

The next day, we recognize that we are angry while the anger is happening.

After that, we may begin noticing the signs of anger even before it arises fully.

At some point, we may be able to remain silent for a moment before responding.

That one moment may appear very small.

But within that one moment lies our freedom.

That small space between thought and action gives us the freedom to choose.

And that choice slowly transforms us.

Love increases.

Patience increases.

Our ability to listen grows.

A willingness to forgive begins to emerge.

Our habit of judging others begins to diminish.

We become capable of seeing our own mistakes as well.

Then we begin to understand that life is not a competition.

Each person is travelling on their own journey.

Another person's success is not our failure.

Another person's wealth is not proof of our poverty.

Another person's fame does not diminish our worth.

When this understanding arises, the outer world may remain unchanged, but our inner world begins to change.

That is awareness.

That is the taste of freedom.

Ultimately, the peace we seek is not an object waiting somewhere far away.

The seed of that peace already exists in learning not to become enslaved by the continuous flow of our thoughts.

Thought is necessary.

Knowledge is necessary too.

But it is even more important to realize that beyond thought there is an awareness within us that quietly observes.

We do not have to travel anywhere to find that awareness.

It is already present in our everyday lives.

In the very moment anger arises.

In the moment jealousy appears.

In the moment we need to forgive someone.

In the moment we watch a child's smile.

In the moment we admire the evening sky.

In the quiet moment when we sit alone and observe our own mind.

Every moment in which we begin to observe ourselves is a small awakening.

When those small awakenings come together, life itself begins to change.

Freedom does not mean doing everything we think.

It means not believing that everything we think is true.

And beyond that,

it means realizing:

“A thought has arisen within me, but that thought is not me.”

From that realization, a new life is born.

There is thought there, but no slavery to thought.

There are emotions, but they do not completely rule us.

There are difficulties in life, but we do not lose ourselves within them.

There is love.

There is beauty.

There is creativity.

There is joy.

And most importantly—

there is peace.

We do not have to travel around the world searching for that peace.

Sometimes there is only one thing we need to do.

Sit quietly for a little while and ask ourselves:

“What is happening within me right now?”

Ask without searching for an answer.

Observe without trying to stop thought.

Experience the clarity that arises from that observation.

That is the moment when we meet ourselves.

That is the beginning of awareness.

That is the first step towards true freedom.

You can do it.

With love,
Sakthi Sakthithasan