<>Here is the story of the disciple who went to the master and told: “Could you give me wise advice? Could you tell me something that would guide me through my day?“
It was the master’s day of silence, so he took a tablet. On it it read: “
Consciousness”
. When the disciple saw, he said: “It’s too cursory. Can you explain it to me a little bit?” So the master took back the tablet and wrote, “Conscious, conscious, conscious.” The disciple said , “Yes, but what does that mean?” The Master took back the tablet and wrote:
“Consciousness, consciousness, consciousness means – consciousness.”
“Find yourself. Observe yourself. That’s why I was saying earlier that self-observation is such a wonderful and extraordinary thing. After a while, you don’t have to make any more effort, because as illusions begin to crumble, you begin to know things that cannot be described. This is called happiness. Everything changes, and you fall in love with the state of consciousness.”
“This means keeping an eye on yourself. No one can show you how to do it, because they would teach you a particular technique, they would program you. But observe yourself. When you talk to someone, are you aware of what you’re doing, or do you just identify with them? When you got mad at someone, were you aware that you were upset, or did you just identify with the upset? Later, when you had time, did you study your living and try to understand it? You take back everything you don’t understand and you realize. You don’t change anything. But when you understand one thing, it changes.”
Excerpted from the book “Consciousness – The Pitfalls and Chances of Reality” by Anthony de Mello