You Know You Are Not a Thing — Now Let's Understand What a Thing Is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obhpmz0ZjUM

Video Summary

The mind can understand everything — every object, every concept, every emotion — because it works through thoughts, and thoughts always point to things. A thing has a name, a form, a use, and exists within time and space. The mind is perfectly built for navigating this world of things. But awareness is none of those. It has no name that captures it, no form, no location, no beginning, no end. It isn't an object — it's the subject in which all objects appear. That's not a poetic statement. It's a precise one. And it explains exactly why the mind keeps circling awareness without ever landing on it: you cannot reduce the container to one of its contents.

Most seekers, once they recognise themselves as awareness, make a quiet mistake — they let go of everything else and say that is not me. Body, thoughts, feelings, experience — all dismissed. But this creates a subtle duality: awareness on one side, life on the other.

Nondual means not two. If awareness is all there is, then the cup of coffee, the anger, the cold morning, the spilled milk — these are not separate from it. They are appearances within it. Until you understand what a thing actually is — how it appears, what it's made of, why it has no independent reality — the mind will keep treating life as a disturbance rather than the very play of awareness itself.

This is why inquiry doesn't stop the moment you recognise what you are. You know you are not a thing. Good. Now understand what a thing is. When you know what water is, you immediately know what a cloud is, what a river is, what ice is — they're all just water in different forms. In the same way, when you understand what a thing is, every experience, every object, every thought becomes transparent. Nothing can confuse you, because you see through it to what it's made of. The mind stops fighting. Life becomes something you watch the way you watch a film — fully present, completely untroubled. If this points to something you've glimpsed but can't stabilise — a Clarity Call is where we look at it directly together.

Full Transcript

So why can the mind understand everything except awareness?

Let's dismantle this question. It starts with why — so it's seeking a cause. Why can the mind understand everything first? And then — except awareness — why can't it understand that?

The mind is made up of thoughts. Any kind of thinking, understanding, remembering, forgetting, identifying — it's all in the form of thought. And a thought is not separate from a thing. These three arise simultaneously and subside simultaneously: a thing, a thought, and the mind. Without one, you can't have the other two. A thing is only known by its thought. A thought is always about something. And both of them require the mind to arise and subside.

So the mind can only understand things and thoughts — the physical universe and thoughts in the mind. Even the things we experience in the physical universe are known to us as thoughts. Anything that is a thing — it can understand.

And what is a thing? A thing is that which has a name, a form, and a use. Anything with a name, a form, and a use can be understood by the mind. These are objects. Things are objects. Effects are objects. Thoughts are objects. And what are they objects to? The one subject — which we can call consciousness or awareness.

So what the mind can understand is an object. It cannot understand the subject itself — because understanding requires thought, and it cannot reduce to a thought that from which it is made.

Let's see this practically right now. Close your eyes. Seventy percent of the objects entering the mind are reduced just by closing your eyes. So much activity in the brain is reduced. Slow down. Become aware. Drop any thoughts — or simply don't pay attention to them.

For serious seekers, this is already very easy — just coming to the point where there is just awareness and consciousness. No thought in the mind.

If thoughts are still coming — try this: become aware of what your next thought is going to be. Wait for it to appear to see what it's going to be. And you'll find — the next thought does not appear.

Now stay with what remains. Just awareness. No thought. No image. No voice. Just consciousness — awareness of what is.

In this awareness — there is no thought. And yet it still is. There is no thing. And yet it still is. There is no movement. And yet it still is. It has no shape. No size. No form. We can't perceive it with the body. We can't reduce it to a thought. Yet it still is.

Whether you understand it or don't understand it — it remains as it is. Is there any form? Any edge? Can you see what it looks like? Does it have a shape?

You'll find none of them.

So — awareness is not an object. The awareness we're experiencing right now has no object in it. It cannot be understood the way we understand everything else.

Now — with your eyes still closed — imagine your living room with space in the centre. Place a coffee table there. On the coffee table, a cup of coffee. Your mind understands what a living room is. What a table is. What a cup of coffee is. When I said imagine your living room, the image came up. Then I added the table — the image updated. Then the cup of coffee — all in one image.

Now notice: the living room is limited in space. It is in a particular place. It became your living room a few years back. It may not be your living room in years to come. It is limited in time. It has a name, a form, a use. So does the table. So does the cup of coffee. These are objects. They are within time and space, not eternal, not omnipresent. The cup of coffee is not the table. The table is not the living room.

Now — erase the cup of coffee. Gone. Erase the coffee table. Gone. Erase the living room. Gone. We're back to awareness.

Can this be reduced to a thought? To an imagination? To an object in a particular place, at a particular time, with a particular use?

Is it in a particular place? No. Did it just start? Is there a beginning time or an ending time? When we finish this exercise, will it disappear? Do we have an image of what this is in the mind?

No.

So it is not a thing. It is not a thought. And we just discovered that the mind can understand everything in the form of a thought. This is not a thought. So the mind cannot understand this the way it understands everything else.

This is the subject of everything. This is the cause of everything. This is the nothing of everything.

The mind cannot reduce this to a thing or a thought. And thus — it can understand everything and every thought, except that which is not a thing nor a thought.

So — if awareness cannot be known, why do we still inquire into it?

If it cannot be known as a thing or a thought, why try to think about that which cannot be thought? Why try to understand that which cannot be understood?

You know that you are not a thing. You know that you are awareness itself, consciousness itself. You are not the body, not the mind, not the thoughts. So what's the point of inquiring further?

Awareness has no doubts. It has no confusion. It has no problem. It has no solution. It just is. Everything appears in awareness. So why inquire at all?

Here's why. Some people realise awareness and then let go of the mind entirely — I am not my thoughts, I don't need to pay attention to them, as awareness I am untouched. And then someone else says: okay, I am awareness — but what about the mind?

See the illusion. If the reality of everything is nothing — and if it is nondual — then everything cannot be apart from nothing. The mind and its objects, the thoughts and things, the experience of life — these cannot be separate from awareness itself. So if I say I am awareness and that is not me — I've just created duality again. There's still two: consciousness and the objects of consciousness. Until you don't understand them both to be one and the same, there is still duality.

The mind has questions. It seeks answers. Doubts and confusion arise in the mind. Awareness has no questions. It has no answers. All the confusion and doubt arises in the mind. And until the mind gets clarity on something it is confused about — it will keep bothering.

A mind seeks answers, and when it gets the answer, that's the closure. You didn't know something and it bothered you. The moment you understood it — it no longer bothers you. The doubt is gone. The solution is gone too. You don't need the solution anymore — you've understood.

So — I always say this: you know you are not a thing. Now let us understand what a thing is.

Everything is a thing. If you understand what a thing is, you understand the essence of everything. If you know what water is — you immediately know what a cloud is, what a river is, what an ocean is, what an ice cube is. The essence, the reality of all of them is nothing but water. A cloud is just water. The river is water. The ocean is water. The ice cube is water. They are all names given to different forms and different uses of the same one reality.

In the same way — when you understand a thing, you understand everything. You realise what is different between each individual thing is just the name, the form, and the use — and these have no reality apart from the thing itself.

So: a thing is an object with a name, a form, and a use. And it appears within time and space. That's a thing. All these are appearances. They have no reality of their own. The name is just a sound pointing to the object. The form is the shape — which keeps changing. It is within time: it came, it is, and it will go. And it is within space: it is in a particular place, not everywhere.

Awareness is not separate from its objects. But if you've just recognised yourself as awareness and let go of the objects — they will still keep giving you the experience of good and bad, opposites, high and low. So inquiry into what awareness is — and into the contents of awareness, the things and thoughts that appear in it — if you understand both, then you understand how nothing is everything and everything is nothing. One and the same.

So if awareness cannot be known, why do we still inquire? Two reasons. One: to get clarity on what we are experiencing. Two: to understand what awareness is not — because it is not an object, it is not a thought. To understand why it cannot be understood, you have to know why it is not a thought. To understand why it is no-thing, you have to understand what a thing is. And that requires inquiry.

What happens when the mind stops trying to grasp awareness?

The question assumes something would happen. So let's look.

You've recognised yourself as awareness. Now if you let the mind go and leave all its contents — you become the sky in which thoughts arise and pass by like clouds. You say: let the clouds go by. I am the sky. I am untouched, unbothered. Awareness remains as it is. Thoughts come and go. Feelings come and go. Actions come and go.

But — the mind will still be confused about what is going on. The mind wants to understand things and thoughts so that it is in control. The mind is scared of losing control. The mind is scared of the unknown. It seeks control through knowledge — knowing what is happening, what is going on.

So the mind will keep behaving in the same way your conditioning had before awakening. If you had anger issues, they would still be there. They might reduce — but you'll still get angry. Still get sad. Still get happy. Still get excited. Things and thoughts will still bother you.

Now — the other way. If you get clarity on what a thing is and what a thought is — the mind can never be confused again. The sadness and the ups and downs of life will still come. But now you enjoy them. You watch it as a play — the magic of existence creating and unfolding itself. You witness all the thoughts and things this person experiences.

So: if the mind has understood what things and thoughts are, stabilisation as awareness becomes almost immediate. If it hasn't — then there will be: I am awareness, untouched — and then my life, going through a lot of ups and downs, but I am not that. Both are fine. Awareness doesn't need to understand things and thoughts. It still is what it is. But for you, as the human being — clarity is better. It makes it smoother for the body and the mind to go through life without things and thoughts disturbing you.

Finally — let's just take a look at this awareness one more time. Close your eyes. Come down to the awareness without a thought, without a thing. Silence.

This awareness requires no clarity — because it has no confusion. Any doubts or confusion arising in the mind do not disturb this at all. It just is what it is. In fact — without this, no thought or thing can arise.

Now bring back your living room. The table. The cup of coffee. If you recognised yourself as awareness but didn't get clarity on everything else — the cup of coffee going cold could bother you. The coffee spilling on the table could bother you. The taste of great coffee could excite you.

But in the other scenario — you've recognised yourself as awareness and you have clarity on what a thing is, what a thought is. Now — the same cold cup of coffee: awareness, through this person, is experiencing what a cold cup of coffee feels like. If you understood both nothing and everything — the spilling of coffee becomes awareness experiencing what a person would go through when coffee is spilled. Will they get angry? Will they just wipe the table? You watch that — and it's brilliant.

Just as you go into a movie and see bad things and good things happening — sometimes you feel the character's pain because the acting is so real. But at the back of your mind, you know it's just a movie. You enjoy it. That becomes the same with your life. You became angry — what a great performance. You don't let it bother you anymore, because you are very clear on what is and what is not — both.

When the mind stops grasping — awareness remains untouched. Not bothered whether the mind tried to grasp it or not. Whatever happens, happens in the mind — within awareness, not through awareness.