(C) 1993, Galen Sharp  E-mail questions to Galen Sharp 76435.1005@compuserve.com

                         An Exploration of
                       NON-VOLITIONAL LIVING
                            Galen Sharp

      "Nothing perceived can be me or mine"  Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
         "Cease identification with all phenomonality"  Wei Wu Wei

Why are we so unhappy?  Because not everything goes our way. Because we dread
doing the things we don't want to do, but have to do. And we can't do many
things we want to do.  All this boils down to the fact that we feel we are a
person with desires that conflict with our circumstances and our
responsibilities.  In other words our 'volition' is not always in line with
what is happening or what should be done.  An understanding of what-we-are and
what the mind is can free us from this false sense of volition and remove the
burden of our responsibilities.  Then, we actually will be happy.  Without
even trying!

1. You are not the mind.

We have been taught that the mind is ourself, thinking.

We  cannot  be  the  mind because we are what is perceiving the mind.  Look
for yourself right now!  You are looking at thoughts from a higher (prior)
level.  We cannot perceive ourself just as our eye cannot see itself because
it is what is looking.  The mind cannot be ourself.  The Chinese Ch'an master
Hsi Yun (Huang Po) said, "A perception cannot perceive."  So, are you the
perceptions (thoughts and feelings) or what is perceiving them?

We feel we are the mind because of the way the mind itself works.  The mind
understands things by comparing perceptions and creating objective concepts of
them so it can compare one concept with another.  This is knowledge.
Naturally, it soon creates a concept of itself as 'me' and there the trouble
begins.  Thus, the mind associates the sense of 'me' with  its operation and
with the body and we believe and feel we are an individual, thinking, acting
entity.  This is the origin of all our suffering.  Once we feel we are an
individual we begin to see and evaluate everything as it relates to us as an
individual.  We become a thing in a universe of things.  A very small,
vulnerable, but supremely important (at least to ourself) individual, in a
vast, infinite, seemingly purposeless, uncaring cosmos.  We lose our original,
true sense of identity with the Absolute.

2. The mind goes its own way

By watching our thoughts over a period of time, we can see that the mind is
operating literally 'by itself '.   Thoughts 'just appear' and keep on
appearing automatically.  We have this feeling that it is 'me' who is
thinking, but this is just a conditioned reflex caused by the  concept of
ourself as an individual.  By watching thoughts we can see how they appear
unbidden, uncalled.  Just try not thinking for a even a few seconds and see
that it is impossible.  No 'me' is controlling them.  We may have the illusion
of purposely thinking about a particular subject, but notice that the idea to
purposely think about something comes by itself.  Then we do it,
automatically, but with the false feeling we are the 'decider'.  That feeling
of being the 'decider' is not us, it belongs to the mind.  It is something we
are perceiving.

This is not proven in just a few minutes of thought watching.  It often takes
many months of diligent watching to really see it and to be convinced.  This
is because the conditioned feeling of being the 'thinker'  is so deep that the
very idea that the mind goes its own way seems ridiculous.  But the payoff of
this single discovery is enormous in terms of liberation and deeper
understanding of ourselves and the universe.

The very idea that the mind is operating by itself is unacceptable for most
people because it seems to remove the control of the mind from the individual
and allows the individual to cease accepting responsibility for his actions.
Then they will do all the 'bad' things they want.  This is a valid reason from
the point of view of an 'individual'.  Actually, because the mind conceives of
itself as an individual, it uses this fear of harm to itself or reward for
itself as a form of inhibition to keep from doing things that would be 'wrong'
(ultimately  harmful to it or to its image of itself).  However, this is not
you, it is the mind regulating itself.  This is where feelings of bondage and
frustration come from.  Because the mind conceives of itself as an individual,
it accumulates conflicting needs and desires.  The purpose is not just to
release the inhibitions that keep us under control, but to dissolve the mind's
illusion of itself as an individual in charge of and identified with the mind.
That will, at the same time begin to dissolve the inhibitions as well as the
need for them because the conflicting needs and desires will go with the
illusory self!

3. You are not the doer.

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 spauned 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 amness, 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 spacially and
temporally as it eternally IS.
                                  END