How can one act without a mind during Self-Inquiry?

Acting *without being attached to a mind that acts* is referred to as the experience of a Jivanmukti. This is the jnani who abides in pure sattva. Here, the mind is not inactive or dormant as in the case of temporary nirvikalpa samadhi or deep sleep. It is fully awake, yet, the jnani identifies and abides AS Turiya or the pure presence that underlies the appearance of the body-mind that is unfolding mechanically during the non-separate experience. 

 

This is not the experience of being immersed INSIDE the body-mind, but the experience of strictly observing the APPEARANCE of the body-mind and *nothing more*. This means the world is seen as an appearance only within your own screen of awareness. There is neither the perception of thoughts nor the perception of objects outside of oneself as the appearance is completely non-separate from your witnessing of it. This is the actual experience one has as a Jivanmukta. This experience will continue until the enlightened person gets lost in its own self-knowledge, irrespective of the physical body being dropped or not. When one gets lost in its own self knowledge, this is referred to as manonasa, as the appearance no longer exists for such a soul. 

 

The misunderstanding most people make when learning about Vedanta or practicing inquiry is assuming that YOU are the body-mind.

 

Most people ask: “Without the mind, how can ‘I’ act?”

 

The question you should be asking is: “Who is it that acts?” The point of self-inquiry is to reverse attention all the way until the self is exposed. When the self is exposed, it is intuitively known all-at-once, that you are and always were the self and that the actions made by the body-mind were never in your control (since you were always the actionless self even RIGHT NOW). Does this self act? Or is it completely detached from actions? Therefore, it’s all about reversing attention, so your very awareness disentangles from what appears to be the body-mind that is acting and remains fixed on its own point of origin (the original form of the mind), which is none other than Brahman. See the important point being made here? It’s about removing identification using attention itself. Why? Because all you ever have is attention! So you must have the conviction, not just from reading texts, but the conviction *within* to know what your true nature is; so that you do not go into the inquiry with a premature understanding that you are right now the body and mind. 

 

It’s not about your body and mind merging into something separate from yourself, AS IF, you first started off as the body-mind and then merged into Brahman that was separate from you. It’s about you being Brahman always and removing what appeared to be the superimpositions of the false body-mind that was never yours to begin with. You only speak of a body-mind because you’re attached to it and believe it’s yours and now most are asking the question: “Why is it impacting my actions during the practice?”

 

The reason most believe their practice is impacting actions is because they are not doing inquiry correctly and most likely pushing a form of laya which suppresses the mind from unknowingly still being attached to it as if it is still belongs to them, and that what they will achieve is their own body-mind’s goal. The inquiry needs to be done while you perform your actions by withdrawing attention AWAY from them, even away from the understanding that the body and mind is yours. If this is done correctly, it wouldn’t matter what the body is doing, because it is not yours while your practice is underway. It is inert and something that is truly lifeless on its own. 

 

If you can’t perform this inquiry, then you will need to go back to the drawing board, which means purifying the mind more before starting the inquiry again. Dispassion, non-attachment, control of desires, etc. should be mastered to a high degree before inquiry can even begin to ensure you can reverse attention without it being broken by diverting attention elsewhere. It is this diverting attention that sustains samsara and the belief that you are the owner of the body-mind and the doer of the body-mind’s actions.

 

If attention cannot be reversed via power of viveka, one will not be able to expose the inner bodies and sheaths or get the intuitive glimpses of the higher realms. If the higher realms cannot be exposed, then how will you negate them to dig even deeper? This is why it is urged and strongly suggested that seekers should experience yogic samadhi multiple times, as it is a sign that the mind is purified and also a sign that you have exposed the deepest parts of the mind to actually negate! The more one practices in this mode, the more they will understand directly how it's possible to act without thinking. Because thinking was never theirs!

 

 

 

​