I am not my body I am not my mind ||

[@NondualityChannel]

Please hit the thumbs up, subscribe, and comment. I'd appreciate that deeply. To read my old blog or to listen to my old audio podcast or to request Video 1-on-1s, please visit my website at www.nondualitysimplified.com/

[@Quintwilliams]

Dear Eric, I have started to listen to all your earlier videos. I want to go back and listen to each and every one for the first time and then listen to them again and again. While watching your content, I am getting so much more clarity on topics that I thought I had a good understanding on. I am so grateful to you for raising my awareness to new levels.

[@jasonpacific5661]

Such a gracious gift you have given. 💗 Showing all false identifications. The "me" isn't located in the mind or body. Being no-thing, changes everything. I AM-the very source of all Life. Empty Fullness. Thank you

[@onenessdreaming]

Thanks for this, felt I had to listen to the end though because it summated to be able to be understood at the end point. I like Eric Putkonen's Quora posts because they are brief and to the point...!

[@emotionwave]

Been much more aware of the endless trying to do or be something, then stopping and feeling a wave of relief. Feels awesome.

[@BobJones-jb7wd]

Thank you for this. I studied physics in college, so I have a strong tendency to over-think/conceptualize these things without "feeling" them.

[@Rang_Birangi_Jokes]

I got it sir 😂

[@No-self_No-problem]

I really enjoy this talk…. Thank you!

[@heatherbrewer311]

That same exact thing happened to me upon waking and walking to the bathroom. I had no memory of anything until the first memory about my daughter came to me. It wasn't a scary feeling at all actually very pleasant but just not identified with anything or anyone not even me. Wonderful and amazing!

[@davidk717]

Thanks!

[@NondualityChannel]

Thank you. Much appreciated.

[@LinguisticLifeform]

Searching the body for a separate self is fun. All that can be found are sensations and experiences embedded in awareness. Now look at what's going on "outside" your body and you realise that everything including the body are sensations and experiences in awareness. That all encompassing awareness, that's you. Play with this 🤗

[@maloryhope6075]

I love you and your channel ❤️

[@pauljohnson3236]

Great video, thank you. I have noticed lately that sometimes whilst eating or drinking, it seems to be the body eating or drinking, not 'me', the other day I hurt my arm, but I also noticed that it hurts the arm, it does not hurt 'me'. So I have been repeatedly pinching my arm to cause a little pain but each time it is pain in the arm but not pain in 'me'. 'Me', seems to be 'space' and it seems to experience or is aware of the eating, drinking and the pain in the arm. But I am starting to feel that the 'me' is unaffected by events. I might be on the wrong track but I suppose you can only go with insight.

[@Julio_Fiss]

In the end it doesn't matter if you are the body-mind or not, you still depend on it, not to exist but to live, you can't really ignore all the needs of the body mind and not suffer, in theory awareness is not affected by the body-mind but that's not our experience...

[@adamson396]

There is no time without conscious awareness in what is , awareness is without breaks ,gaps and dreamless sleep is only imagined to be , just thoughts

[@garymoore3446]

You have to live in the now in this reality! We are meant to focus on this reality while also knowing who we really are!

[@earthtribe786]

All is Self 💯

[@alicearcturus8610]

That was interesting. Its always refreshing when one puts a new spin on a teaching. I think it is very telling when you see a being who is very ill and not moving compared to a dead being. So different. It is definitely like something has left. Thank you!

[@NondualityChannel]

And yet "we" are not that which left.

[@puneetgrvr]

​@@NondualityChanneldo u feel bodyless and mindless all the time... With a power controlling u.. Can u honestly tell

[@NondualityChannel]

@@puneetgrvr There is no such separation as some power controlling me. Also, when there are no thoughts...what mind is there? Mind is just a term for the stream of thought...and that is usually silent. There is a body...no denying that...but that is no identification with it.

[@WilliamSalazar]

That was really good talk. thank you

[@terrylucaspoetrycoach4489]

Interesting assertion. Prove it!

[@adamtoth1956]

At this point I think I have listened to hundreds of (mostly) self-proclaimed enlightened, and awakened being and neither a single one of them, nor their practises could help me ease my pain, sadness, anxiety, forget about reaching awakening, and enightenment. Actually these practises only strengtened my anxiety, and depressive feelings.

[@NondualityChannel]

None of this is about easing (physical) pain. As for sadness and anxiety, those drop away after awakening/enlightenment and not before. The practices do not cause awakening/enlightenment to occur, but at best only create a more conducive environment for awakening/enlightenment to happen. So if you are doing practices and wondering "why hasn't it happened yet" then you are incorrectly thinking it should happen soon due to some causal relationship.

[@adamtoth1956]

@@NondualityChannel If there is no causal relationship, then there is nothing to do to reach these states?

[@NondualityChannel]

@@adamtoth1956 Yes, there is nothing you can do to cause enlightenment, but you could create a more conducive environment. Kind of like how you go into a dark room when you want to fall asleep...a dark room does not cause sleep but it is more conducive. A dark room isn't even required, one could sleep sitting in a chair in the sun. But we do go into dark rooms to sleep because it does make it easier to happen.

[@pilargarcia6724]

Me ha sido súper útil 😄muchísimas gracias!!!!❤🙏😊

[@cps_Zen_Run]

There are illusions that even after we are shown, our minds/perception will still not let go. The sense of self, and identifying with it, is not unlike these illusions.

[@GratefulZen]

Yet what would one experience if not for a sense of self? How would one define what one’s senses were picking up?

[@cps_Zen_Run]

@@GratefulZen , there is seeing, but not a seer, hearing without a hearer, etc. But communication with another via language requires higher cognitive functions. It’s the identifying, I am this, that becomes an issue. Yet, I am lacking knowledge in this area, and others might better address your comments. May you be at Peace.

[@GratefulZen]

@@cps_Zen_Run ✌️

[@jamesmoore4827]

@@GratefulZen "You" are that which is prior to Consciousness. Prior to "I am". The Absolute. We know that that which is identified as "I" is just a part of the totally of the universe(s) itself. Existence itself. Consciousness itself. But there is "something" that is prior to the universe(s). Prior to Existence. Prior to becoming. Prior to knowing. Prior to Consciousnesses. Prior to "I am". That which is "your" true Self was that which was before "you" were born. You weren't nothing, there is no such thing as "nothing", you were that which was the potentiality to become "something". Before say the big bang, before Existence manifest, there was the infinite potentiality to become or manifest as "something". That is who you, who all this, really are. All this is like the literal dream of God. And God can only know of itself through this dream that is Consciousness. God can only experience itself through the universe(s). You are the Absolute (God) experiencing itself and knowing of itself through Infinite "different" subjective vantage points. I love this quote from Nisargadatta Maharaj...... "I am" itself is God. The seeking itself is God. In seeking you discover that you are neither the body nor mind, and the love of the self in you is for the self in all. The two are one. The consciousness in you and the consciousness in me, apparently two, really one, seek unity and that is love.

[@glyndoh2206]

Thankyou. What you say is true. My dad had Alzheimer's and even in the last hours, despite losing the memory of basic things like walking and even swallowing, there was still a sense of self present. I read somewhere that the brain doesn't produce consciousness, it only transmits consciousness. Would you say this is accurate in your opinion?

[@NondualityChannel]

It could be said that way.

[@diegoambrosio9121]

So, we are the self of Kierkegaard? That abstract part of us which is able to look at ourselves. In other words, in form of question, are we a capacity of critical judgement? - which Kierkegaard has characterized as nothing, by the way.

[@danielpaulson8838]

I say yes. That part of us that can view humanity from out in space if needed. (Perception wise) To view us from outside of our emotional self. Unaware, most of us grow up and become products of our experiences. We live inside our personal perceptions. This is normal. But when those experiences are not dealt with or illuminated, they act out and hurt our flow through life. If we get to a point where we want a change in our life we need to take steps. Understanding that a part of us is that larger perception gives us a mental place to go to where we can face our past. It is separate from the emotion of the experiences. It appears as a component part of the template for "The Hero's Journey" so was identified in ancient times. It comes into play as the supernatural aid, a God who is helping out the adventurer. Hera to Jason. Krishna to Arjuna. God to Jesus, etc. Those are Arks to carry the template and yes, Kierkegaard found the same thing and put it in plain language for us.

[@siewkonsum7291]

Eric Putkonen 🙏🙏🙏 Body & mind are apparent appearances which are unreal - without its own Nature. Body & mind give rise to Consciousness or awareness which emanates from _"that which perceives"._ Without its perception, consciousness or awareness doesn't exist. The yellow flower is yellow because _"that which perceives",_ perceives it yellow. Not because the flower is yellow. Without its inherent wisdom function of perception of "that which perceives", the flower doesn't exist, let alone its yellow colour, body & mind consciousness or awareness. *_"That which perceives"_* is unknowable, indescribable or inconceivable, so Zen Masters always phrased it as _"that which perceives."_ ( Tang Zen Buddhist Grandmaster *_Hui Hai_* refers.) ☺️🙏🙇‍♂️🌷

[@versoturner5777]

I did this sort of self investigation and (hard to explain) lost all sense of body and had this weird sensation of being everywhere and outside my body (not like I feel inside my body, it more sits in the center of this like spacious aware feeling, but this time it felt off center and below until it felt faded... I'm trying my best to describe it but words are failing me). Also right before that, I felt this very faint energy feeling traveling up the feelings of my arms legs, chest, teeth and forehead that short gathered up to what felt like the top of my head, but then it felt to fade on above in all directions. I couldn't find a center, just this sort of sense of fading in all directions. My awareness was still there (like the feeling of first waking up from sleep) but vocal thoughts were gone and body sensations were gone. Seeing was gone but images were both gone and then not gone (can't explain that either, just trying my best to describe what I'm struggling to put in words). The feeling of having an intention was there... felt noticeably stronger actually... but felt different, like more alive but also more transparent (words are really failing me to describe it). That was my experience

[@Froggehgurl]

I'm curious as to what should be done with this information once its fully understood. It seems for me at least that even if nonduality is the truth, when practically applied in our lives it could easily lead to an unhealthy detachment from the perceived world around us. What is the benefit of knowing that everything is the same and that you are nothing? (I can see that the thought of needing a benefit contradicts the philosophy, but I still wonder). Very interesting video though! Certainly has opened my mind up to new possibilities

[@WilliamSalazar]

I guess the benefit is: don’t worry too much, be happy. don’t fear death. You are not the body, you are not the mind, you are the eternal soul. pure consciousness. ( I am not personally fully convinced yet, but very interested in this view) .

[@Froggehgurl]

@@WilliamSalazar That makes sense! I was talking to my dad about the subject and he brought up the "chop wood carry water" quote. I suppose what resonates with me is the idea that the sense of eternalness is meant to enrich and stabilize your day to day life, not pull you further away from the mundane/worldly things that we experience as humans. While reading through people's perspectives of the concept on different forums, many of them included ideas that sort of wrote off or deemed the human experience as a facade or "not real" which is where I became skeptical of the constructiveness of implementing such a mindset. And for me personally at least, I feel like that totally misses the mark and dismisses what should be embraced. Both truths can exist, that at our core we are one and eternal, and that our lived experiences and what we call individuality as humans are worthwhile.

[@BobJones-jb7wd]

Enlightenment is the opposite of detachment. When you recognize that you and other people are not separate, you love them as you love yourself (and you can't reach enlightenment without learning to love and have compassion for not only others but yourself), so their pain becomes your pain, and their happiness becomes your happiness. Not only that, but since you have tamed your mind, you don't have a continuous stream of thoughts going on and you are fully engaged and involved in the present moment (think of how a puppy doesn't think about the past or the future but still feels fully involved and interested in what's happening at that present moment). You are interested in the present moment, you are curious about what is going on, but you also don't have to judge it or put labels on it. It is actually only when you are enlightened that you can love freely and experience the present moment fully. And there is still nothing to stop you from reflecting on past events or reminiscing with others about them. It's not that you aren't aware of the past, you just aren't clinging to it.

[@SuperbTiger167]

Around this time last year i came to the logical conclusion that i am not the body or the mind through the same process of 'taking away pieces' of my body and mind. I then meditated on the feeling of my own presence and have been in a state of joyfullness and wonder since then. I understand logically and experiencially that i am not the body or the mind, and through this i can remain unaffected of any sufferring. But what do i do next? Ive solved every problem i will ever have, i have access to happiness on demand but this still isnt enlightenment? I dont know what i am, i just know what i am not. And somehow this leaves me lost more than ever. Is there a next step from here?

[@t.c.l1625]

What is space? Just openess in which all things occur. What you cant find is what you are. You are the space which holds all experience. Thats why there need be no worry or thing to get caught up in, unless you wish to play an active role in life, you must act through the body and thought to do so. But in truth, the body acts of its own instinct and volition regardless of you trying to control it or not. You need only walk and look around your house and allow your body to do as it will to see that. You simply are an observer. The same way you view a dream, so to, to a more intense degree, you view and experience this reality. As a localized point of consciousness in infinite reality.

[@NondualityChannel]

If you have solved every problem you have/will have and are happy, what is the issue? Is this not enough? What do you think you could gain?

[@SuperbTiger167]

From what i can describe, the issue is that even away from the body and mind there is still something longing to be boundless. And i dont know how it can find expression

[@NondualityChannel]

@@SuperbTiger167 You are already boundless...it is only a thought and belief that you are not. You long to be what you already are. What is this "me" that feels it is limited and not boundless? Delve into this "me".

[@1minuteprime]

Sir how I can enquire about who I am actually. I can't find any means to search that.

[@NondualityChannel]

See the false as false. Is there any identification or a "me" left?

[@SK6954]

​@@NondualityChannel But how do we distinguish between what's false and what's real if the false feels so real? For example, I was convinced all my life that the body was real... but now I come across the teachings of Enlightened beings who say that the physical body is NOT real/ is just an illusion... So now I don't know anymore what to believe. What is real and what is false? How can something that feels so raw and real (such as the body) be not real? I'm so confused..

[@NondualityChannel]

@@SK6954 By looking and seein what has always been the case and will always be the case. kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y3KTlHaEp5uKrdU

[@lennartp186]

isn't it that we only can relate this due to the words we use? if we don't have words or learned words how do we recognize this plane/world/consiousness?

[@marykavanagh531]

Hi new subscriber 😊 Why cant i " get this " i seem to understand what you said but something is not clicking in

[@NondualityChannel]

"Getting this" is a mental thing and the mind can't touch it. Forget thoughts...forget the mind...feel instead. With feeling., look...am I the body...and I the mind. When no "me" can be felt in the body or in the mind...when no "me" can be found...does this question still arise?

[@marykavanagh531]

@@NondualityChannel it feels very much me for sure and that me is separate from everything and everyone

[@NondualityChannel]

@@marykavanagh531 Continue looking...observe, investigate, question. Where specifically is the "me"? Feel the answer.

[@marykavanagh531]

@@NondualityChannelmany thanks for your reply, taking your advice on board

[@adultswimbump]

Can someone please use the example of the head instead of nail or hair clippings? Thanks.

[@VioletChartreuse]

This isn't really an example but all the cells in your body are dying and being replaced all the time. I think about every 7 or so years you have a completely new body, every cell has been replaced, but does that mean there is a new you?

[@stefanosnomidis6504]

After all this deconstruction, the question that remains is "Then what the heck am I??". Is self inquiry an exercise to detach from the thinking mind, to use its own "tools" against it, suppress the compulsory thinking, and be mindful? Or is there more to it? Guess I am stuck and looking for some more clues/pointers 😅

[@NondualityChannel]

Abide in "don't know" and be still, silent, and fully aware.

[@stefanosnomidis6504]

I'm gonna try that. Thanks, and keep it up!

[@pumpkini586]

Self inquiry is looking at your own awareness. Being aware of being aware. No thought needed for that. When thoughts arise, ask: what is it that’s aware of the thoughts? Then your attention is once again back on your own awareness.

[@zemiFTW]

Am i the awareness that preceds the mind? If so, how can i know that? Is it right that awareness could just be a quality of something or nothing? Any logical explenation of "I" or "beeing" is already within its own frame and can therefore not describe some ultimate truth, right?

[@NondualityChannel]

When you say "awareness" to what are you referring?

[@zemiFTW]

@@NondualityChannel That which holds or is held by the present.

[@NondualityChannel]

@@zemiFTW If so, then that is beyond mind.

[@punitpatel5658]

Namaskar: I hearing you since a long and your explanation touch a deep. I could understand your explanation about body, mind and I. I can feel something stillness at the end of all though. Still I am not able to distinguish between real and I. Is there a specific practise that could follow to reach persistent understanding?

[@NondualityChannel]

I'm sorry, I am not sure what you are asking. "Still I am not able to distinguish between real and I."

[@punitpatel5658]

@@NondualityChannel I can feel oneness while having no thought state but I rarely reach at that stage. That mean, I always feel "I" and rarely reach at thought less state. So Is it possible to stay ( oneness/awaken/experienced) while thought? if yes, what to practise? ( so currently with thought and without thought has not difference ). Right now all are understanding but not an experience or awakening. I am not sure if I able to explain properly of my query/question.

[@NondualityChannel]

@@punitpatel5658 Maybe this will help - kzbin.info/www/bejne/goTEeqaCr5p7l80

[@gwarghiss]

i am the observer im the witness of life

[@Hitoashi]

🙏

[@lukekottemann2546]

Is the feeling of I am a thought that is produced by conscious awareness?

[@NondualityChannel]

The brain is the origin of the I-thought.

[@lukekottemann2546]

@@NondualityChannel thank you for the quick response

[@rylanrivera8501]

I'm still confused are we life are we everything around us the observer i am with or with out body is this where your going im really asking to understand

[@NondualityChannel]

Cease looking for something to identify with/as.

[@rylanrivera8501]

@@NondualityChannel oh I guess your right I just don't know where to go with expanding i have to change got to point I really hated myself and decided it was either die or fight I chose fight

[@NondualityChannel]

@@rylanrivera8501 Look deeply at that "me" you hate...see that you are not that.

[@rylanrivera8501]

@@NondualityChannel I guess I have been thus why I'm here still inquiring I like what you have to say it make sense but I think I'm still missing something that your saying

[@rylanrivera8501]

I saw that there is something out there is more there's a way to fix this way of thought

[@lopswhatever]

I understand I’m consciousness and it’s ever present (even in deep sleep or coma, as we can call it consciousness having an absence of experience). But I’m stuck at the brain generating consciousness. Why can’t the brain generate it? I’m not saying I’m the brain, I’m saying I’m the consciousness that the brain produces. I know according Hindu tradition it’s wrong but please correct me🙏🏻

[@NondualityChannel]

There is only one Consciousness which all brains are within and not other than. Like when you are dreaming...all the characters in the dream are all of one Consciousness...all the brains of the dream characters in the dream are of that one Consciousness. It is not that each brain generates its own Consciousness. The entirety of the dream is Consciousness...including all the dream-brains within the dream. There is no one else and no other in the dream.

[@rodrigomarambio3882]

Great video!, thanks. One thing that I have always find very difficult to understand is the word "feeling" or "sense" in this context. Because even the subtlest feeling or sense is something that can be objectified.

[@jamesmoore4827]

But "I" am the body! And "I" am the mind! "I" am all the bodies and all the minds. "I" am the totality of all of Existence. And "I" am that which is prior to all of Existence. Existence is the Absolute manifest which is experiencing itself through that which is manifest. I am the Absolute. And I am the Absolute manifest. I am.

[@garymoore3446]

Everything you can see, taste, touch, hear or feel etc., is NOT consciousness !

[@NondualityChannel]

Consciousness is all there is.

[@rappinron1384]

Is this discussion really necessary. Most people inherently know they are more than their bodies.

[@nameless-yd6ko]

"I am not my body I am not my mind" ~~~ Who/What, please, is this "I" and "my" you speak of who/what ('not you' claims) is not a (possessor of a) body or mind? Okay, skipping to the end, you seem to not understand that there is but One Consciousness (Us)/ One Mind. Consciousness, whether you, personally, are in a coma or dead, is still Conscious, still garnering information about Mind! Consciousness is pointless unless there is something of which to be conscious, and that is Mind! 'We' are all unique momentary Conscious perspectives (mirrors) of Mind. Mind IS duality! That is why and how it can be perceived! "God cannot know himself but by me!" - Meister Eckhart

[@NondualityChannel]

Nothing.

[@Paintedstoriesarefun]

Ok, if consciousness isn't produced in the brain,,,,,,where are you in deep sleep? You don't exist in any way, "there"

[@NondualityChannel]

Never ceased existing even in the deep sleep of this body.