The seeker is he who is in search of himself. Give up all questions except one: ‘Who am I?’ After all, the only fact you are sure of is that you are. The ‘I am’ is certain. The ‘I am this’ is not. Struggle to find out what you are in reality. To know what you are, you must first investigate and know what you are not. Discover all that you are not -- body, feelings thoughts, time, space, this or that -- nothing, concrete or abstract, which you perceive can be you. The very act of perceiving shows that you are not what you perceive. The clearer you understand on the level of mind you can be described in negative terms only, the quicker will you come to the end of your search and realize that you are the limitless being.
~Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
In the ancient Indian tradition of Samkhya, your current witnessing Awareness is always unchanging, always present and never interacts with the physical universe as bodies, matter, forms, energy and events and never interacts with the mental energies of thought, stories, memory, imagination, emotion, feelings, sensations, self-identities, people and personal relationships.
Knowing Awareness has no interactive contact with either the material or mental realms and has no identity of its own nor has any causative capacities or powers. It simply is an all pervasive Knowing Witnessing that has no dualistic relationships with either mental or physical phenomena; just like space doesn’t have any dualistic relationships with phenomena.
“In Samkhya philosophy, thought is considered to be an aspect of Prakriti. Prakriti is the ever-changing material realm and includes all the things that are experienced in time. This includes not only physical objects but also mental phenomena such as thoughts, emotions, and sensations. Purusha, on the other hand, is pure consciousness and is distinct from the changing phenomena of Prakriti.”
None of the perceptual or mental impressions perceived and experienced have any influence upon the unchanging screen of Witnessing Awareness; like the movies shown in a movie theater have no affect upon the unchanging movie screen, no matter their content.
However, the Witnessing Awareness has its own intrinsic gnosis, wisdom, jnaña and prajña (beyond mind) which differentiates itself from all the mental and physical states of prakriti.
It’s this intrinsic Wisdom which arose in the consciousness of the Buddha which was known as his “Awakening”.
The “Awakening” arises as the wisdom of knowing “I am not this nor that”, Neti, Neti.
It’s known that I am not the mind, not thoughts, not emotional states, not the body, not the brain, not neurons, not a self felt as “me”, not the “I am”, not energy, not matter and that the Awareness that is my true nature, is other than all those mental and physical phenomena.
This is the liberating gnosis which liberates that which was never in bondage.
This liberating wisdom is called “viveka” in Sanskrit and vivicca in Pali, which translates as “differentiation”, differentiating what you are from what you aren’t.
The Buddha in the Pali Suttas stated that one must merely apply the understanding of “this is not me, this is not mine and this is not myself” to all mental, physical and psychological identities, like:
“This body is not me, it’s not mine and is not myself”.
“This subtle soul body is not me, it’s not mine and is not myself”.
“This mind is not me, it’s not mine and is not myself”.
“This intellect is not me, it’s not mine and is not myself”.
“This self image is not me, it’s not mine and is not myself”.
“This self in these memories is not me, is not mine and is not myself”.
“This matter is not me, it’s not mine and is not myself”.
“This energy is not me, it’s not mine and is not myself”.
“These atoms are not me, are not mine and are not myself”.
“This universe is not me, it’s not mine and is not myself”.
What you ARE is only this immaterial Witnessing Awareness which the Buddha called the “unborn and unconditioned”.
When your intrinsic self-knowing Wisdom manifests, the Buddha called that condition Nirvana.
https://youtu.be/nBIwSwu5hmE
Differentiating Awareness from the personal self-identity:
https://youtu.be/CJYqYzyI8Mk
https://youtu.be/X7G7MOF3WkQ
https://youtu.be/zJ6nS-kkoyE
Samkhya of Shambala
Translator, Malcolm Smith wrote:
“There is a ‘Saṃkhya of Shambhala’. In Kalacakra, according to Tagtsang Lotsawa:
* Consciousness [shes rig] is the partless solitary knower [jñā] who is an enjoyer, is neither prakriti (matter) nor an evolute, only this is conscious, the others (prakriti) held to be without consciousnesses [bem po].
* Luminosity, the primal nature of the mind, is said to be consciousness [shes rig, i.e., puruśa, rigpa]. As such, these phenomena of the body are said to exist in the manner prakṛti and purusha.
Malcom responded to a question: Is it (Shambala Samkhya) accepted as Buddhadharma? Yes.
Malcolm further commented:
“Basically, Samkhya is of the "(true) self is different from the aggregates (Skandhas),(body/mind complex) persuasion. “
The Buddha taught a type of Samkhya, in his Pali Suttas; that our essential Buddha Consciousness (Citta) is not actually “in” the field of prakriti (energy/matter) or within the five skandhas (body/mind).
The famous Lama Taktsang of the 15th century, who criticized Tsongkhapa’s writings, offered an excellent perspective that encapsulates the teachings regarding “rigpa” in Dzogchen. He refers to rigpa as “the undefiled consciousness”.
Sonam Thakchoe wrote:
“That is, the continuum of the ‘undefiled consciousness’ (Presence of Awareness) according to Taktsang, persists uninterruptedly in all the transitional phases of the sentient existence; it exists in the most rudimentary sentient states through to buddhahood—the most evolved mental state of enlightenment. The continuum of the “undefiled consciousness” continues uninterruptedly throughout all the periods of misleadingly labelled unconscious states, be they states of meditative equipoise, through to comatose states absent any sign of neurological and cognitive activities. It is impossible to stop the continuity of the “undefiled consciousness” (rigpa), claims Taktsang; it goes on forever even after the attainment of buddhahood.”
“.. Taktsang’s claim that buddha’s own perspective, which is the perspective of the “undefiled consciousness” or buddha-essence, has no cognitive object other than the emptiness (and Wisdom) of ‘undefiled consciousness’ itself. “
~Jackson Peterson - Anatta Group / Facebook
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