Is it true to see that it is important to see we are a non doer because the animating energy or stream of consciousness is what is living through this body and mind?
Would it be correct then that this mind is just getting in the way of this stream that is really the source of thoughts and experiences that are happening and that the the false self or mind takes these thoughts, emotions and sensations along with the body to be a separate entity?
Then is letting go just letting go of any desire or fear the false self has and to just sit back and watch what happens next like getting out of the way?
I am pretty sure the answers all yes but it always helps to get confirmation and insight.
Loverofall: Not exactly. This is how I would explain it. There is only Oneness. Oneness is whole; there are no parts. Oneness is a mystery. Oneness is aware, and awareness is, in the words of Nisargadatta, "Primordial, unchanging, eternal, and monolithic." Awareness can exist without consciousness, but consciousness cannot exist without awareness. If the entire universe that we know disappeared completely, awareness and oneness would still be here, and it is possible to have a direct experience wherein this truth is unquestionable.
Who we are is Oneness manifesting temporarily as a bag of skin and bones. The mind is what most folks interested in non-duality think of as the internal generator of ideas, images, and symbols. The mind is what generates what we call our "stream of consciousness."
Those of us who are drawn to silence discover that when silence prevails, the stream of consciousness comes to an end. There is awareness, but it is impersonal. Awareness is the true ground of our being, but we cannot know awareness (because the discriminative intellect cannot go there and therefore all cognition or distinction is absent). We can only BE that.
Yes, the usual thoughts and feelings we humans experience create the illusion of a personal doer, when the real doer is non-locatable and non-knowable. 99% of our bodily functions occur without our conscious attention. Our bodies eat, go to the bathroom, perspire, breathe, regulate hormone levels, regulate blood gas concentrations, circulate blood, transmit nerve impulses, etc. and we don;t give those things a moment's thought. Well, the same thing (Oneness) that is doing all of that is also generating ideas, images, symbols, and feelings, so everything that we perceive is a huge play of consciousness.
Nisargadatta, for one, focused on pure awareness--what he called "the I am"--so strongly and so consistently that after three years he discovered that that was his true identity, and he spoke from that standpoint when interacting with spiritual seekers.
If we shift awareness away from thoughts to pure non-conceptual awareness, again and again, the mind becomes increasingly silent. Then, the world, as well as the body/mind, is seen as if from a great distance. As we do this, several things happen. Joy begins to bubble up spontaneously. We find ourselves grinning all the time for no reason at all. Emotions flow through us unfettered, and we feel everything more deeply than before. The body, itself, becomes impersonal--like looking at a rock or a tree. Everything we see is simply stuff that appears within our field of vision. If ideas appear, it is the same sort of thing. An idea is seen to appear and then disappear, impersonally.
However, it is not necessary to reach the depth of a Nisargadatta or a Ramana to realize, in an embodied sense, that personal selfhood is an illusion. I would guess that 90% of all people who become enlightened never progress to the point where everything is totally impersonal, and it is not necessary. As soon as one realizes that he or she IS "what is," then there is substantial freedom, and that ends the spiritual search completely for a lot of people. Others may be drawn to go farther/deeper. It is all a mystery.
Until I found this website and started interacting with people on it, I wasn't spending much time in silence. I had spent the last ten years working like crazy to pay off some financial obligations, and I had had very little free time. All of my existential questions had been answered between 1984 and 1999, and I was content to do whatever I had to do from moment to moment. I knew who I was, and I saw the world as perfect. Then the recession hit, I had very little work to do, and I found this website.
Subsequently, I found myself spending more and more time in silence and that process has mysteriously continued. It is not necessary to do this in order to get anything, but for no reason at all Oneness is doing it. I can tell you that the deeper one goes into silence, the more luminous and ineffable everything becomes. What one sees is strangely mysterious, vibrant, fascinating, crystalline, perfect, joyous, and incredibly alive.
At first, it is hard to even understand what the word "awareness" means, but as we become silent, awareness becomes more visceral. To make it distinct, I sometimes ask people to remember some vivid experience from their childhood. Then, I ask them to check and see if their awareness in the present moment is any different than the awareness that was present during that past experience. Sometimes this gives people an "aha!" kind of moment. They realize that it is exactly the same. It has no qualities, and no flavor. It can't be penetrated, but it is always here and now--untouched by anything. Pure awareness is the ground of our being, and the more we identify with awareness, the more we leave our habitual responses to the world behind. We become, to use Christ's words, like a "passerby."
When we identify with awareness, or when we are being purely aware, we don't get personally involved with what's happening, and this changes a great deal. I used this example in another thread, but imagine walking across a cold ceramic floor barefooted. Ordinarily, and unthinkingly, we identify with our body and our entire body shivers with the sensation of coldness coming from our feet. It is possible, however, to shift to pure awareness and change the body's response accordingly. We feel the coldness, but it is almost as if it is happening to someone else. The coldness is milder, more distant, and has no cumulative effect upon the body. The body does not shiver because the only contact point with the cold tile is on the soles of the feet. There is no psychological transfer to the rest of the body. Our cold feet do not make "us" cold.
This same sort of thing can happen in interpersonal relationships. As we shift to pure awareness, we see and hear what is happening, but is doesn't have the same effect as in the past. We can see that our friend or family member has a problem (that may involve us), but to us it becomes quite impersonal and perhaps even amusing. We can see that their ideas are causing them to have lots of problems, but it has nothing to do with us. There is no transference.
AAR, these are a few things to consider regarding what you wrote, and I'll add some more things later. To answer one of your questions more specifically: the mind doesn't get in the way of the stream of consciousness; it is what generates the stream of consciousness. If the mind becomes silent, the stream of conciousness ends, and only awareness remains. Cheers.
