Self-forgetting is inherent in
self-knowing. Consciousness and unconsciousness are two aspects of one life.
They co-exist. To know the world you forget the self - to know the self you
forget the world. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
There is a famous
Sufi story concerning Mullah Nasrudin.
His neighbors came to help him look in the street for his lost key. Someone inquired as to where he last had it
and he replied “in the house.” When
questioned why he was looking in the street the Mullah replied that the light
was better outside. A funny story but,
Nasrudin generally had a point to his foolishness.
We tend to look
for the source of our beings in the external world of the senses or through
some kind of mental analysis. I’m sure
there will be an app for that soon. In
the same way scientists search for consciousness in brain tissue and minute neural
structures (microtubules). We look in
the familiar territory of our experience in order to discover who it is that
witnesses experience.
We won’t find
consciousness by refining our instruments nor through theories based in
materialist science. Consciousness is
the irreducible interior of everything.
It is the Ground of Being as Paul Tillich put it. As such it is not limited to us as individual
egos. It is the deep, universal aspect
of ourselves. It can only be found
within.
