The Knowing Before Thought
El Conocer Antes del Pensamiento
A gentle invitation to notice the quiet awareness that is already here before every thought, feeling, and experience arises.
The Knowing Before Thought
Noticing what is happening
To notice what is happening,
to see that there is a very subtle, always present sense of noticing,
even if you're involved and immersed in thought or discomfort.
No matter what is happening,
the noticing comes first.
There can be no thoughts without the knowing of thoughts.
Consciousness is not directed
And this noticing, this seeing, this consciousness
can appear to be directed or directable,
but that's an illusion.
It's a simple illusion, like all of these playful optical illusions we have
where something seems to appear that is not there.
This noticing is.
Everywhere and nowhere,
it's perceiving experience,
but it's producing experience.
Producing and perceiving.
No need to interfere
The more you notice this,
the less you need to be involved with the experience itself.
No need to interfere with what is appearing.
Because it's not detached from, nor localized.
It's a sweet, subtle sense of: I can see that which fears.
Not changing,
not moving,
unaffected.
So close, so intimate,
as if all thoughts, sounds, colors, sensations
appear right through this,
right at the centerless center.
The most simple thing.
The thought "I am here"
There is a thought: I am here.
That is just a thought.
Prior to that thought, there is the knowing.
Prior to that, there is the knowing being.
Silence before everything
Pure absolute silence.
Pure absolute peace.
No matter what is happening,
prior to what is happening,
this silence, this peace is here,
unchanging, unmoving.
If it is tasted, the mind will rush
to hold it, to grasp it, to understand it, to control it, to make it mine.
That is okay.
Silence is unaffected by that as well.
This silence, this peace cannot be attained.
Cannot be arrived at through effort or process.
You cannot ignore it, move away from it, resist it, or deny it.